Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. Hermann Albeck
Mediator, europ. Economic and Social Policy

Dr. Albeck advises Bertsch & Associates on international questions of economics and industry locations, especially on topics concerning European economic and social policy. He is a member of various economic science associations and among other things active for the scientific advisory board at the Federal Ministry of Economics. For many years he has acted as consultant for the council of advisors for the macroeconomic developments of the Federal Republic of Germany (the so-called „Rat der Fünf Weisen“) as well as mediator in conflicts over collective labour agreements in the steel industry.
Florian Hach
Hedge Funds

Mr Hach is the responsible fund manager for the 3.14 Tungsten Long Short fund. Prior to joining Tungsten he was founding partner and CEO of ehedge AG, a platform for hedge fund strategies. Mr Hach worked for more than 20 years in different roles within the hedge fund space and managed an institutional statistical arbitrage fund as well as local mandates for US-based hedge funds. Prior to his interest in Hedge Funds and Absolute Return Strategies Florian worked 8 years in Investment Banking (Deutsche Bank & Commerzbank Financial Products) dedicated to derivative strategies.
Ralf Janus
Renewable Energies / International Finance

After his bank apprenticeship and business studies at the universities of Hamburg and Stanford, Ralf Janus started his career at the holding of a large national financial services company. Afterwards he worked as CFO of the German subsidiary of a large international chemical company. From 1991 to 2000 he worked vor the Treuhandanstalt (later renamed BvS) and was responsible for the managment of sale and purchase agreements, company valuations and the management of the BvS branch offices. His main task as managing director of BSV Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, a large asset management company, was the restructuring of the company. Since 2007 Mr Janus is managing partner of bevecon management gmbh, where he initiates and coordinates renewable energy projects with investors, banks and institutes for economic development, also as public private partnerships. On behalf of the Bundesministerium für Finanzen (federal ministry of finance) and the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (German Society for International Cooperation) he advises foreign privatisation agencies and ministries.
Dr. Martin Kirchner
Logistics & Aviation, Healthcare, Construction & Building Materials

Martin Kirchner has a proven track record both as an adviser and as a top manager in a broad range of business to business industries, focusing mergers & acquisitions, corporate development, restructuring and interim management. He served as a managing director to ATON GmbH, one of Germany’s leading family offices, as well as to Indus Holding AG and Lufthansa Commercial Holding GmbH. Prior to this, he headed Corporate Finance and M&A at Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH, having started his career as an assistant to the executive vice chairman of Treuhandanstalt, the former restructuring and privatisation agency for the East German economy.
Harmen Kölln
Capital Markets

Mr Kölln is managing director of Touchwind Financial Solutions, an internationally active capital markets advisory company with focus on market entry, product launch and corporate finance advisory. Before, he worked for several years with Deutsche Bank in different positions; last as Group Regional COO Europe and member of the management of Deutsche Bank London branch. Mr Kölln started his career with Bankers Trust in Frankfurt . After further positions with other securities brokers he joined Lehman Brothers as head of their money market and short- term- trading activities in Frankfurt and London.
Jörg Laskowski
Media - Publishing

Mr Laskowski currently holds the position of CEO at the German Association of Newspaper Proprietors (BDZV).
In previous years he supervised more than 150 M & A transactions for the Treuhandanstalt and its successor organisations. He oversaw numerous complex international sales with challenging financing.
Mr Laskowski advises Bertsch & Associates on financing and structuring of transactions during the acquisition or sale of media companies. In this context he especially provides us with his expertise on question of anti trust law.
He graduated in journalism and media studies at the Freie Universität Berlin.
Katrin Müller-Walde
Media - Post Merger Integration - Coaching

Mrs Müller-Walde is an independent consultant and senior business coach. She accompanies top level managers in the sectors media and post merger integration. This includes intercultural organisation and team development measures as well as one-on-one coaching of aspiring high potentials, strategic development of in- and external communication in addition to change and crisis management. Her intercultural expertise is based on perennial work sojourns in Eastern Europe, the United States and Africa. As managing director of MW&P Consulting she also took over a marketing chair at FHTW Berlin. From 1998 to 2000 she worked as an editorial editor for the Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen where she hosted the main edition of the “heute” news from 1992-1998. She started her career as a free editor, film author an anchorwoman at ARD.
Prof. Dr. Erich Schürmann
Automotive/ plastics technology / engineering

Dr. Schürmann has been a full professor at the university of applied science Südwestfalen for more than 30 years. Besides the teaching in his special areas of expertise (automation engineering, construction design, automotive engineering and plastics technology), he is engaged as technical advisor in the plastics and metal processing industry. Prof. Schürmann also worked in product development (he holds several patents) and owns shares in different companies in the plastics processing industry.
Ekkehardt von Knebel Doeberitz
Asset Management, Private Equity, Hedge Funds

Ekkehardt von Knebel Doeberitz is a founding partner of Swiss Alternative Capital AG. In 2006, he founded rialTTo Asset Management AG, a hedge fund company specialized in systematic trend following products, based in Switzerland. Earlier, he worked with Baring Asset Management as senior director and head of continental European sales, with Paribas Investment Management as managing director Germany and with Metzler Investment as head of global fixed income portfolio management. He started his career in 1986 at JP Morgan in Frankfurt and in New York.
Hans von Sydow
Corporate Finance

For several years Mr von Sydow acted as head of the branch office Potsdam for the Bundesanstalt für vereinigungsbedingte Sonderaufgaben (previously Treuhandanstalt). During this time he supervised more than 350 company transactions. Prior to that Hans von Sydow was Executive Representative of Deutsche Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) and managed international joint ventures based in Indonesia. He gained his banking know-how over 15 years with Deutsche Bank and the Bankhaus Lampe in executive positions.