Focus on Corporate Finance

Paul is the Chief Economist of UBS Global Wealth Management. He believes passionately that economics is something everyone can and should understand. We all make economic decisions all of the time. The problem is that economists tend to wrap economics in jargon and equations. We do not need to do that. It is his job to help people realise what they probably already know – by developing and explaining the UBS economic view in a clear way. To do this, Paul publishes research, makes short videos, and appears in various print and broadcast media.

He thinks of himself as a political economist, not a mathematical economist. He gets very excited about lots of things in economics. Diversity, inflation, education, trade, inequality, sustainability and social change are some of the topics he is very enthusiastic about (to the point of writing books about them).

Paul joined UBS back in 1992 as an intern economist working in their investment bank. Decades later, he’s still working as an economist at UBS. That probably says something about him, being an economist, working for UBS, or all three. As Chief Economist he sits on the Global Investment Committee.  Paul is a UBS Opinion Leader, a member of UBS Pride, and (no doubt to the astonishment of his former art teacher at school) a member of the UBS Art Board. He’s also part of the UBS Nobel Perspectives program, and a supporter of the UBS Women in Economics program.

He has an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and an MSc in Financial Economics from the University of London. He’s also an Honorary Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford and sit on their investment committee and development board. In my spare time, he’s an amateur heavyweight boxer (prepared to defend his forecasts in the ring), a keen if very definitely amateur skier and a small scale farmer with apples, pears, and sheep.

Anne-Sophie is a Member of the BGL BNP Paribas executive committee, in charge of Corporate clients, Investment Banking and BGL Development (equity investments for BGL BNP Paribas). A seasoned banking professional with extensive experience in managing institutional and corporate clients. A proven track record in corporate finance, real estate financing and private equity. Anne-Sophie started her career in 1996 as a Forex Trader at JP Morgan in Brussels, then as an Analyst in Mergers & Acquisitions at Credit Suisse First Boston in Paris, before joining the BNP Paribas Luxembourg Group in 1997. Anne-Sophie holds a DESS degree in Corporate Finance and International Capital Markets from Sciences Po (Paris) and a Master of Finance and Management from Université Paris IX Dauphine. She is CFA Chartered Financial Analyst. She communicates fluently in French, English and German.

Oliver is Head of SRT Securitisation at Deutsche Bank’s Investment Bank in London. He is acting as arranger for Deutsche Bank’s own Synthetic Balance Sheet securitisations in Europe as well as for third party banks. In the last two years alone DB executed nine synthetic securitisations for itself and its clients with a combined portfolio notional in excess of EUR 24bn.

Oliver has a wealth of experience in structured credit across a wide range of asset classes in both cash and synthetic format. In 2009, he advised Her Majesty’s Treasury on its £280 billion Asset Protection Scheme with respect to scheme design and risk assessment.

Prior to re-joining Deutsche Bank in 2019, he worked in various credit solutions roles at Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Lloyds Bank. Oliver started his career in 2000 at Deutsche Bank Research in Frankfurt. He holds an MSc in Financial Economics from Exeter University (UK).

Dwayne is Co-Head of EMEA M&A and before that was head of Corporate Finance and M&A for J.P. Morgan Cazenove. Dwayne joined J.P. Morgan’s UK M&A Team after graduating from University College Dublin with a joint honours degree in International Commerce and Spanish. He was appointed as Staffing Officer for J.P. Morgan’s London Advisory Group in 2003, after which he joined the European Healthcare Team, focusing on pharma and medtech coverage. On establishment of the J.P. Morgan Cazenove joint venture, Dwayne re-joined UK M&A.

Dwayne has worked on over $500bn of transactions across a variety of types and sizes, industries and geographies. Recent transactions include advising: Horizon’s Therapeutics sale to Amgen, Mayhoola’s sale of Valentino to Kering, KKR’s take private of ContourGlobal and Homeserve’s sale to Brookfield.

Melinda joined Linklaters Luxembourg in 2003, was promoted to Partner in 2017 and since May 2022, has been appointed as head of the Capital Markets and Banking practice of Linklaters Luxembourg.

Melinda specialises in capital markets (debt instruments and securitisation notably), finance and restructuring matters. Melinda’s banking practice includes advising on fund financing, syndicated lending, investment grade, margin loan and leveraged acquisition finance, asset finance, real estate finance and distressed debt acquisitions.

She has special expertise in restructuring and insolvency and has played a major role in complex cross border restructurings, special situations and insolvency matters, offering technical expertise, commercial judgment and strategic advice to help clients achieve practical outcomes. She has experience of advising on multi-disciplinary and cross-border real estate finance transactions in the most demanding circumstances.

She also takes an active interest in pro bono and community work both inside and outside the firm.

Guenther Poettler is member of the Executive Committee of Deutsche Bank’s Trade Finance & Lending division within its Corporate Bank and Global Head of Cross Product Structuring.

Guenther has more than 19 years of experience working in the banking and consulting industry, both in London and Frankfurt. At Morgan Stanley he focused on credit structuring in bank & insurance solutions, at Deutsche Bank he was Director, heading its structuring department for the D/A/CH region in DB’s Investment Bank. At KPMG Frankfurt he worked as Senior Manager, advising leading European banks on financial supervision & regulation, risk management as well as regulatory-driven transformations and at BCG Frankfurt as Associate Director, advising leading Global financial institutions on strategy, balance sheet & capital management, capital markets, product development and business model transformations.

Guenther was also Executive Board member of securitization SPVs Force 2005-1 Ltd. and Force Two Ltd. between 2011 and 2016.

Matias Rubiolo is an Adviser for Business Development at Luxembourg for Finance (LFF).

 Matias role is to advise LFF and its stakeholders on the strategic orientation of the financial centre, specialising on the alternative assets side. He also advises financial services companies looking to develop their cross-border businesses via Luxembourg and on synergy creation with other key financial centres, with a focus on Iberia & Latin America.

Prior to joining LFF, Matias worked at PwC serving clients in the global asset and wealth management sector and at the European Investment Bank (EIB) in the Corporate Lending for Asia, LatAm & Sub-Saharan Africa unit. He is a Certified Public Accountant graduated from Universidad Nacional del Litoral (Argentina) and holds an MBA from Southampton Business School (UK).

Maxim joined Cargolux in September 2005 as a member of the Finance team. He has held various positions throughout the years in Aircraft Financing, Corporate Finance and Corporate Development. In August 2016, he was appointed Executive Vice President and CFO by the Cargolux Board of Directors. He is also heading the Government Affairs and Traffic Rights Department and he oversees Cargolux’ representation at Airlines for Europe and the EU Commission.

Maxim has board memberships in the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, Cargolux Italia, Cargolux Re and Luxcargo Handling. He also holds advisory roles in the Industry Financial Advisory Council of IATA and the Luxembourg Centre for Logistics Supply Chain Management.