Our People – expertise & commitment.

Michael Rolf

Big4 advisory quality, hands-on services, buy & build, long-term cooperation with investors and entrepreneurs.
Michael Rolf founded Sancovia with this vision in 2012. 

As Managing Partner, Michael Rolf leads the operational business of the group and provides hands-on support to entrepreneurs and investors in sales mandates and buy & build strategies. With almost 20 years of transactions experience and now more than 100 successful corporate transactions alone with Sancovia, but due to his own intensive experience as an entrepreneur, he understands the needs of entrepreneurs and investors in their entirety to a high degree.

Michael Rolf and the entire Sancovia team are committed to working in partnership with their clients until the desired success is achieved.

Before joining Sancovia, Michael Rolf held management positions at PWC in Frankfurt am Main and a private equity company in Zurich. After two further positions as CEO and CFO, he founded Sancovia in 2012.After successfully completing his apprenticeship as an industrial clerk at Braun in Kronberg, Michael Rolf studied international business administration in Wiesbaden and Rome. He is a certified German and American public accountant. 

Jörn Grage

Jörn Grage is the Managing Partner of Sancovia's Düsseldorf office and, as an highly experienced financial expert, focuses in particular on our clients' figures. He acquired and perfected his know-how and expertise, especially with regard to due diligence, in 10 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers in various national and international positions. After working for PwC Middle East in Dubai, Jörn Grage followed his former PwC colleague Michael Rolf in 2013 and has been a partner at Sancovia since the beginning.

Jörn Grage holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (Banking and Finance) from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and a title as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) from the CFA Institute.

Erik Mattes

Erik Mattes is Managing Partner at the Ravensburg office. He has been part of the Sancovia team since 2015 and is one of our buy-side specialists, having successfully completed over 35 transactions. Erik Mattes owes his success not only to his many years of M&A experience but also to his empathy and ability to consider the needs of entrepreneurs. He looks back on a successful career at KPMG, goetzpartners and Jefferies. Before joining Sancovia, he worked most recently at the Schulz Group in the role of CFO.

Erik Mattes studied International Business Administration in Wiesbaden and San Sebastian. In addition to his diploma, he also holds a Master of Business Administration. 

Fabian Lautenschlager

Fabian Lautenschlager is partner at the Ravensburg office since 2019 and is responsible for the needs of our mid-market clients in buy and sell mandates. After a career at the Boston Consulting Group and over 10 years at the global mid cap M&A consultancy GCA Altium in Munich and London, he became part of the Sancovia team. Fabian Lautenschlager thus brings bundled expertise from national and international M&A practice through more than 15 years of relevant professional experience to our processes. 

Fabian Lautenschlager holds a degree in economics with a focus on finance and studied at the University of Ulm and the University of Bologna. 

Joachim Krantz

Joachim Krantz is partner at Sancovia's Frankfurt office since 2020 and, as a financial specialist, supports our medium-sized clients with regard to due diligence, buy and sell side mandates. 

In particular, his 15 years of professional experience in transaction consulting and M&A at PricewaterhouseCoopers contribute effectively to Sancovia's Big4 standard. His experience with medium-sized companies, large international groups and private equity companies since joining Sancovia in 2019 is highly significant. 

Joachim Krantz holds a degree in economics with a focus on finance and studied at the University of Giessen and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (USA). In 2011, he also achieved the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) qualification from the CFA Institute.

Oliver Steinberg

Oliver Steinberg is M&A Partner at our Frankfurt office, and advises our mid-cap clients on sell-side mandates. With more than 15 years of M&A experience, Oliver has advised on numerous mandates for financial investors, small and medium-sized enterprises and multinational corporations both in Germany and abroad.

In the five years before joining Sancovia, Oliver worked for Lincoln International, a global mid-cap M&A advisory firm, where he was a member of the Financial Sponsors Group and responsible for business with family offices in the DACH region. Prior to that, he was an M&A advisor for Commerzbank and Bear Stearns, and in private equity for palero capital and Ellion Management. Oliver’s experience as an advisor, investor and entrepreneur has shaped his approach to consulting, which combines in-depth process know-how and goal orientation with empathy and understanding for the needs of his clients and their counterparts.

Oliver holds a Bachelor of Science (with Honours) from Cass Business School.

Matthias Knoke

As a Partner in our Düsseldorf office, Matthias Knoke is responsible for both buy-side and sell-side mandates. He started his professional career in the business recovery services department at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Düsseldorf. Starting in 2012, Matthias successfully accompanied numerous buy and sell side mandates at Oaklins, a renowned M&A advisory, and was most recently responsible for the Stuttgart Oaklins office.  In 2017 he joined QuEST Global, an international engineering and hi-tech service provider in Munich, as Head of M&A Europe. In addition to national and international buy-side projects, he was responsible for the further development of QuEST's Corporate Development Team.  

Matthias Knoke is a trained banker and holds a degree in business administration (Int. Business Administration and Finance & Asset Management) from ISM Dortmund.

Stefan Säugling

Stefan Säugling is Partner at the Munich office and is responsible for the needs of our mid-market clients in buy and sell mandates. He is a proven HealthCare expert and, with over 15 years of professional experience, can look back on numerous completed M&A transactions. 

nHis career began in corporate finance and M&A consulting at the Big 4 firms Deloitte and KPMG, before he moved to the private equity business of VR Equitypartner in 2011. Before joining Sancovia, Stefan Säugling became an established M&A director at Sana Kliniken, the third largest private hospital group in Germany. There he successfully completed numerous transactions in the dynamic healthcare market and provided strategic support in the transition process from a purely private hospital operator to a fully integrated healthcare group.

Stefan Säugling holds a degree in business administration from the University of Augsburg and a Master of Law (LL.M.) with a focus on M&A from the Wilhelms University of Münster.

Valentin Heinemann

Valentin Heinemann manages buy- and sell-side mandates as Director at our headquarter in Freienbach. He started his career at Deloitte in Zurich and then joined the renowned M&A consultancy Hübner Schlösser. Valentin came to Sancovia in 2017, where he has since successfully advised on numerous mid-market transactions.

Valentin Heinemann holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from SBS Swiss Business School and a Master of Science in Financial Services from the University of Ulster (Ireland).

Roman Gronau

Roman Franz Gronau is our TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) expert, and advises on both buy- and sell-side M&A mandates. He began his career at EY in transaction services (focussed on TMT assignments) where he spent seven years, latterly as a manager.  He subsequently joined Evidensia, a portfolio investment of EQT. After more than 2 years as an Investment Manager, including several successful transactions, he moved to Becker Büttner Held as a Senior Manager and was responsible for their TMT M&A practice.

Roman studied at Munich Business School in Germany, Fudan University School of Management in China and Northwood University in the USA. 

Jaime Fernández Pinilla

As a Director in our Madrid office, Jaime Fernández is responsible for buy-side and sell-side mandates. Mr. Fernández started his career at Grupo Ahorro Corporación (ACF), where he worked in the strategy and analysis department advising Spanish listed companies in various sectors (TMT, broadcasting, industry...). Jaime then switched to Auren Corporate, where he advised successfully due diligence and valuation projects at buy- and sell-side mandates as Director.

Jaime holds a bachelor’s degree in Business & Administration from the university of CUNEF. He completed a semester abroad at the National Chengchi University of Taipei, Taiwan.

Karl Gezer

As a Director in our Frankfurt office, Karl Gezer is responsible for buy-side and sell-side mandates. He started in financial audit and post-merger integration with Deloitte, followed by positions in M&A advisory at Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Most recently, he was the leader of the Singapore practice of a corporate finance consultancy, serving both SMEs and MNCs in the airline and tech industries. In total, he has more than 15 years of corporate finance experience.

Karl holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and Accounting and a Master of Science degree from Cranfield University. 

Natalia Nesterenko

Natalia Nesterenko is Vice President M&A at our Frankfurt office and supports our mid-sized clients in national and international M&A transactions with a focus on sell-side mandates. Natalia has over 7 years of M&A experience and has previously executed numerous M&A projects for medium-sized family businesses, financial investors as well as listed and smaller companies from various industries in Germany and abroad. Prior to joining Sancovia, Natalia worked as Manager Business Development M&A for TCS Tata Consultancy Services Germany, one of the world's largest providers of IT and business solutions. In this role, she focused on developing business relationships with listed corporations and large industrial companies in Germany and Europe, as well as was responsible for new business. Prior to that, she worked as an M&A consultant for various medium-sized M&A consultancies in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt am Main. 

Natalia holds a Master of Science in Finance from Goethe University in Frankfurt, and has accomplished a Bachelor of Science (with Honours) in Business Administration from Rostov State University.