Our Team

The Edelweiss team consists of highly qualified transaction and corporate finance experts with many years of experience and expertise. Many of our employees look back on a wealth of valuable experience in founding and managing companies. We are the right contact for your complex corporate finance matters.

Christo Ntafopoulos Economou

Christo is Managing Partner and Founder of Edelweiss. His vision is to add value to SMEs by providing access to additional capital. In a fast changing environment he recognized global arbitrage opportunities which can be efficiently exploited by a unique approach. By combining globalisation, digitalisation and traditional M&A, Edelweiss becomes pioneer of global Fintech M&A. Christo’s awareness of SMEs was raised by managing the family-owned business at a young age. He exactly understands what firms require and customers desire.

Christo gained experience in Investmentbanking M&A at KPMG, Translink Corporate Finance and Coch&Cie. He holds two Bachelor’s in Finance & Accounting and finishes a Master of Finance at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management as scholarship holder.

Nicolas Trabold

Nicolas is Managing Partner and Founder of Edelweiss. During his professional experience he recognized that medium-sized companies have various opportunities for in-organic growth into other markets or regions and at the same time to reduce their costs and use synergy effects in our connected world. By digitalizing the (‘M&A’)-process, Edelweiss allows medium-sized companies access to what large corporations are enjoying ever since.

Nicolas gained professional experience at Robert Bosch inhouse consultancy as well as in the area of Investmentbanking M&A at Translink Corporate Finance, MP Corporate Finance and Coch&Cie. Nicolas holds two Bachelor’s in Finance and finishes a Master of Finance at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management as scholarship holder.

Michael Hescher

Michael was born in Hamburg in 1967, grew up abroad and studied in Germany.

With over 30 years of international management experience, Michael has in-depth knowledge of corporate leadership, strategic planning and management as well as change management.

Michael successfully led and accompanied various M&A and related integrations in his professional career as Managing Director at well-known corporations.

Since 2022, Michael is Managing Partner at Edelweiss and advises companies locally and abroad on company sales as well as company acquisitions.

Marc Motschmann

Marc Motschmann is a strategic consultant in pricing, procurement, distribution and operations management with experience in logistics.
With over 25 years of logistics experience with Fortune 500 companies, he manages to create customised solutions for his clients through uncompromising customer focus, an analytical and strategic, yet practical approach.
Marc has significant achievements to his credit, such as developing the global air freight strategy, focusing on global customers and operational excellence in an international freight forwarding environment. He grew the business globally, optimised procurement with regions and country organisations, and supported global tender teams.

George Triantafyllou

George is a Managing Director at Edelweiss and is responsible for the M&A real estate department with expertise in the Greek market.
His professional experience was gained in engineering consultancy at SNC-Lavalin’s Atkins and in construction at Carey Group, both in London. Like his family business, he has always been a strong supporter of SMEs and has developed a passion for solving individual needs.
In the process, he founded ‘House To Home (H2H)’ in the UK and co-founded ‘TROIA Group’ in Greece.

George holds an engineering degree from City University London and an MBA from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management as a scholarship holder with a focus on M&A and strategy consulting.

PhD Darina Knautz

Darina is Managing Director at Edelweiss and responsible for M&A banking in the Russian and European markets. She is an expert in legal & compliance, AML/CFT, audit, information security and corporate governance with > 15 years of experience in corporate banking.
Darina has gained experience as a top manager in various banks, including VTB Bank, Moscow and KEB Hana Bank, Seoul. At Edelweiss, she leads the Fintech M&A approach, digital compliance and machine learning. She combines best global practices to link the Russian market with that of the EU and Asia.
Darina holds a PhD in law, an MBA from the Frankfurt School, a Master’s degree in law from ISU and a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Moscow University.

Section of our transaction team

Joyce Lim
Senior Associate
Zlatan Mangafic
Senior Associate
Konstantin Ntafopoulos
Analyst
Lena Lai
Analyst
Hugo Duchemin
Jürg Rohrer
Kurt Breinlinger

From the financial capital of Europe, Frankfurt am Main, we are the partner for clients from all over the world.