Apricum

Apricum wins former Q-Cells manager as partner and expands its network

Wednesday, 02 March 2011

Apricum welcomes Oliver Haller as new partner and Mehmet Gürcan Daimagüler as Senior Advisor

• Oliver Haller joins Apricum as partner with the background of an experienced manager in the photovoltaics and semiconductor industry. He will be responsible for M&A consulting. As Director Investments with Q-Cells SE he established the investment management and controlling and restructured the company's portfolio of subsidiaries in the thin-film sector. In this context he was responsible for all financing and M&A activities. During this time he was a member of the supervisory boards of Solibro GmbH, Calyxo GmbH, Sunfilm AG, Sontor GmbH, Solaria Corporation, Flexcell SA und Q-Cells Clean Sourcing. Previous to his career at Q-Cells Mr. Haller was Director Alliances with Qimonda AG, responsible for M&A, cooperations and technology licences. In this capacity he was instrumental in the founding of Qimonda Solar GmbH. During his fifteen year long professional career Mr. Haller was able to build up a broad international network. He studied Technical Physics and Business Administration in Vienna and the US.
• Mr. Daimagüler is an expert for clean technologies with a track record of 15 years. He was a management consultant with a focus on renewable energies with the Boston Consulting Group and Booz Allen Hamilton. Later, he became the “Regional Head Middle East and Africa” of a leading, publicly listed German Solar Energy company. He also was a member of board of directors of a Zurich based Private Equity Company which invested exclusively in renewable energies.  Mr. Daimagüler studied law and economics at the University of Bonn. He has a degree as a Master of Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and is Yale World Fellow. He is an Attorney-at-Law, admitted to the High-Court of Berlin. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader program.

Apricum wins former senior executives from Mitsubishi Chemical and Q-Cells for its advisor team.

Wednesday, 19 January 2011

Apricum further expands its worldwide advisor network by welcoming Mr. Masataka Asano, based in Japan, as well as Dr. Joachim Reiß, based in Germany, as new team members.

• Mr. Asano is a chemical-industry veteran, having spent most of his career at Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. During his career over four decades, he held various posts in plant management as well as process development, as president for a Mitsubishi Chemical subsidiary in Indonesia and in other senior executive positions, including Managing Director and board member of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. More recently, he has been advising chemical and renewables companies as well as a bank. Furthermore, he holds board positions in two venture capital-financed bio- and nanotechnology businesses. We are glad that Mr. Asano will leverage his vast industry know-how and extensive network throughout the Japanese industry to help Apricum gather relevant data from Japanese market players.

• Dr. Joachim Reiß joins Apricum as an expert in photovoltaics, business development and corporate strategy. As former Vice President Market Development with marketing and sales responsibility for Asia, South-America, Australia and Africa and as Director Strategic Business Development with responsibility for M&A and thin-film portfolio companies at Q-Cells SE, he has gathered an extraordinary combination of broad business and market development experience. Furthermore, he has a deep technological understanding of photovoltaics from more than 15 years of scientific and industrial experience. Previous to his career at Q-Cells SE, Dr. Reiß was Senior Associate at McKinsey & Company. He holds a PhD in Physics, having worked on thin-film solar cells at the Hahn-Meitner-Institute, Berlin. We gladly welcome Dr. Reiß as a new member of the Apricum team.

Apricum strengthens its network in China

Tuesday, 18 May 2010

With Frank Haugwitz as Senior Advisor in China, Apricum further strengthens its network in the emerging Asian Cleantech markets. Before joining Apricum, Frank Haugwitz advised the Chinese National Energy Administration on planning and implementing national renewable energy activities and developing energy policies in his position as EU Renewable Energy Manager for the EU-China Energy & Environment Programme. From 2002 through 2007, he worked as Technical Director for the GTZ in Beijing. In this function he inter alia supported the Central Chinese government in implementing large scale programs for the electrification of rural areas by means of PV-systems. Furthermore, he designed viable business models for long-term sustainable operation of PV-systems in rural China.

Read more: Apricum strengthens its network in China

Apricum expands its network in India and Korea

Friday, 29 January 2010

Apricum expands its global network into two of the most important Cleantech markets. Chungha Cha and Rama Raghavan join Apricum as new Senior Advisors in South Korea and India.

Stimulated by a favorable market incentive program, South Korea emerged as one of the fasted growing markets for PV applications in 2008. Strong growth rates have, however, significantly slowed down, mainly caused by a cut in the country’s incentive measures. Nevertheless, the South Korean government continiues to affirm its determination to promote renewable energies. In January it unveiled an ambitious plan to build a countrywide smart grid electricity system with a significant focus on decentralized energy generated by wind and PV systems.

India already ranks as the world’s fifth-largest wind power producer and plans to further expand its renewable energy capacities. Investing in renewable energy will help India reduce energy shortages, which are mainly driven by high economic growth rates.

Chungha Cha, Apricum Senior Advisor and Country Representative South Korea

Prior to joining Apricum, Chungha Cha was Managing Partner of Susterra Partners, an advisory firm specializing in M&A, capital markets and strategic advisory to foreign and local institutions.  Passionate about detaining climate change, Cha focused on Cleantech cross-border transactions to facilitate renewable and alternative energy joint venture projects and to spur green growth engines.

Cha is a Korean-American with over 25 years of experience in various financial institutions in the USA, Japan and Korea, including positions with Citibank in New York, Yasuda Trust in Tokyo, Asian Banking in Seoul, and Lone Star Private Equity in Korea. He has lived in Korea since 1992 and focuses on promoting business development in clean energy projects and fostering joint ventures. He is currently Co-Chair of American Chamber of Commerce’s “Private Equity & Venture Capital” and “Climate Change and Green Growth” Committees. Cha holds an MBA from the Columbia Business School and a BS degree from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Rama Raghavan, Apricum Senior Advisor and Country Representative India

Before joining Apricum, Rama Raghavan worked as Independent Strategy Consultant, advising German companies expanding into the Indian market. She also supported Indian companies seeking acquisition targets in Germany. Rama previously had spent several years in Germany with the Industrial Investment Council (today Germany Trade & Invest), where she built up the entire Indian business division with a focus on software companies.

Rama is active with several international NGOs with a focus on international trade, (e.g. the Euro India Centre based in France or the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin, based in Brussels). She was an active member of the World Economic Forum and participant in the World Economic Forum on India as well as a delegate member of the India Euro business summit in Copenhagen in 2002 and in New Delhi in 2003.  She holds an MBA from the Maharishi Institute of Management, India and a BS from Bangalore University, India.

Read more: Apricum expands its network in India and Korea