My Story

I was born and bred in the picturesque Black Forest region in the very south of Germany, close to the Swiss and French borders.

At 22, wet behind my ears and hungry to make it in the world, I joined PwC in Zurich and had four eventful years there. An unexpected job offer by Allianz Insurance (too good to refuse!) made me leave Switzerland for the City of London in 2003, pretty much overnight.

I never looked back: To this day, my professional life has been centred around the City. I love the Square Mile.

After five years at Allianz and almost a decade into working for big corporations, I bid farewell to that world for good and set up my own advisory firm in the City.

Thanks to my new-found freedom, I was able to spend the next ten years living in the US, Malta and Ireland, working remotely from wherever I was based, long before it became fashionable.

Today, my advisory practice's core focus is devising cross-border tax strategies for businesses and individuals involving multiple jurisdictions. I mainly focus on the DACH countries, the US, the UK, Ireland and Malta. And to a lesser extent, Spain, Portugal, and offshore jurisdictions.

I provide high-level, strategic advice, collaborating with local law firms and tax advisors for detailed guidance about a particular jurisdiction. Naturally, a lot of my work is with German-speaking clients with international business interests.

Some of the issues we deal with on a daily basis include:

• Controlled foreign corporation (CFC) rules.

• Non-domiciled status and other exempt statuses (e.g., Beckham Law in Spain).

• Exit tax.

• Base erosion and profit shifting.

• EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD).

• Holding structures.

• Brexit tax issues.

Recently, we have seen a huge increase in clients looking to expand and relocate to the US. So in 2018, we branched out our US market entry consulting practise into a new firm called Mount Bonnell Advisors.

Our capital markets advisory practise developed quite organically on the side: More and more clients asked us for help raising funds by leveraging our extensive network of high net worth individual contacts. Today we provide these services through Swordblade & Co.

I have a lifelong passion for farming. My family used to own ranches in Texas and New Mexico, and I still have a keen interest in regenerative farming practises. This led me to found Austin-based Ashfount Investments to invest in local food start-ups in the US.

Documentary filmmaking is another passion of mine. Recently I co-founded Alamo Pictures, a film company that makes factual programs about the US.