0100 Conference CEE 2022

At EIF since 2009, Marco is heading the team responsible for equity investments in European funds focused on Sustainable Growth, including strategies oriented towards circularity, climate and energy transition, digital transformation and investments in sectors which are strategic for the European economy. Marco coordinates the investment activity for the AMUF European Private Equity compartment and for several fund-of-funds initiatives, with specific thematic or geographical scope, (e.g. Turkey, Poland, Baltics, Central Europe, Italy, Portugal). He represents EIF on the Advisory Boards of several funds. Prior to EIF, he worked in direct investments, in an Early Stage VC fund, and in management consulting. Marco holds a M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering and Management.

Milan Kulich joined Advent in 2007 and focuses on the healthcare and retail and consumer sectors in particular in the CEE region. Prior to Advent, he worked at Deloitte leading M&A and valuations projects across several CEE countries. Milan has an MBA from INSEAD, a BSc in Business Administration from City University, Washington and a BA in Economics from University of Matej Bel, Slovakia Milan’s investments include Concardis GmbH, Devin, Douglas Holding, Nets, NielsenIQ, Partner in Pet Food, Takko and Zentiva.

Pavel Dvorak is a Principal at the EBRD where he focuses primarily on investments in venture capital and private equity funds across the EBRD region. In his previous role of a an economist at the EBRD he developed country and sector strategies, assessed the development impact of investments in a number of sectors including TMT and healthcare and developed new approaches to supporting innovation in the region. Before joining the EBRD, he was a management consultant at Deloitte in Prague. Pavel holds a Ph.D. in Economics from CERGE-EI in Prague and is a CFA and CAIA charter holder.

Kerim Turkmen is a Partner of Mid Europa Partners, joining the Firm in 2007. He is a member of the Investment Advisory and Management Committees, and is responsible for deal sourcing, executing and monitoring of investments. Kerim currently sits on the board of 5 of the Firm’s portfolio companies including Pigu, Symfonia, Intive, Cargus and M+ Grupa. Prior to joining the team, he worked at GMT Communications Partners, a private equity fund specialising in telecommunications and media. Previously, he worked in the Investment Banking Division at Merrill Lynch in London. Kerim holds a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College and an M.Sc. in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics.

Managing Partner of the leading €165mn PE fund in the Baltics INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund managed by the leading asset management group in the Baltics – Invalda INVL, active since 1991. Currently serves as deputy chairperson of the largest environmental management group’s AS Eco Baltia supervisory board and chairperson of supervisory board of its subsidiary AS PET Baltija. Before joining INVL was one of the leading M&A experts in Lithuania with extensive experience in transaction structuring and negotiations, who advised local and international clients on deals with the combined value of almost €2 billion. Deimante enjoys travelling, reading and doing sports (kitesurfing, snowboarding and running) in her free time.

Andris is Managing Partner of Change Ventures, the largest seed venture capital fund in the Baltic States that focuses exclusively on backing ambitious founders from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Andris has been a key player in the Baltic ecosystem for a decade, having co-founded the TechHub Riga foundation, the leading Baltic startup event TechChill and the Latvian Startup Association. Andris had a 15 year career as a C-level tech executive in several US, Israeli and European startups, two of which exited for over $100M. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 22).

Ondrej started his carreer as an entrepreneur when still in college. In the late 90s he co-founded and managed several companies in event management, consulting and IT. Relatively soon he’d realized that he doesn’t have what it takes to make a truly successful entrepreneur, so he turned consultant and angel investor. He also founded and ran Czech chapter of the networking platform First Tuesday and after the decay of the global organization after the dot com bust, he morphed it into a member-based networking and knowledge platform TUESDAY Business Network which became a center point of the early startup movement in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 2004 – 2008 he served as Senior Investment Director with MCI Management, VC & PE firm based out of Poland. In 2009 he together with Jan started preparations for the launch of Credo which took place in late 2010 when it raised its pilot fund with 18 million euros. In 2009 he was one of the investors in the Czech edition of TV show Dragons’ Den. Currently Ondrej is focused on investments in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, he also looks at Bulgaria. His main passion is finding outstanding founders and great talent, and helping them with guidance and advice.

Head of CEE & Baltics