Tech Tour Venture Academy and Masterclasses Programme

Sponsored Event | December.10.2018 | 12pm - 6pm (Central European Standard Time)

Orrick Düsseldorf

Orrick is proud to host this year’s Tech Tour Venture Academy and Masterclasses Programme, as part of the annual Tech Tour European Venture Contest.

From 12:00 onwards, the event will utilize our 4th floor conference facilities and include various sessions by seasoned experts:

  • Taking the Next Step via an IPO (Master Class I) with Sebastian Grabert (Euronext)
  • Data Privacy and Labour Law (Master Class II) with Christian Schröder and André Zimmermann (Orrick)
  • Term Sheet Negotiations (Master Class III) with Sven Greulich (Orrick)
  • The Art of Pitching Your Idea (Master Class IV) with Rick Salmon (Voiceable)
  • Healthcare (Venture Academy Tracks I+IV) with representatives from AKD N.V., Nestlé Health Science, PHARE 7 Management Solutions, and 3k
  • Digital (Venture Academy Tracks II+V) with representatives from CBO Consulting, Uminova Innovation, e-navik, and Clean Tech Capital
  • Cleantech (Venture Academy Tracks III+VI) with representatives from BeNovate, Clean Tech Capital, Væksthus Hovedstadsregionen, and VanBerkel Consultancy

After the talks and networking, participants will be transferred by bus to the CCD Stadthalle, where the European Venture Contest continues.

More detailed information regarding the EVC event can be found here.
Registration is mandatory and may be done until 5 December 2018 via Tech Tour.

 

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Practice:

  • Technology & Innovation Sector
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Technology Companies Group

Dr. Sven Greulich, LL.M. (Cantuar), EMBA Partner

Düsseldorf

His clients include technology companies of all stages as well as venture capital and corporate venture capital investors. Together with an international and interdisciplinary team, he also supports scaleups and multinationals in their expansion projects, with a particular focus on cross-border transactions between Germany and the USA.

Sven’s goal is to build bridges for his clients between Germany, Silicon Valley, and other international technology hubs, helping them achieve successful growth in the global market. His legal and business background, entrepreneurial spirit, and experience from more than 400 financing rounds and M&A projects across various industries enable him to fully understand his clients’ strategic and commercial objectives and to develop creative solutions to achieve them.

Sven volunteers with entrepreneur groups at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, the RWTH Aachen, the Technical University of Munich and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; he regularly lectures at the WHU and the RWTH incubation and innovation centers. In 2020, he launched the Founder Legal Boot Camp, a unique free-of-charge seminar program that educates aspiring founding teams from technical and business universities about all relevant legal pitfalls in the areas of company formation, financing, and the initial growth phase. Organized in collaboration with Germany’s leading startup universities, the Founder Legal Boot Camp now takes place three times a year in Düsseldorf, Munich, and alternately in Karlsruhe/Stuttgart.

Sven's work has been repeatedly awarded, inter alia

  • Chambers ranks him as one of the top 3 venture capital lawyers in Germany (2025);
  • the leading German market publication JUVE lists him as “frequently recommended” for M&A, private equity, as well as corporate advice and – since 2019 – ranks Sven as one of Germanyʹs top 15 attorneys for venture capital, the highest recognition for this category awarded by JUVE (2024/2025);
  • Legal500 Deutschland includes Sven as “frequently recommended” for M&A (mid-sized deals) as well as private equity (mid-sized deals) and ranks him as a “leading partner” for venture capital (2025); and
  • Handelsblatt/Best Lawyers list Sven as a Best Lawyer in the category Venture Capital (2025), and Sven also received their award "Venture Capital Lawyer of the Year – Western Germany" (2025); and
  • in the 2017 edition of its Innovative Lawyers Report Europe, the Financial Times named Svenʹs work to connect start-ups with Germanyʹs Mittelstand (mid-sized companies) a standout “for making bridges between Silicon Valley and Germany”.
330300

Practice:

  • Technology & Innovation
  • Technology Transactions
  • Technology Companies Group
  • Employment Law & Litigation
  • Cross Border Employment Law Issues
  • Discrimination, Harassment & Retaliation
  • Pay Equity

Dr. André Zimmermann, LL.M. Partner

Düsseldorf; Munich

André advises companies of all stages, pre-IPO startups, scaleups, unicorns and international corporations on a wide range of matters, having handled everything from day-to-day practical advice tailored to his clients’ needs, to complex multi-jurisdictional transactions from strategic planning through post-merger integration. Having long-standing experience in negotiating with works councils and unions in restructuring measures of all kind, a special focus of André's practice is on restructurings and headcount reductions.

He has advised on the employment law aspects in over 300 M&A transactions and financing rounds across various industries. Transactional advice includes employment law advice in complex, international technology transactions, M&A projects as well as private equity and venture capital investments, from due diligence to post-closing integration.

André has thorough knowledge of and a genuine passion for the tech industry. Over the last years, André has become the go-to-advisor of several Bay Area tech-companies, leaders in their market and high-growth tech companies. Most recently, he has advised leading global technology companies such as GoPro, Pinterest, GitHub, Nvidia, Sabre, Snap and Splunk on various employment matters.

André has received several awards for his work, inter alia:

  • Germany's leading lawyer ranking JUVE recognizes André as "frequently recommended" employment law expert since 2017;
  • Best Lawyers and Handelsblatt have listed André as one of Germany's best lawyers in employment law since 2020;
  • Germany's leading business weekly WirtschaftsWoche ranked André as one of the top employment lawyers in Germany in 2019;
  • IEL Elite, an in-house guide to the world’s leading employment and labour teams, recognized André as a "Key Lawyer" in 2022.

Clients recommend André to JUVE as “straight shooter" and "always refreshingly honest". Our clients praise his "creative and efficient style of working" and "a very practical and efficient style of providing advice", referring to him as "extremely responsive and always accessible" and as "an excellent advocate in court hearings". Clients appreciate André's "clear, sound and pragmatic real-world advice" and his "in-depth knowledge of the tech employment world".

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Practice:

  • Technology & Innovation Sector
  • Cyber, Privacy & Data Innovation
  • Technology Transactions
  • Technology Companies Group
  • White Collar
  • Strategic Advisory & Government Enforcement (SAGE)

Dr. Christian Schröder Partner

Düsseldorf

Christian helps clients consider the privacy and artificial intelligence implications of new technology, supports their compliance programs, and helps them stay ahead of enforcement trends. One particular focus of his work deals with internal data transfer agreements, external data transfers with external providers, and product launches that comply with international data protection standards, as well as privacy requirements for connected cars. Furthermore, Christian provides guidance on privacy and data protection considerations for developing, acquiring, using, licensing and selling technology, data and intellectual property, including M&A transactions and IP focused joint ventures. He supports companies on the set-up of webshops, outsourcings, license agreements, in cases of trademark or unfair and deceptive trade practice issues, as well as on hard and software license and information technology (IT) project agreements.

 

Christian maintains strong working relationships with German data protection authorities and EU regulatory authorities with jurisdiction over privacy and data security matters. He effectively defends companies in cybersecurity and privacy-related investigations initiated by EU regulatory authorities. He also engages with authorities on behalf of clients and helps clients avoid proceedings and possible litigation. When litigation can't be avoided, Christian vigorously defends his clients.

 

For companies facing global cybersecurity incidents, Christian helps with crisis mitigation, including counseling on notification requirements, coordinating media strategies, and representing clients before data protection authorities in related regulatory investigations.

 

Christian regularly contributes practical thought leadership to global privacy industry publications and German privacy books and journals. Christian authors the Chapter V (international data transfers) of Germany’s leading GDPR commentary Kühling/Buchner (4th ed.) and is co-author to the Corporate Privacy Handbook (Betrieblicher Datenschutz). As an active member of the Sedona Conference, Christian drives the development and understanding of cross border privacy. He also participates in, hosts and moderates speaking programs with fellow private practitioners, EU data protection authorities, and academics focused on privacy and data security. Legal 500 Germany named Christian one of the top 15 practitioners in 2023 and noted that he is "a pioneer in the legal field, a data protection guru." They also recognized Christian and Orrick as "truly global" and how that it is "vital as they require the various leaders of each region to participate and bring issues to the table as a forum".

 

Prior to working in private practice, Christian interned with the German Federal Data Protection Commissioner and www.epic.org.