EVP Corporate Development & General Counsel at Connect 2 Media
Stockport, United Kingdom
- Current
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- EVP Corporate Development & General Counsel at Connect 2 Media Ltd
- Co-Founder & Director at BRIKS Limited
- Past
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- Vice-President, Corporate Development & Legal Affairs at Hands-on Mobile
- Owner & MD at Cervus Consulting Ltd
- Board Member at German-Maltese Chamber of Commerce
- General Counsel & Head of iSmartMoney at iWorld Group
- Rechtsanwalt (Attorney) at Luther
- Undergraduate Associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- VP Marketing, Member of the International Board at ELSA
- Education
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- Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
- Europa-Kolleg
- Universität Hamburg
1 more...
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Volker Hirsch’s Summary
Volker Hirsch is a senior telecoms, media, licensing and transactional executive with 12+ years exposure at the forefront of technology and entertainment. In addition to a deep insight of the strategic landscape of these industries, he possesses exceptional international knowledge and understanding: he has lived in 4 countries and worked in more than 40. He has managed culturally very diverse teams of 20+ nationalities.
Volker's skillset was sharpened in innumerous license and strategic partnership deals as well as in licensing and business development activities predominantly in the mobile telecoms, entertainment and media industries. He negotiated and closed some early landmark deals in the mobile music space with a number of multi-platinum selling artists (e.g. with Britney Spears, Duran Duran, DJ Bobo) and has been driving a number of games licenses (e.g. with LEGO, World Poker Tour, Marvel, Hasbro, Activision, BMW).
Volker's initial background is in law where he has many years experience in crafting and executing on cross-border M&A transactions, venture capital & private equity deals as well as media & telecoms affairs. He commenced his career with a number of leading law firms in Brussels and Hamburg. Volker is a member of the German bar.
Volker has active corporate board and company secretarial experience in Germany, the UK, the US and Malta.
He is also a regular speaker and panelist on mobile telecoms & mobile entertainment (Ericsson Mobility World, MEM, Mobile Gambling Summit, New Media Licensing, PICNIC, Games Convention, etc) and the (co-)author and contributor of various books and articles on mobile entertainment, investment, corporate and merger control affairs.
He maintains his blog at http://volkersthoughts.blogspot.com.
Volker Hirsch’s Specialties:
mobile, telecoms, media, digital content, M&A, (mergers & acquisitions), joint ventures, strategic partnerships, licensing, distribution, corporate development, business development, channel management, cross-border transactions, legal, corporate, corporate governance, company secretary, games, mobile games, mobile entertainment, mobile lifestyle, products, mobile video, social networks, UGC, cross-media, convergence
Volker Hirsch’s Experience
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EVP Corporate Development & General Counsel
Connect 2 Media Ltd
(Entertainment industry)
August 2008 — Present (2 months)
Connect 2 Media is a Global Publisher of Games for Mobile, Web and Digital TV with offices in Manchester, Madrid, Munich, Krakow, Tel Aviv, Paris, Bangkok and Sao Paulo.
Volker was key to the team that raised $9m in funding from Acuity Capital. The company is currently undertaking an aggressive M&A programme, which so far included the acquisition of the businesses of Mforma Europe Ltd (which traded as Hands-On Mobile EMEA, SE Asia & LatAm), Connect 2 Play and Rayfusion.
Volker is responsible for corporate and strategic business development, licensing and legal affairs globally. He is directly responsible for the negotiation of all licenses, strategic partnership and distribution agreements and takes the lead on the group's M&A activities.
He is a main board member and the group company secretary. -
Co-Founder & Director
BRIKS Limited
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Consumer Goods industry)
November 2001 — Present (6 years 11 months)
BRIKS manufactures and distributes educational toys that support the development of children's intelligence and motor skills. Based on proprietary production processes, it is distributed in both the professional sector (nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools, etc) and the private home. BRIKS was awarded the prestigious "Spiel Gut" award in 2005, being the only toy in its category to ever have received it. More information at www.briks.net.
Volker is a shareholder, company secretary and (non-executive) director of the company. -
Vice-President, Corporate Development & Legal Affairs
Hands-on Mobile
(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Wireless industry)
March 2004 — August 2008 (4 years 6 months)
Volker was initially a strategic advisor to the company, helping to define and align positioning and strategy for their European business. This resulted in the acquisition of a game studio, identification of growth areas and shaping of a new executive team. He was brought on board as the member of the executive team responsible for corporate and strategic business development, licensing and legal affairs for the EMEA, APAC and LatAm regions. He is directly responsible for the negotiation of all licenses, strategic partnership and distribution contracts in the region, and has closed more than 150 deals in this position.
During Volker's tenure, the region's business has grown by more than 150%. Volker identified numerous areas of improvement in the business and formulated new business initiatives, which he helped shape (e.g. in the areas of UGC and social networking).
Volker is the company secretary and a signatory and a board member of the company's subsidiaries. -
Owner & MD
Cervus Consulting Ltd
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Management Consulting industry)
March 2003 — July 2005 (2 years 5 months)
Specialised strategic consulting with a focus on cross-border corporate & commercial transactions with special regard to European market entry and cross-border roll-out strategies and implementation. Extensive work in mobile telecoms, media and entertainment, brand licensing, etc. (including projects in Germany, the UK, USA and Israel) with deal values of up to c. $ 50m.
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Board Member
German-Maltese Chamber of Commerce
(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; International Trade and Development industry)
August 2003 — July 2005 (2 years)
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General Counsel & Head of iSmartMoney
iWorld Group
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Legal Services industry)
November 2000 — March 2003 (2 years 5 months)
Volker had particular responsibility for corporate governance, corporate development, M&A, investor relations, as well as assisting the operational businesses in their strategic efforts.
He served as Head of Negotiations for iModel Music, which included licensing top-brand entertainment content (multi-platinum recording artists and leading consumer brands).
Volker led the investment of the company in the Rights Group, LLC (NY) and served as a General Manager of that company.
As Head of iSmartMoney, he oversaw the internal investment committee steering the development of the company's new business divisions.
He also served as director of all international subsidiaries. -
Rechtsanwalt (Attorney)
Luther
(Partnership; 51-200 employees; Law Practice industry)
February 1995 — October 2000 (5 years 9 months)
02/1995-10/1996: Undergraduate Associate
11/1996-10/1999: Graduate Associate
11/1999-10/2000: Rechtsanwalt (Attorney)
The corporate and commercial law "boutique" law firm then was known as Luther & Partner, one of the most prestigious firms in Hamburg. The partnership was merged with Andersen Legal on 01/01/2000, then became EY Law Luther Menold and now trades as Luther.
Volker served in the corporate department where his activity comprised M&A (c. 50% cross-border), restructurings (up to c. $ 250m deal value), joint ventures (up to c. $ 120m deal value), general corporate law (incorporation, holding structures, etc.) and general commercial law (incl. supply and delivery agreements in German and English, SLA's, general terms, etc.). He was also involved in international commercial arbitration (ICC, DIS, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, etc.). Volker represented clients in and/or from the UK, US, Sweden, France, Denmark, Ireland, Gibraltar, Azerbaijan, Russia amongst others. -
Undergraduate Associate
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
(Partnership; 1001-5000 employees; Law Practice industry)
February 1994 — December 1994 (11 months)
Then Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund (now merged into Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer). Volker assisted the office managing partner in Brussels in affairs of European Merger Control and European Competition Law. He also contributed to a commentary text book on the Merger Control Regulation.
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VP Marketing, Member of the International Board
ELSA
(Non-Profit; 10,001 or more employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
January 1994 — December 1994 (1 year)
Volker was elected to the International Board where his responsibilities included all marketing affairs, external relations with partners, editor-in-chief of "Synergy", the member magazine, which was distributed to all of its 25,000 members, general management and strategic direction of the organisation, which obtained consultative status with UNESCO and is a partner to UNHCR. Meanwhile, ELSA has also partnered with the UN, ECOSOC and others. He also brokered the first institutional sponsorship deals between ELSA and Clifford Chance, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the European Commission.
Additional Information
Volker Hirsch’s Websites:
Volker Hirsch’s Interests:
Golf, Skiing, Travel, Books, books, books.
Volker Hirsch’s Contact Settings
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