For 23 years, the LSE German Symposium has enabled students to exchange ideas with leading personalities from politics, science and business.
With the LSE German Finance Dinner, we now offer 75 students from all over Europe a unique exchange with European top executives.
For this, we invite 5 top executives to each of the following five topics:
– How can we finance the Future?
– The Future of Investment Banking
– Raising capital with a high key interest rate
– Germany’s position in the global economy
– Financing Innovation in Europe
All applicants must be currently enrolled at a university and have proven professional experience in the chosen sector. We consider all students, regardless of their nationality or university. However, all students from outside the DACH region must have demonstrated a connection and interest in the German-European financial market in the past.
List of participants:
How can we finance the Future?
Johanna Lottmann
Partner and European Head of PJT Park Hill’s Private Capital Solutions (PCS) Group
Johanna Lottmann is a Partner and European Head of PJT Park Hill’s Private Capital Solutions (PCS) Group, based in London. In her role, Johanna has advised financial sponsors on some of the most innovative GP-led secondary transactions and structured liquidity solutions (SLS) in Europe, plus advised many of the largest limited partners globally on the sale of LP fund interests.
Prior to joining PJT Park Hill in 2020, Johanna was with Lazard in London, most recently leading their secondary advisory activities for Europe.
Martin Huth
Firm Managing Partner, Triton Partners
Martin Huth co-leads Triton and is a member of the Investment Advisory Committees for all Triton funds since 2003. Prior to joining Triton, Martin worked at Warburg Pincus as an investment professional. He began his career at Morgan Stanley in London and Frankfurt, before joining Booz Allen Hamilton in Munich. He has an MBA from the Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College and a Diplôme of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.
Franziska Kayser
Partner and Co-Head of European TMT, KKR
Franziska Kayser joined KKR in 2011 and is a member of the European Private Equity team where she co-leads TMT activities. She is a member of the European Private Equity Investment Committee and Portfolio Management Committee. She has been involved in KKR’s investments in Axel Springer, GfK, Trainline, Scout24 Switzerland, SMCP and Wild Flavors. Ms. Kayser currently serves on the Board of Directors of Axel Springer. Prior to joining KKR, she worked in the investment banking division of Credit Suisse in London. Ms. Kayser holds a B.A. with First Class Honours from McGill University, Canada.
Andreas Utermann
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Vontobel Holding AG
Andreas E.F. Utermann (born 1966), has been Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Vontobel AG and Vontobel Holding AG since April 2022. He joined Vontobel as a member of the Board of Directors in 2021. In addition, he joined the Board of SIX AG in May 2023. Andreas began his career at Merrill Lynch Investment Manager in London. From 2002 to 2019, he worked at Allianz Global Investors Group. He held the role of Co-Head and latterly CEO 2012 to end 2019. Andreas studied at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and at the London School of Economics and holds a degree in economics.
Jessica Hardman
CEO DWS UK and Head of European Real Estate Portfolio Management, DWS
Jessica Hardman performs two primary responsibilities at DWS; CEO for the DWS UK, with over 400 staff across Passive, Active and Alternative investing, the UK business is a centre of excellence for DWS’s key investment capabilities. Jessica also undertakes the role of Head of European Portfolio Management at DWS, based in London, focusing on an international client base overseeing European and global real estate portfolios from core to value-add strategies. The suite of products includes European diversified and sector specific strategies via co-mingled funds and separately managed accounts. Previously, she was the Head of UK Real Estate Transactions and has overseen over €10.5 bn of transactions during her career at DWS. She managed the investment team covering all real estate sectors, as well as building major separate account relationships with an Asian client base. Hardman is CEO of DWS Investment UK Limited, board member for DWS Alternatives (Global) Ltd, a member of DWS Global leadership team and Global Investment leadership team, and a voting member of the European Investment Real Estate Committee. She joined DWS in 2004. Jessica will also become President of the British Property Federation (BPF) in 2024.
The Future of investment banking
Kai Tschöke
Head of Rothschild & Co, Germany, Rothschild & Co
Kai Tschöke is Head of Rothschild & Co, Germany. For more than three decades Mr. Tschöke has advised numerous German and international clients on a wide range of M&A, equity and debt transactions.
From 1993 to 2013 he worked for Morgan Stanley in London and Frankfurt, for the last years as head of M&A for Germany/Austria and a member of the management board of Morgan Stanley Bank AG.
Dietrich Becker
Founding Partner and President, Perella Weinberg Partners
Dietrich Becker is a Founding Partner of Perella Weinberg Partners and has over 30 years of M&A and industrial investment banking experience. Prior to joining Perella Weinberg Partners in 2006, Mr. Becker served as Co-Head of Morgan Stanley’s Global Industrial Investment Banking Group and was one of Morgan Stanley’s most senior German investment bankers. Mr. Becker has an MBA from New York University Stern Graduate School of Business and a law degree from Cologne University. He serves as a member of the Board of Overseers of NYU Stern.
Mr. Becker has advised on numerous other mergers and acquisitions and restructuring transactions worldwide, in particular with industrial clients and with a focus on core industrial sectors including the Automotive, Mechanical Engineering, Automation, Aerospace and defence, Chemicals, Building Materials and Steel industries.
Next to his industrial focus, Mr. Becker is responsible for many other client relationships in the German-Speaking countries where he regularly advises publicly listed clients on potential unsolicited takeovers attempts or various forms of shareholder activism.
Christian Schwab
Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking Germany, Citi
Christian is a Managing Director in Citi’s Frankfurt based German Investment Banking Team. He has more than 20years of investment banking experience in the German and UK markets. He worked on a wide range of M&A and ECM transactions in various sectors. Christian has a Diplom-Kaufmann degree from European Business School Oestrich-Winkel
Julian Schoof
Head of Investment Banking Coverage DACH, Deutsche Bank
Julian is a Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking Coverage for the DACH region. He has more than 25 years of Investment Banking experience and advises clients on complex financial and strategic matters with a specific focus on M&A and Equity Capital Markets transactions. Key transactions include the Lufthansa 2020 rescue package, the 2021 €2.2bn capital increase, the Knorr-Bremse IPO and more recently the Vitesco takeover by Schaeffler. Julian started his career in 1993 with Deutsche Bank AG initially as apprentice and later as Analyst in Investment Banking. Julian spent 2 years at Lehman Brothers from 2005 onwards and rejoined Deutsche Bank in Summer 2007. Julian studied business administration at Frankfurt School of Finance, Germany and ESADE, Spain.
Amelie Beier
Head of Financial Sponsors Coverage, Carlsquare
Amelie joined M&A Advisory Carlsquare London in 2021 and is responsible for driving and coordinating all financial investor related activities. Prior to joining Carlsquare, she worked on a wide range of investment banking transactions at Sal. Oppenheim Jr. & Cie. and was Director M&A at Kirch New Media (Kirch Group) in Munich. Amelie holds a PhD in Finance, a M.A. in Art History, and a M.Sc. degree in business management from LMU Munich.
Tobias Büchner
Executive Director – Investment Banking, Goldman Sachs
Tobias is an Executive Director in Goldman Sachs’ German Investment Banking Team based in Frankfurt and a member of the European M&A group.
Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 2019, Tobias was a member of the German Investment Banking Team at Credit Suisse. Over the last decade, Tobias has worked on a wide range of M&A, ECM and debt transactions across various industries in the German speaking region.
Tobias earned a BSc in Management, Philosophy and Economics from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and a MSc in Corporate Finance & Banking from EDHEC Business School.
Raising capital with a high key interest rate
Jens Hofmann
Head of Financing Group DACH, Goldman Sachs
Jens is responsible for Financing Group activities in the German, Swiss and Austrian (DACH) region. Previously, he was a member of the Financing Group in London, where he was head of the Investment Grade Financing and Derivatives business for the DACH region. Between 2011 and 2015, Jens was co-head of the European Corporate Debt Capital Markets team. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1994 as an analyst in the Credit Department and transferred to the Capital Markets Group in 1995. He was named managing director in 2004. Jens earned a diploma in economics from the University of St. Gallen in 1993.
Martin Lührs
Head of Global Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley Europe SE
Martin Lührs is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley, Head of Global Capital Markets (“GCM”) at Morgan Stanley Europe SE. He is also EMEA Head of Investment Grade Acquisition Finance and EMEA Co-Head of Leveraged Capital Markets within the firm’s GCM business, based in Frankfurt. Martin joined Morgan Stanley in 2005, working in the Leveraged and Acquisition Finance. Martin also represents the firm on Capital Markets boards and committees of industry organisations in EMEA, including the Association for Financial Markets (“AFME”) in Europe and being a board member at the Loan Market Association (“LMA”). Before joining Morgan Stanley, Martin worked in Leveraged Finance at HypoVereinsbank (HVB, now UniCredit). Martin holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from the University of London.
Tobias Albrecht
Head of DCM DACH & Corporate DCM Nordics & Netherlands, Barclays
Tobias Albrecht heads Barclays’ Debt Capital Markets business across Germany, Austria & Switzerland, including the firm’s corporate, public sector and financials bond origination franchise with a focus on investment grade and cross-over rated companies within the region. In addition, he leads the Corporate Debt Capital Markets team at Barclays for the Nordics & Netherlands.
Over the past decade, Tobias has been involved in a number of innovative and transformative debt capital markets transactions, including acquisition financing situations, subordinated capital issuances, whole business securitisations, and asset-backed securities offerings. His main focus is on corporate bond issuers across sectors.
Tobias graduated with a Master of Science from Goethe University Frankfurt and completed studies at University College Dublin and the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Alexander Voigt
Head of DCM DACH and Head of European Infrastructure DCM, J.P. Morgan
Alexander Voigt is Head of Debt Capital Markets for Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as Head of European Infrastructure DCM and is responsible for bond issuances and acquisition and underwritten loan financings. Over the last few years, Alexander has held a number of leadership positions within the broader EMEA Investment Grade Finance franchise including Resource Manager for EMEA as well as responsibility for the Nordic and Dutch IGF franchises. Across these roles he led a substantial number of high-profile M&A as well as bond financings. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan in 2016, Alexander worked in Debt Capital Markets at another financial institution. He has been in the Investment Banking industry since 2008 and has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and Economics from WHU Business School.
Jonas Klink
Head of EGB, SSA and Covered Bonds Trading, UBS
Jonas is a Fixed Income Trader and Business Developer with leadership experience and outstanding knowledge across rates, credit & derivates with more than ten years of experience in international capital markets. He is currently running UBS’s EGBs, SSAs and Covered Bonds Trading.
Alongside growing the client franchise and supporting primary market activities, Jonas works closely with e-trading/quant teams to discover innovative solutions on how to use and monetize data flow.
Jonas was the chairman of Iberia for ICMA FYL in 2017 and 2018. In his position he promoted the fixed income market for the Iberian region.
He holds a Diploma in Quantitative Economics from the University of Kiel and finished a program about data science and machine learning at IE business school in Madrid. He also completed the “algorithm trading” program at University of Oxford. Jonas is a CFA level 3 candidate.
Andreas Bernstorff
Head of Equity Capital Markets EMEA, BNP Paribas CIB
Andreas spent over 10 years at Citi, where he was Managing Director, responsible for Germany, Austria and the Nordics. Prior to that he worked at Dresdner Kleinwort, Morgan Stanley and UBS.
Since 2017, Andreas is heading Equity Capital Markets for the EMEA zone at BNP Paribas and leads a team of over 50, including UK Corporate Broking division.
Over his career, Andreas has helped clients raise over €100bn of equity capital via Initial Public Offerings, accelerated equity offerings, rights issues and convertible bonds.
Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland (Bachelor of Science in Economics) / Erasmus Programme at Université Catholique de Louvain la Neuve, Belgium. Andreas is fluent in English and German.
Germany’s position in the global economy
Christian Edelmann
Managing Partner Europe, Oliver Wyman
Christian Edelmann is the Managing Partner for Europe. He is based out of our London office. Prior to his current role, Christian co-led EMEA Financial Services, and the global Corporate & Institutional Banking (CIB) practice. He also acted as the Global Head of Oliver Wyman’s Wealth & Asset Management (WAM) practice. Before that Christian was based out of Hong Kong, running Oliver Wyman’s business in Asia-Pacific. He started his career in Switzerland and has worked across Europe, Asia, North America and the Middle East, advising a broad range of sell-and buy-side clients in the areas of strategy and risk management.Christian holds a Master degree in Law (summa cum laude) and a Master degree in Business and Economics (insigni cum laude) from the University of Basel (Switzerland). He has also earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designation. Christian is fluent in English, German and Swiss German. He is the author of many of our landmark reports; he is also regular speaker at industry events and on TV.
Markus Strietzel
Senior Partner and Global Head Financial Services, Roland Berger
Dr. Markus Strietzel studied business and economics at the University of Münster, following his training as a banker. He was awarded a doctorate in Strategic and International Management from the European Business School. Markus Strietzel joined Roland Berger in 1998 and left in 2009 to set up his own consulting firm. After selling the company Markus rejoined Roland Berger as Head of the Financial Services Competence Center in 2014. As Senior Partner, he advises clients in the fields of corporate & investment banking, capital markets, asset and wealth management as well as on asset-based finance with focus on strategic realignment, organizational optimization and transformation processes.
Max Flötotto
Senior Partner and Global Co-Leader Retail Banking, McKinsey
Max co-leads McKinsey’s retail banking work globally and our banking sector in Germany and Austria. He also coordinates McKinsey’s fintech activities. Max works with both incumbent financial institutions and attackers globally on strategy, M&A, and business building, often helping clients take an investor and value-creation perspective.
He has been involved in a number of McKinsey research projects and writes extensively on M&A, banking, and fintech trends. He speaks regularly at conferences in the banking and fintech communities and teaches courses on banking strategy and fintech as a visiting lecturer at Konstanz University.
Before joining McKinsey, Max pursued a Ph.D. in economics at Stanford University, an M.A. in economics at Mannheim University, and he spent a year as a visiting researcher in UC Berkeley‘s doctoral program.
Peter Gassmann
Senior Partner and Global Strategy& Leader, Strategy&
Peter Gassmann is the global leader of Strategy&, the international strategy unit of PwC. He has been one of the leading figures to develop Strategy&’s unique “strategy through execution” approach. With his deep expertise Peter supports his clients to navigate the new business environment and to adapt strategies and operating models accordingly. With more than 25 years of experience as a consultant and as a senior executive, Peter has successfully led multiple high-profile engagements in international settings throughout the world. In recent years he has increasingly focused on developing winning transformation roadmaps in light of the rapid and dramatic technological and economic developments.
Before joining Strategy&, Peter was a divisional board member and Senior Risk Executive with a leading European bank. He also served on several bank committees as well as in supervisory boards with regional banks. Peter started his professional career in investment banking in London after having received a PhD in Physics from the university in Aachen. Peter is a regular speaker at international conferences and has contributed to many publications.
Financing innovation in Europe
Judith Dada
General Partner, La Famiglia; Partner, General Catalyst
Judith is a Partner at General Catalyst and formerly General Partner at La Famiglia. She focuses on European seed stage investing with a special love for enterprise businesses. Judith also advises the German government on matters relating to technology, diversity and migration. Prior to her current roles, she was at Facebook, managing Amazon Europe’s marketing strategy and Facebook’s VC Initiative.
Christoph Klink
General Partner, Antler
As Partner in Central Europe, Christoph supports exceptional entrepreneurs along their journey – from entering into a cohort to building and scaling their ventures successfully. He draws on his background as Business Angel and Partner with McKinsey & Company. Before joining Antler he served a range of leading technology organizations, amongst others from the mobility and transportation space, on disruptive strategy and building innovative business models. Building and nurturing top talent organizations is one of his key passions and a great source of inspiration for Christoph.
Malin Posern
Partner, Project A
Malin Posern is a Partner at Project A Ventures. She leads the firm’s London office and early stage Fintech vertical. Before joining Project A, Malin was a General Partner at Passion Capital. She brings extensive and diverse experience from investment and operational roles across the startup and business ecosystem. Previously, Malin was on the executive team at Browns (NYSE: FTCH) where she was responsible for building Browns into a key pillar for the group’s supply and platform strategies. Prior to that Malin was an investor at Index Ventures, specialising in consumer and SaaS across venture and growth in Europe and the US. She started her career as a management consultant at Bain & Company in Stockholm. She holds a Master of Engineering as well as a Master of Science in Biotechnology from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Adam French
Partner, Houghton Street Ventures
Adam is a Partner at venture capital firm Houghton Street Ventures, where he invests in businesses founded by London School of Economics alumni and students. Additionally, he is a Non-Executive Director at the UK Fintech industry body Innovate Finance.
Prior to this, Adam was a co-founder of fintech unicorn Scalable Capital, which operates in the online investment space. Scalable currently employs over 500 people, has raised over £300m in venture capital funding and manages investments for over 1,000,000 clients. Adam graduated from the London School of Economics & Political Science in 2007.
Alexander Langholz-Baikousis
CFO and Operating Partner, Cherry Ventures
If you have any questions about the LSE German Finance Dinner, please send an email to germansociety@lsesu.org.
