Florian Lahnstein
Florian Lahnstein is CEO and Founding Partner of Berger Lahnstein Middelhoff & Partners LLP, a private-equity and hedge fund firm.
Career
Florian Lahnstein is CEO of the alternative Asset Manager “BLM Partners” which he co-founded with Prof. Roland Berger (Roland Berger Strategy Consultants), and Dr. Thomas Middelhoff, former CEO of Arcandor AG and Bertelsmann, and former Head of Europe for Investcorp.
In July 2008, all three launched Germany1, Europe's first Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), and raised €250m via an IPO. Before that Mr. Lahnstein held the position of Head of European Investment Banking at Bear Stearns International (2007-2008) and Head of German Investment Banking at UBS Investment Bank (2004-2006).
In 2001, he had joined UBS as a managing director to focus on the German telecoms, media and technology (TMT) sectors.Prior to his involvement with UBS, Florian Lahnstein was a partner and co-founder of Arrow Capital, a venture capital fund, and before that – from 1998 to 2000 – he was Director in the TMT group at Merrill Lynch Investment Banking in London.
Between 1990 and 1997, he held different roles at the Bertelsmann Group, the worlds largest private media company, amongst them Executive Vice President of the New Media Division (1995-1997).
During his career as investment banker, Mr. Lahnstein has worked on approx. $50bn worth of transactions, including the European LBO of the Year (2004 and 2005), European Media Deal of the Year (2004) and German M&A House of the Year (2005). His client list as a banker included Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Post, Lufthansa, Cinven, RTL, Bertelsmann, KKR, Kirch Media, KfW, German Ministry of Finance, SAP, Viva, Viacom, Siemens, and others.
Education
Mr. Lahnstein holds a Masters in business administration from the University of Cologne. He is a guest lecturer for Corporate Finance at the Universities Bucerius Law School (Hamburg) and WHU (Koblenz).
Family
Mr. Lahnstein lives in London with his partner Stephanie and four children (Cara, Tim, Cameron and Heinrich). He is the son of Manfred Lahnstein.