Life prior to M&A

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CV

Part of childhood near Milan.

Grew up in Austria. Studied law and economics at the same time in Vienna (MMag.), including internships and semesters abroad in Moscow, Barcelona and Milan. Later 18-month scholarship in Tokyo and "Fellow Advanced Study Program" at MIT/Boston.

During a total of 5 years in Japan Marketing Manager for Atomic and Sales Operations/Controlling Manager for EMC2 (later acquired by Dell).Transfered to the US by EMC2.

3 years OEM Manager for DeTeWe, a developer of telecommunication solutions based in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Subsequently acquired by Aastra Technologies (CAN) in 2004, which later also bought French EADS Telecom and parts of Ericsson as part of its buy and build strategy (to even later sell the entire conglomerate to the equally Canadian Mitel).

Based in Berlin since 2004 - with the exception of an analyst position for an investment banking boutique in Geneva. In fundraising/ M&A since 2008. Foundation of in rebus corporate finance GmbH in 2017.

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The true story

Spent the first few childhood years in northern Italy. When it was time for school the family returned to native Austria: from a lively, urban area to a much more rural environment…

The double degree marathon in Vienna was not entirely trivial in terms of workload and various exchange programs as well as internships abroad, whenever possible, rather important for the young mind.

Japan had not been a passion of mine until I moved there and the scholarship in Tokyo more of a lucky strike. Considering that entire libraries have been written about Japan’s relationship with Asia on the one hand and the West on the other, the impressions should not be summarized in a few sentences. Just as formative as the country, however, was my employment at NASDAQ quoted EMC² (a developer of data/ enterprise storage solutions). Crunching numbers and managing (sometimes truly cross cultural) conflicts, first in Tokyo, later at corporate HQ nearby Boston. For me still the most positive example of good corporate culture imaginable – despite the size of the group, at the time already around USD 8 billion in revenues.

Back in Europe and after a stint for the German Burda in Moscow, I felt very attracted to the Berlin-Kreuzberg based DeTeWe, a 120 year old developer of telco HW and later SW (once upon a time also a subsidiary of Siemens), due to its obvious technical focus. In fact the job, which had me constantly commuting between developers, controllers and management, was an eye-opener in terms of processes. However, I hadn’t been told that DeTeWe was already up for sale before I joined.

And so, within a few months, I was confronted with the very hands on Chinese shareholders of the new DeTeWe owner: Toronto based Aastra Technologies. On the one hand, these business people were reliably the smartest guys in the room, as I could not help noticing whenever I asked for development resources. In the long run, however, the career opportunities I had hoped for took a different shape. And, while we as employees of the “target” over the years commented on the various buy and build decisions from the sidelines, my interest in M&A grew.

To this day, I look at every mandate through these different lenses.

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