Program

Speakers

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  David Coulthard Former Formula One Racing Driver, Television Broadcaster, Author and Entrepreneur

  One of the world’s most widely recognised sports personalities, David Coulthard is a renowned Formula 1 Grand Prix driver, television broadcaster, author and entrepreneur. Born in Twynholm, Scotland, David began racing karts at the age of 11 and achieved significant success in the lower formulae of motor racing. This included victory in the prestigious Macau Grand Prix. He won the inaugural McLaren Autosport ‘Young Driver of the Year Award’ in 1989, leading to a test drive for the McLaren Formula 1 team. He joined the Williams Formula 1 team in 1993 as test driver, supporting Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in successive seasons. He made his Formula 1 World Championship debut for the team the following year, scoring his maiden victory at the 1995 Portuguese Grand Prix. He then moved to McLaren for nine seasons where he enjoyed a series of stellar performances including winning a further 12 Grands Prix. He finished in the top 3 in the World Championship for Drivers on no fewer than 5 occasions. His Formula 1 victories included twice winning the prestigious British and Monaco Grands Prix. In 2005 David joined the newly created Red Bull Racing team and played a key role in the team’s development, including bringing the team its first podium finish, at the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix. He stepped away from Formula 1 racing at the end of 2008, scoring his final podium finish in that year’s Canadian Grand Prix. His business interests include co-founding Whisper, one of Europe’s fastest growing media production companies, and Velocity Experience which develops and produces branded corporate events. In 2019 David became non-Executive Chairman of W Series, the world’s first professional all-women single seater racing series, and he is President of the British Racing Drivers Club which owns and operates Silverstone Circuit in the UK. In 2022 David co-founded the More Than Equal initiative aimed at creating the opportunity for the first woman to race in Formula 1 during the modern era. This programme aims to identify the most promising female racing talents and eliminate the barriers to entry at the pinnacle of world motor sport. David’s profile is underlined through ambassadorships for a number of major international brands. He continues to drive Red Bull’s F1 cars at promotional events and is cocommentator for Channel 4’s Formula 1 coverage in the UK. He also works directly with Formula 1, conducting podium interviews as part of Formula 1’s global television feed. In 2007 David published his autobiography It Is What It Is and in 2018 his second book The Winning Formula made the Sunday Times Best Seller list in the UK. In 2010 he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

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  Philipp Gast Head of Corporate Finance Swisscom

  Philipp is responsible for M&A, Treasury and Insurances at Swisscom Group. After graduating from University of Berne he joined Swisscom in 2003 and held various finance roles including Head of M&A and CFO of a subsidiary. After a couple of years in M&A advisory at KPMG in Australia and as CFO of the software company TeleSign in Los Angeles he returned to Swisscom in 2021 to assume his current role. Philipp is also a member of the board of directors of Swisscom Directories (Localsearch).

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  Georges Kern CEO Breitling

  Georges Kern was appointed the CEO of the independent watch company Breitling SA in 2017, where he is also a shareholder. In his position at Breitling, Georges Kern’s mission is to foster the development of one of the world’s most established watch manufacturers to create a leading neo-luxury watch brand. After his graduation in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland he acquired experience in the fast-moving-consumer-goods sector at Kraft Foods Switzerland before moving into the watch industry at TAG Heuer. In 2000, he joined Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods group, and was active in the integration of the brands A. Lange & Söhne, Jaeger-LeCoultre and IWC Schaffhausen following their acquisition. In 2002, at the age of 36, he became the youngest CEO within Richemont when he was chosen to run IWC Schaffhausen. In 2017, he was promoted to Head of Watchmaking, Marketing and Digital at Richemont and focused on supervising the Specialist Watchmaking Maisons.

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  Veronica Lierau Group General Counsel & Head Compliance Autoneum

  Veronica Lierau is an accomplished legal professional with a distinguished career in the areas of M&A and financing spanning over more than two decades. Since 2022 she has been serving as Group General Counsel and Head of Compliance at Autoneum, a leading stock listed industrial company in the automotive sector. Prior to joining Autoneum, Veronica held the position of Head of Group Legal at Gurit, another Swiss stock listed company producing composite materials, and worked as an associate at Lenz & Staehelin, one of Switzerland’s top law firms. Veronica stands out for her entrepreneurial thinking and strategic approach to legal matters.

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  Boris L. Zaïtra Head of Group Business Development/M&A Roche

  Boris is Head of Group Business Development / M&A at Hoffmann-La Roche and is based in Basel, Switzerland: in this role, he leads Roche’s strategic mergers and acquisitions as well as Real Estate divestments across the Roche Group businesses and supports Pharma in-licensing transactions on the finance side. Boris joined Roche in April 2012 from the Airbus Group where he worked for seven years as Head of the Mergers & Acquisitions department. Prior to joining Airbus in late 2005, he was a Partner with the mid-market private equity firm Duke Street Capital and was involved in deals in the UK and France. Previously, he was an M&A Associate with JP Morgan in London, focusing primarily on the Oil & Gas industry. Boris graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in France in 1995 and the Harvard Advanced Management Programme in 2009 (AMP 177).

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More Speakers

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  Jany Fruytier CFO Sunrise

  Jany Fruytier has been Chief Financial Officer of Sunrise since December 2020. Before coming to Switzerland, he was based in Warsaw, Poland and was Chief Financial Officer of UPC Eastern Europe from February 2017. Jany had the end-to-end responsibility for regional financials, property facilities & fleet, risk & compliance, procurement and corporate development and leading a team of approximately 130 professionals. Jany was also acting a key member of senior executive LG cross-function team focused on determining the “future of LG networks”. From 2014 to 2017 he served as Manager Financial Planning & Analysis of UPC Central Europe in Zurich, Switzerland. He managed various planning cycles and consolidated country financials to provide management with regional overviews. Jany acted also as Chief of staff for Regional CFO with focus on optimizing capital allocation across the region. At the same time, he was a member of the integration team of UPC Switzerland & UPC Austria, responsible for the financial blueprint. Jany Fruytier joined Liberty Global in 2013, participating at the finance orientated Management Development Program of Liberty Global providing soft- and hard skills in the field of finance, strategy, M&A and controlling in a rotational setup across Liberty Global’s operating entities. Jany is a graduate of the European Business School, London, MsC International Business Management. He also holds an Honors BsC Economics of Business, University of Amsterdam. At Berkeley, University of California, he fulfilled studies about investment strategies.

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  Janet Henry Global Chief Economist HSBC

  Janet Henry was appointed as HSBC’s Global Chief Economist in August 2015 and is responsible for all HSBC’s economic forecasts and thematic economic research output globally. She was previously HSBC’s Chief European Economist. Much of her research has focused on globalisation – including the global determinants of local inflation – and the political and economic challenges of the post global financial crisis era, notably labour market disruption and the implications of income and wealth inequality within major advanced economies. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, her work has focused on the labour market implications, evolving inflation dynamics and policy challenges of the unprecedented recession and recovery. Janet is a Governor of the UK’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Chief Economists Community and a Non-Executive Director of HSBC Bank UK plc. She has given evidence to financial committees of the EU Parliament on China and UK House of Lords on Europe. Janet joined HSBC in 1996 in Hong Kong where she worked as an Asian economist in the run-up to, and aftermath of, the Asian crisis.

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  Ivo Schädler Head Construction Sika

  Ivo Schädler, 20+ years of management experience in the Construction Chemicals industry. Member of the Group Management of Sika since 2017, since October 2023 group-wide responsibility for Marketing, Construction Product Strategy and M&A Integration. From 2016 to October 2023 responsible for EMEA, the biggest Region in Sika with 63 country subsidiaries and Sales of more than CHF 5bn. From 2012 to 2016 Managing Director of Sika UK and Ireland and before in different roles for Sika in Switzerland including member of the local Swiss management team. Business responsibility for the integration of more than ten acquisitions in the last 10 years a very important part of Sika’s successful growth strategy.

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  Bjørn Sibbern Global Head Exchanges SIX Group

  Bjørn Sibbern has been Global Head Exchanges and Member of the Executive Board of SIX since January 2024. He is responsible for both the Swiss and Spanish Exchanges, as well as the digital exchange SDX. Bjørn Sibbern has experience managing large teams in the fields of trading, funds, post-trade, listings, IPOs, data, index business, and technology. Before joining SIX, he served as Executive Vice President and President of European Markets at Nasdaq. In this role, he led the Nasdaq markets and exchanges across the Nordic and Baltic regions. He was also responsible for trading, listing, clearing, settlement, and the data business in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and the Baltic nations. Prior to this, Bjørn was Executive Vice President and responsible for Nasdaq global data, data & analytics and index business working out of Nasdaq headquarter in New York. Before joining Nasdaq, Bjørn Sibbern was CEO at E*TRADE Bank Denmark from 2006 to 2008 and held key roles at OMX and Stocknet Norway. The Danish citizen holds an Executive Master in Business Administration, a Graduate Diploma in Finance, and a Master in Business Administration and Commercial Law from Copenhagen Business School.

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  Franz Woelfler Partner Aurelius Group

  Franz Woelfler studied Economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and has worked for the AURELIUS Group since 2007. He is responsible for carve-out and mid-market transactions in continental Europe. Before working for AURELIUS, he gathered experience at a venture capital and mid-cap leveraged buy-out fund.

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Partner Speakers

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  Elliot Cowan Partner CMS UK

  Elliot is a technology focused partner in the Transaction Team at CMS, with extensive experience in Venture Capital, fundraisings, private equity, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions. He advises a wide range of clients ranging from start-ups to multinationals.

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  Christopher Freiherr von Lilien Waldau Partner CMS Germany

  Christopher von Lilien-Waldau advises companies, shareholders and investors on domestic and cross-border private equity and M&A transactions, including distressed M&A. He also advises financial investors and clients in various industries on corporate restructurings as well as international financing rounds and general corporate law issues. Furthermore, Christopher is a mentor in the CMS equIP programme, working with start-ups and their investors and advising them on setting up their businesses, funding and exit. Christopher joined CMS in 2013 and became a partner in 2022. In 2019, he worked in London for a leading global consulting firm in corporate finance, M&A and restructuring.

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  Alexander Hagemann CEO Cicor Technologies

  Alexander Hagemann, geboren 1962, hat einen Abschluss in Maschinenbau von der RWTH Aachen, Deutschland. Bevor er im September 2016 als Chief Executive Officer zur Cicor Gruppe stiess, war er von 2007 bis 2016 CEO der Schaffner Holding AG. Davor leitete Alexander Hagemann verschiedene Geschäftsbereiche der Schott AG in Deutschland, den Vereinigten Staaten und Singapur, darunter den Geschäftsbereich Fiberoptik und Optics for Devices. Alexander Hagemann war von 2011 bis 2017 Mitglied und von 2017 bis 2023 Präsident des Verwaltungsrats der Weidmann Holding AG. Weiter ist er Mitglied der Swiss American Chamber of Commerce.

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  Hendrik Hirsch Partner CMS Germany

  Hendrik Hirsch focuses on corporate law and mergers and acquisition. He has more than 15 years of experience in advising national and international clients on cross-border as well as domestic transactions. This includes sell side and buy side mandates as well as advice on joint ventures, restructurings and corporate law matters. Since 2015, Hendrik has been heading the excellence cluster «Industry and M&A» at CMS. Hendrik joined CMS in 2001 and has been a partner since 2007.

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  Mark Mallet Partner PwC Switzerland

  Mark is a Partner in the Deals practice with a focus on advising clients on how to deliver value at scale from their transactions. He is based in Zurich, Switzerland. Mark focuses primarily on the Finance Function & Technology aspects throughout the deal life cycle including due diligence, carve-out, M&A Integration planning and value creation. He also has gained experience in leading performance improvement programs from strategy to execution. Mark has worked across various industries from Financial Services to Life Sciences.

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  Peter Neumann CFO Cicor Technologies

  Peter Neumann, geboren 1975, verfügt über umfangreiche Erfahrung in den Bereichen Finanzen, M&A und Unternehmensintegration. Zuletzt war er Global Finance Director bei Markem-Imaje mit Sitz in der Schweiz, einem globalen Anbieter von Lösungen zur Produktidentifikation und Rückverfolgbarkeit mit mehr als 3‘000 Mitarbeitenden. Peter Neumann war für alle kaufmännischen Finanzabteilungen verantwortlich und leitete die Entwicklung und Umsetzung von M&A-Strategien sowie ein umfassendes Transformationsprogramm im Finanzbereich. Peter Neumann ist deutscher Staatsbürger und hat einen Master of Business Administration und einen Master of Computer Science von der Universität Passau, Deutschland. Darüber hinaus ist er Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) und ehemaliger Präsident und Mitglied des Vorstands der CFA Society of Switzerland.

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  Devinder Singh Partner PwC Switzerland

  Dev is a Partner in the Deals practice with a focus on Transaction Services. He has in-depth experience in driving Deals from the execution phase (due diligence, SPA, etc.) to ensuring clients are able to retain the maximum value upon deal closing. He brings a strong expertise in ensuring that the financial area identified during the due diligence phase are passed on and realised to the best extent.

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Moderation

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  Jan Schwalbe Editor-in-chief Finanz und Wirtschaft

  Jan Schwalbe is the Editor-In -Chief of the Swiss Business paper «Finanz und Wirtschaft». He has covered business and the economy for more than 20 years and has conducted countless interviews with international business leaders, economists and strategists. He has been published in Businessweek, Bloomberg News, “Finanz und Wirtschaft” and The Daily Telegraph. Before taking his role as Editor-in Chief he was the Head of the Zurich Bureau of Bloomberg News and was working for CNN Money. Jan Schwalbe was on the Board of the Foreign Press Association in New York and a correspondent in New York and London for over a decade.

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  Louise Wallace Partner CMS UK, Head of CMS International Corporate/M&A Group

  Louise is the Head of the CMS International Corporate/M&A Group, a global group of over 1400 Corporate lawyers throughout Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa and South America. Louise undertakes this role with co-head Malte Bruhns. Louise has been with CMS for over 30 years working on some of the largest, cross-border international transactions which CMS undertakes. She regularly works with colleagues in our CMS offices on global mandates. Her indepth knowledge enables her to provide the highest quality, seamless service that clients value.

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Partner

Previous Editions

• Mergers & Acquisitions 2023

  Unlocking Value in a Challenging Market

  29. August 2023

• Mergers & Acquisitions 2022

  STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVE

  22. September 2022

• Mergers & Acquisitions 2021

  FRESH OPPORTUNITIES

  25. August 2021

• Mergers & Acquisitions 2019

  Business Transformation – the new Normal

  27. August 2019

• Mergers & Acquisitions 2018

  Shape Your Business

  11. September 2018

• Mergers & Acquisitions 2017

  Managing Future Success

  28. September 2017

• Mergers & Acquisitions 2016

  Die Schweiz im internationalen Kontext

  15. September 2016