Where did you grow up?
I was born in Ellwangen, in the south of Germany, but we moved to East Germany after the Berlin Wall fell, and I grew up in a small town called Waldheim, Germany.

What were your hobbies as a child?
I grew up in a small village with lots of nature (and little other attractions than nature…), so I spent a lot of time outdoors. At some point a retired handball coach in our village noticed me and brought me to handball. From then on handball was my big hobby, which even led to a short career as a professional player.

Where did you go to University?
I studied industrial engineering at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany. The great thing about this program is that it starts with a general introduction, after which you can specialize in any area between engineering and economics. It's perfect for people with multiple interests who aren't sure yet where to go.

Where did you do your PhD? 
I did my PhD in Finance at Technical University of Munich in Germany.

Who were your PhD Advisors?
My advisors were Prof. Reiner Braun and Prof. Ann-Kristin Achleitner. Both were and still are great advisors in their own way. Probably the biggest lesson they taught me is to look for research questions in the real-world, and not in research.

What is your main research focus?
I study private markets, in particular private equity and venture capital, and how they drive or hinder financial and societal outcomes. I use modern applied econometric methods to understand how financing and investment in entrepreneurial firms works and how it affects real-world outcomes.

What research are you working on right now that you are really excited about and why?
In one project, motivated by the many anecdotes on the drain of startups out of Europe to the U.S., we tried to build the first ever systematic database on startup migration in Europe. It is exciting, because we could provide some first systematic evidence on the European startup drain. Also exciting, the data provides an opportunity to understand the startup performance disadvantage in Europe, pointing to the importance of venture capital markets.

What attracted you to Switzerland, your local university and SFI?
Switzerland has an excellent higher education system; University of St. Gallen has a great and large finance group; and SFI pools even more excellent finance researchers to a strong research cluster. And this is just work-related, East-Switzerland has lots of other things to offer: good institutions, mountains, lakes, snow, where do I stop…

What languages do you speak?
German, English, and Italian. German is my mother tongue. English is work language, and I learned Italian mainly through a consulting project in Italy that they promised me, in my prior career as consultant, to be "mainly in English" – but turned out to be an extended and great experience.

Tell us something exciting that happened to you in the last five-ten years (it doesn’t have to be related to research)?
The first thing that comes to my mind is having two daughters during my PhD, now aged 5 and 2.

What do you do in your spare time?
I use any time left over after work and family for sport. One type of sport is for "maintenance", like lifting weights and cycling, to be prepared for the type of sports that I really enjoy: wakeboarding, snowboarding, and surfing.

What is your favorite quote?
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." The quote is from Seneca, but I received it as advice from my PhD advisor. Focusing on the things we can influence is a powerful concept.