Leading companies through the Board: critical reflections on selected private equity practices

On May 15th, 2013 Dr. Tobias Ursprung will give a lecture on the topic “Leading companies by the Board: critical reflections on selected private equity practices”. The lecture is open to the public. Space is limited, so please register ahead of time.

Past event — 15 May 2013
18:0019:30 

English
Spoken language

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Dr. Tobias Ursprung

Founder, CEO, Managing Partner

Abstract

It is one of the key success factors of a Private Equity firm to excel in creating value while being in control of its portfolio companies. Usually control is enacted through empowering a Board, which includes selected members of the funds' Private Equity professionals. In such Boards, certain management issues evolve regularly and private equity companies have started to create their standard approaches to tackle such issues. Often, the issues evolve around principal/agent-aspects between management and private equity owners and often the solutions include incentive systems trying to align the interests of such groups. In his lecture, Tobias Ursprung will highlight some of those approaches and will discuss their effectiveness and efficiency. His intention is to stimulate a discussion around the usefulness and applicability of such practices for non-Private Equity owned companies/conglomerates.

Biography

Tobias Ursprung was born in Switzerland in 1965 and studied Economics and Business Administration at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He focussed his Ph.D. on applying game theory to political processes. 
 
For the last 10 years, Tobias Ursprung worked at Capvis in Zurich/Switzerland. Capvis is one of the leading private equity firms in German-speaking Europe focussing on mid-size buyout with a current fund volume of approx. EUR 1B. As a managing partner of the firm, he held Board positions in various mid-size companies (e.g. Uster, Etavis, SF Chem, de Sede/Machalke, Ticketcorner, Lista, KVT). Before his time in the private equity industry, Tobias Ursprung was the founder/CEO of a start-up based in Redwood City/USA and Berlin/Germany emphasizing internationalization of internet-driven business models. Prior to that he worked at Booz.Allen & Hamilton for 6 years in Düsseldorf/Germany and San Francisco/USA mainly on group strategy, international strategy and post-merger-integration finishing as a Principal of the firm. Tobias Ursprung is married with two kids (10, 12) and lives in Hamburg/Germany and Zurich/Switzerland.

To register please send an email to: birgit.kappert(at)klu.org

The Lecture Series

The KLU Lecture Series is a forum for scientists and practitioners to talk and discuss on state-of-the art topics related loosely to logistics and entrepreneurship.