BIOGRAPHY
Ernst Daus has worked as senior executive in the fields of corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions, investment banking, and management consulting for international companies and the public sector for more than three decades.
After earning a master’s degree in industrial engineering at TU Berlin, he became a controller at Philips in 1977. Four years later he changed as investment manager to WFG/Deutsche Bank group, Germany’s leading venture capital company at that time which invested predominantly in high-tech companies.
In 1989 he assumed the position of Strategy and Acquisition in the board of a holding company of Germany’s mining industry in order to help mitigate the economic effects due to the closing of the coal mining industry in the Aachen region.
After Germany’s reunification he joined Treuhandanstalt, the Federal Agency for Privatization of former state-owned East German companies and real estate. He was significantly involved in the restructuring and privatization of about 180 businesses. Within the scope of his responsibilities the transaction volume ran up to 1 billion DM in total. During that time, he also assumed the position of an CFO in one of the Treuhand companies in the field of chemical specialties which was acquired by a group of U.S. investors. Under his leadership the financing for five new chemical plants had been secured, totaling 120 million DM, and restructuring measures carried out with potential savings of more than 1 million DM per year.
Ernst Daus has lived in Fort Worth, Texas, since 2005 where he has advised individual clients in wealth management, investments and insurance products. He is also in charge of the U.S. office of ab ovo Venture Capital Corporation and represents their interests in the U.S.