Blockchain conference at Deutsche Bank Park

Block im Park 2024 – save the date

Joel Comm is an Internet pioneer, building successful technology businesses since 1995. A New York Times best-selling author of 15 books, Joel is an in-demand speaker and strategist. As co-host of two popular cryptocurrency and blockchain podcasts, Joel’s shows have been downloaded over 10 million times in over 180 countries. He has personally minted over 1.5 million NFTs of original intellectual property and enjoys advising web3 companies, specializing in NFTs, Play-to-earn, metaverse and social tokens. He has worked with major brands such as Microsoft, IBM, Twitter, Alibaba and many others.

Bernd Leukert joined Deutsche Bank in September 2019 with responsibility for Technology, Data and Innovation, and became a member of the Deutsche Bank Management Board on January 1, 2020. Prior to joining the bank, Bernd worked at SAP, where he started in 1994 as a software developer. During his career, Bernd has held various management positions in application development and technology development. In 2014, he was named to SAP’s Executive Board, with development, delivery and business responsibility for the entire product portfolio. Bernd holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with a Technical Background from the University of Karlsruhe. Outside of his role at Deutsche Bank, he is also a member of the Supervisory Board of DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA and Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA.

Inken Schönauer heads the "Finance" department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (F.A.Z.). For many years she reported for the Börsen-Zeitung as an editor from Frankfurt and as a correspondent from Düsseldorf. For the daily newspaper "Die Welt" she worked as a London correspondent for several years. Until joining F.A.Z., Inken Schönauer was responsible for the "Euro Finance Magazin" as editor-in-chief.

Axel Hellmann is a Member of the Board of Eintracht Frankfurt Fußball AG since 2012 and serves as its Spokesman since April 2021. He has held various positions at Eintracht Frankfurt since 2001. He was a member of the executive committee of Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. from 2001 - 2012 and its managing director in the period 2005 - 2012. Axel Hellmann completed his legal training in Würzburg, Bristol and Berlin between 1991 - 2000 and has been an assessor and lawyer in Frankfurt am Main since 2001. He has been Of Counsel at the international law firm White & Case LLP since 2020 and a member of the Supervisory Board of DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG since May 2022.

Tobias Rehberger was born in Esslingen in 1966. Today he lives and works in Frankfurt and Berlin. The winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale and professor of sculpture at the Städelschule in Frankfurt is one of the internationally renowned contemporary artists. His works combine architecture, installation, sculpture, design, lighting design and sociology. He is known for reinterpreting modernist art and design classics into atmospheric installations, furniture pieces, landscape interventions and clothing. Tobias Rehberger creates a variety of objects, sculptures and environments. Using a pool of everyday objects borrowed from mass culture, he translates, changes and expands situations and objects that are familiar to us all. Picture: Killa Schütze

Jürgen Alker, an entrepreneur and digital strategist, has been at the forefront of Web3. His interest in the world of crypto began in 2013 and evolved to encompass NFTs in 2018, despite his initial skepticism. Prior to his deep dive into the digital realm, he built a solid foundation in business through roles at Eastpak, Jung von Matt, and Dickies. In 2010, he founded the mobile agency "Swipe," which was later acquired by SinnerSchrader in 2005. As member of the management team, he guided the company through a successful merger with Accenture in 2017, remaining on board until early 2021. Fueled by curiosity, he has since pivoted his focus to Web3. As an advisor, he has collaborated with Highsnobiety and other major brands, demonstrating his interest in the innovative business models that these new frontiers present.

David is a Web3 Advisor and was previously a partner at Greenfield Capital where he managed investments in NFTs, GameFI and the Metaverse. Prior to Greenfield, he was a global BD director at Binance where he was responsible for NFT partnerships. David began his career at T-Venture, Deutsche Telekom's corporate venture capital initiative. He spent 15 years as an entrepreneur in game publishing and worked at Aeria Games (ProSiebenSat1). David holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from EBS in Oestrich-Winkel, an MBA from the University of St. Gallen and an M.Sc. in Information Management from the University of Koblenz.

Sabih Behzad serves as the Head of Digital Assets & Currencies Transformation for the Corporate and Investment Bank. In this role, he oversees strategy and execution and seeks to develop and accelerate use cases within the bank. Key areas of focus include tokenisation of assets and money, DeFi and Metaverse. He represents the bank in various industry bodies and forums. He is a member of the board of Taurus AG, a leading Swiss based digital assets company. Sabih has been with Deutsche Bank for 14 years. He has held a variety of roles including leading strategy and managing large change programmes.

Sébastien Dessimoz, CFA is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Taurus SA. He previously held several C-level executive and board level positions for leading asset management firms, with strong expertise in product development, trading, IT, business development and transformation. He worked 5 years at Syz Asset Management as Chief Operating Officer, Member of the Executive Committee and Board Member of several regulated entities. Previously, Sébastien spent 3 years at Brevan Howard, the largest European hedge fund, as Managing Director and head of the Swiss office. Sébastien Dessimoz also worked at Lombard Odier, notably as Head of Hedge Fund business development and investment manager. Sébastien spent 5 years as a senior management consultant at McKinsey & Company. Sébastien started his career as an engineer in the Silicon Valley for 3Com Corporation. Sébastien holds a MSc in Communication Systems Engineering from EPFL and MBA from INSEAD. Sébastien is also CFA charter holder.

Benedikt Faupel is responsible for Blockchain technology at Bitkom. In this role, he acts as a spokesperson for the diverse blockchain industry and as a translator for policymakers. He drives networking among and exchange with each other and advocates for the creation of national and international framework conditions for blockchain technology. Previously, he worked in policy consulting and at a startup.

Cristina is a partner in the capital markets practice at White & Case and advises companies on the issuance of debt instruments. She has a particular focus on assisting fintechs with the structuring and issuing of innovative financial products, especially in the form of tokenised capital market instruments. Cristina studied at the University of Freiburg and holds a PhD.

In his role as Senior Project Manager Metaverse at HUGO BOSS AG, Rafa's responsibilities include identifying the potential of Metaverse & Web3 across the company, defining the strategy and managing projects from concept to implementation.

Michael studied mathematics at Imperial College London. After working for several years as a derivatives trader at JP Morgan, he optimized AI and algorithm-based payment systems at Zalando leading teams of Data Scientists. For more than ten years, he has been active in the field of distributed ledger technologies. In 2013 he founded the first publicly traded company in Europe exclusively dedicated to cryptocurrencies, was CEO of Advanced Blockchain AG for five years before founding 21 Oaks Capital.

Sarah Gottwald spent 9 years at BMW working in the financial sector and in the strategy department focusing on fully autonomous driving while negotiating various collaborations with startups, corporate companies and closing several M&A deals.
In 2022 her path led her to Vanagon Ventures a Munich-based venture capital company focusing on web3/blockchain start-ups. In January 2023 she became the managing director of Blockchain Founders Group, a start-up builder in the web3 and blockchain ecosystem. Furthermore, she is part of the Frankfurt School of Blockchain Center Talents Programs, hosts her own podcast and is on the executive board from ITSA (International Token Standardization Association).

As a computer scientist specializing in cryptography and distributed systems, Frank Hartmann already worked intensively on the first Bitcoin applications in 2011. As an entrepreneur and business angel, Frank has since then supported young companies and founders in numerous positions, especially operationally as CTO and technical advisor, in realizing their visions, such as Blockchain Applications AG or Greenkeeper GmbH, which is primarily dedicated to ESG compliant topics.

Chris Hana is a media executive and business development professional in the digital entertainment industry. He is part of the executive team at hybrid collectibles company Kolex. Chris became known in the esports industry for founding esports business media outlet The Esports Observer (acquired), being a member of the leadership team of Sports Business Journal, co-founding marketing agency Level99, and working as a director for esports team Fnatic. Chris holds an MBA from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. Prior to his career in esports, Chris worked as a global IT-program manager at Vodafone, one of the world’s largest telecommunication operators.

Martin Hoefer heads the group for algorithms and complexity at Goethe University Frankfurt. He obtained his doctorate in 2007 at University of Konstanz. Subsequently, he held positions as postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, assistant professor at RWTH Aachen University, and senior researcher at MPI Informatik. Since 2017 he is full professor in Frankfurt. His research focus is design and analysis of algorithms and distributed protocols, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of algorithmics and microeconomic theory.

Hamidreza Hosseini has more than 24 years of experience in consulting, in a global IT/TK DAX company and as a start-up founder. After his education at MIT and Y Combinator, he founded Ecodynamics, focusing on platform economy, ecosystems and data-driven business models. He has been advising companies on platform economy, data-driven and digital business models since 2013. He has been an Early User of OpenAI/GPT since 2020 and has been using the models in projects since then. He is Advisory Committee Representative of W3C since 2022, keynote speaker and holds workshops/lectures at WHU. He is also conceptual partner of the Handelsblatt conference "Digital Ecosystems and Business Models" and co-researcher of the worldwide Top 100 Platforms.

Mag. Marcel Javor is CEO & owner of Frankstahl, thesteel.com and steelcoin – the newest member of the Frankstahl family. Marcel Javor was born in Vienna on October 17, 1974. He completed his studies at the University of Economics in Vienna and in the USA. He has been at home between Vienna, Tel Aviv and New York for many years.

Kathrin Kern has a diverse work experience, beginning in 2013 as a Guest Service Representative for the Berliner Ensemble. In 2014, they held two positions, Executive Management Assistant and Production Assistant for Propellerfilm Berlin GmbH, as well as Sponsorship Team Lead for the FILMZ Festival of German Cinema on a voluntary basis. In 2016, they were a Content Marketing - Working Student for Thinksurance (ehemals Gewerbeversicherung24) and Project Manager for Port au Prince Pictures GmbH. In 2018, they were a Finance Commercial Sales Planning - Working Student for Twentieth Century Fox. In 2019, they were an Online Marketing Manager for Expedia Group. In 2020, they became Co-founder & CEO of Purefy GmbH. In 2021, they became Co-founder of NO MORE gGmbH. Finally, in 2022, they became Crypto Community Growth Manager for holoride.

Philipp has been in the gaming industry for more than a decade, most of it on the publishing side. He worked for Aeria Games in Berlin and Santa Clara and was most recently General Manager for GREE in Europe, responsible for publishing operations of mobile games and sourcing publishing opportunities in European territories. Philipp has co-founded and is currently CEO of Legendary Play, a Berlin-based development studio making mobile games for esports fans.

Stephan Koch is the founder of ElbBlox, a Hamburg-based blockchain start-up that specializes in supporting meaningful blockchain use cases. After five years in corporate development and coffee marketing at Tchibo GmbH, Stephan was inspired by a stay on a coffee farm in Tanzania to switch to the Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS) and support smallholder coffee farmers. During his three years at HRNS, as a blockchain enthusiast, he implemented digital asset fundraising as a new fundraising channel and today, with ElbBlox, he is exploring the tokenization of impact, among other things.

Julien Morel is member of board of directors of RIMOWA, a LVMH Maison, since 2018. He has participated to the business model transformation of the Maison, from wholesales to direct to consumers. Julien is today ecommerce, CRM and Client Experience director of RIMOWA.

Matthias Reichert has been CCO (Chief Commercial Officer) and member of the Management Board of Sport1 GmbH since April 2019. In this role, he is responsible for all activities of the marketing unit SPORT1 Business, which is part of Sport1 GmbH, and the consulting unit LEITMOTIF with its range of services in the marketing & communications environment. In his previous position, he built up direct client sales as Director Media Sales Clients at the former Sport1 Media GmbH (now SPORT1 Business), a former subsidiary of Sport1 Medien AG. Prior to that, he managed the marketing activities of the SPORT1 brand in various positions, including Head of TV and Deputy Director Media Sales. From 2004 to 2007, he was Head of Key Accounts and Sales Manager at the former DSF Deutsches SportFernsehen GmbH (now Sport1 GmbH). Matthias Reichert started his professional career as Marketing Manager at the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim. After completing his studies in sports management with a degree in business administration at the University of Applied Sciences in Koblenz, Matthias Reichert worked for NFL Europe in the event and marketing department from 2003 to 2004. Before that, he was responsible for the development and marketing of the sports department of the regional newspaper BIG from 2001 to 2004 and worked in the office of the German soccer Bundesliga club FSV Mainz 05 from 1998 to 2000.

Tobias is a crypto specialist and thought leader in the financial industry with many years of experience and an extensive network. He wrote his thesis with Prof. Philipp Sandner on the Tokenization of Business Processes while still studying for his Master's degree, laying the foundation for his expertise. At the beginning of his career, he worked as a consultant at Deloitte with a focus on blockchain and supported various crypto start-ups in their founding phase. Today, he is responsible for the constitution of crypto-assets at Steubing AG and is shaping the transformation in the financial sector. Tobias is a speaker at many conferences and workshops at national and international level.

Barbara Schlyter ist bei der DWS für digitale Produkte und digitale Lösungen verantwortlich. Sie beschäftigt sich mit Digitalen Assets und Asset Management-as-a-Service. Bezüglich Digitalen Assets baut das Team Brücken zwischen dem traditionellen Finanzsystem und dem neuen Blockchain Finanzökosystem um Investoren aus beiden Ökosystemen Zugang zu Investmentlösungen anzubieten. Bezüglich Asset Management-as-a-Service analysiert das Team, wie die technische Integration in digitale Vertriebskanäle gestärkt werden kann. Barbara trat 2014 erstmalig in die DWS ein und lernte im Rahmen ihres dualen Studiums verschiedene Abteilungen der DWS in Frankfurt und New York kennen. Anschließend arbeitete sie im COO Office der Investmentplattform. Im Master studierte sie Informationssystem-Management und digitale Innovation an der London School of Economics (LSE). Ihren Bachelor in BWL mit Schwerpunkt Finance absolvierte sie an der Frankfurt School of Finance and Management und am Harvard College.

Dennis Schmelz is not just a content creator. He is a photo and video artist. This becomes clear at the latest when you look at his works. The locations: Insane. The dramaturgy in his pictures: Unique. Dennis is particularly fond of nature and the animal world. That's why he regularly travels around the world - with his finger always on the shutter release. He has already reached "the end of the world," as he says - his gigantic photos of Antarctica are silent but highly emotional witnesses. His personal accolade: the presentation of some of his NFTs at Timesquare in New York - larger than life and in front of hundreds of thousands of people. This year, his second photo calendar has already been published - and of course sold out. Together with Alexander Sachs and Mike Hager, Dennis Schmelz has brought his calendar "Auf Reisen 2023" to the blockchain. From a free mint, where over 20,000 calendar motifs were mined, a huge community project has emerged with lots of utilities, including physical calendars, free claims, reduced mint prices for follow-up projects, masterclasses, IRL events, a photo contest for his collectors and now even his own collection for his top 13 holders. He tells us on site how he keeps his community happy and what successful community building means to him.

Patrick is artist, architect, super creative director and founder of ALT/ Shift, his boutique studio for visual design. As creative forward thinker, he is the lead artist of Porsche’s first virtual collectible. Being one of the top 3D designers in Germany, he is not only a passionate artist, motion designer and NFT creator, but the creative mastermind behind a wide range of projects. His other big passion is skateboards and craft beer, he has his own craft beer brewery, where he produces for family and close friends. Patrick is based in Hamburg Germany, where he lives with his wife Tanja who is co-founder of ALT/ Shift.

Dr Philipp Wagner is deputy head of the Digitalization Management department at Deutsche WertpapierService Bank AG (dwpbank) and is responsible for the topics of digital assets, crypto and blockchain. He is also the product owner of wpNex, dwpbank's platform for digital assets. He has been leading its development since the beginning of 2022. Previously, Dr Wagner worked in the areas of innovation, strategy and management consulting. The graduate physicist started his career as an analyst at a large international bank before moving into capital markets and securities processing.

Julia Wilner is a Manager in the Advisory Team and serves as the Gaming and Esports Lead and Metaverse Marketing Specialist for PwC Germany. Her previous experience comes from her position as COO in an esports agency, as owner of an esports team and as Marketing Manager at Google. In her capacity as Gaming and Esports Lead, she leverages her 12+ years of industry expertise to support both endemic and non-endemic players in tackling challenges related to professionalization, business development, and strategic operations within the gaming and esports ecosystem. As a Metaverse Marketing Specialist, she brings her extensive experience in marketing and knowledge of the gaming space to help companies build communities, gamify transformation processes, and other aspects critical to the successful deployment of the Metaverse.

Bastian is CEO and COO of DFL Digital Sports GmbH. After 7 years in management consulting at PwC, Bastian moved to DFL Digital Sports where he has been responsible for building and developing the company in various roles for over 10 years- as Managing Director since 2019. Bastian is a digital and organization expert whose focus is especially on product & technology, content production & content marketing, design & branding and the creation of high-performance organizations.

Armbruster is responsible for Digitec and the podcast of the same name.

Carsten Knop was born in Dortmund in 1969. An internship in the editorial department of the "Westfälische Rundschau" led to freelance work in local editorial departments of this newspaper even before graduating from high school. Studied business administration at the University of Münster. This was followed in 1993 by a traineeship at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. His journalistic training was followed by his first editorial position in 1995: He was quickly transferred to Düsseldorf as a correspondent for the Börsen-Zeitung. The change of location made it possible to return to the Düsseldorf office of the F.A.Z. in 1996, which had already been the outstation of the traineeship. After the time in Düsseldorf, business correspondent first in New York and then in San Francisco. Since 2003 back in Frankfurt, for many years head of corporate reporting, later also responsible for business news. From the beginning of 2018 to March 2020, editor-in-chief for digital products. Since April 2020 editor.

Kerstin Leitel, born in Frankfurt, graduated in Heidelberg and Cambridge, UK. She then started working as a journalist for business and finance for media outlets such as vwd, Börsen-Zeitung, Reuters and Handelsblatt in Munich and Frankfurt. Besides, she lived and worked for four years as a foreign correspondent for Handelsblatt in London. In 2022, she joined the financial communications agency NewMark in Frankfurt as Senior Consultant.

During his 12-year tenure at Deutsche Bank, Hubertus Väth served as Analyst, Head of Communications and Chief Economist for Asia as well as Global Head of Marketing for Wealth Management at the Frankfurt, Hamburg and Singapore offices. He is the founder of the NewMark Group and CEO of NewMark Finanzkommunikation GmbH, which was founded in 1997 and specialises in market research, management consulting and financial communications. In 2008, Väth was appointed Managing Director of Frankfurt Main Finance, the financial centre initiative for Frankfurt and the leading financial centre in Germany and the Eurozone. In 2018, he was appointed to the board of the World Alliance of International Financial Centers (WAIFC), which was established to facilitate cooperation and the exchange of best practices between international financial centres and to promote exchanges with international authorities. Väth regularly speaks at international financial conferences on Brexit, FinTechs and financial centre development, euro clearing and green finance. Väth is a Special Fellow of the AFCA's Financial Think Tank and publishes regularly in this capacity. He is a member of the Rotary Club and holds a degree in economics from the University of Mainz. Väth is an lecturer at universities and business schools.