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Dr. Christoph Braun, Managing Partner
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 Christoph Braun joined Hubert Burda Media in 1997 as the group’s Treasury Director. From 1999 onwards he conceived of and then implemented Burda Digital Ventures as a corporate venture capital vehicle, investing in young entrepreneurial teams in internet- and mobile-based businesses. As its Managing Director he has overseen the investments and successful exits and built the investment team which now forms the core of Acton Capital Partners. Prior to joining Hubert Burda Media, Christoph was Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company.
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Dr. Paul-Bernhard Kallen, Managing Partner
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 Paul-Bernhard Kallen joined Hubert Burda Media in 1996 and took over several managing director positions within the group. He has been a member of the Executive Board of Hubert Burda Media since 1999. He is one of the architects behind Hubert Burda Media’s highly-successful Burda profit centre organisation and a key driver in developing new areas of growth for the group, including International and Digital, and in turning Hubert Burda Media into a highly-diversified media platform. In International, Dr. Kallen negotiated and managed the joint venture between Hubert Burda Media and Rizzoli from its launch in 1995. This was Hubert Burda Media’s first major step abroad. Together with Christoph Braun he set up the BDV Fund in 1999. Prior to joining Hubert Burda Media, Paul-Bernhard was a Partner at McKinsey & Company.
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Frank Seehaus, Managing Partner
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 Frank Seehaus joined the BDV investment team in 2000 as an investment professional. He focused on platform, commerce and finance businesses, implementing growth and turnaround strategies in several portfolio companies. He acquired personal operational experience as managing director of a commercial service provider and an internet portal company. He was the key force behind the successful exit of Elite Partner, Holiday Check and Onvista. Frank was previously a Vice President in Deutsche Bank’s corporate finance division and led the setting up and execution of a number of structured finance, capital markets and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions.
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Dr. Jan-Gisbert Schultze, Managing Partner
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 Jan-Gisbert Schultze joined Hubert Burda Media in 1998 and has supervised all the international activities of the Burda Rizzoli joint venture in Turkey, Greece, Italy, Asia, Germany and France. Later he was also responsible for two major publishing profit centres. Since its launch in 2000 he has supervised the group’s internet investment in Chip/Xonio Online. Before joining Hubert Burda Media, Jan-Gisbert was involved in the restructuring of an engineering group in eastern Germany. Before that he was a Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company.
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Harald Ebrecht, Investment Director
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 Harald Ebrecht joined BDV as an investment professional in 2007 and works as Investment Manager on Web 2.0/Community topics and on the Blog.de, edelight.de and tripsbytips.de investments. He was previously a Project Leader at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Munich. During his career with BCG, he primarily worked on Corporate Development and Finance matters in various industries - including numerous transaction support projects. His training included a formal banking apprenticeship at HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt KGaA, a diploma in Business Administration and Economics at Witten/Herdecke University and various internships including in Investment Banking, Industry and Consulting.
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Marcus Polke, Investment Director
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 Marcus Polke joined BDV in September 2007, after being a Managing Director of its portfolio company Abebooks Europe. Prior to that, Marcus led all e-commerce activities at AOL Germany between 2001 and 2005. From 1998-2001, Marcus was one of Amazon.de’s first employees, building up product management and leading two product lines. He started his career at German media company Axel Springer after obtaining a degree in Economics and Management at the Technical University of Berlin and completing a banking apprenticeship at Berliner Bank AG.
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Dr. Benedikt Sudbrock, Director Legal Affairs
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 Benedikt Sudbrock joined BDV in 2001 with a focus on legal affairs and as a legal adviser on M&A transactions. Prior to this, he acted as Legal Counsel for Bertelsmann AG, Gütersloh, and as Director of Legal Affairs for online bookseller BOL from 1998-2001. He served a banking apprenticeship at Westdeutsche Landesbank, and obtained his PhD (Dr.iur.) at the Freie Universität Berlin.
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Jörg Wernet, Director Finance
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 Jörg Wernet joined BDV at the end of 2001. He set up and managed a unified reporting and control system for the Fund’s portfolio companies leading to high performance measurement and feedback capabilities which were critical for the internal and external decision-making processes. Jörg Wernet previously held positions at Arcor, Bosch and Alcatel SEL. He has an electrical engineering degree from the RWTH Aachen and an MBA in Finance from the William E. Simon Business School, New York.
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Sebastian Wossagk, Investment Partner
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 Sebastian Wossagk joined BDV in 2007 as an investment professional. He previously worked for Siemens Venture Capital and its predecessor, Siemens Acceleration, from 2001-2007. At Siemens, he focused mainly on seed-, early- and mid-stage investments within the telecom and wireless sectors. Between 1997-2001, Sebastian worked for McKinsey & Company as Senior Consultant in the automotive and IT sectors. He holds an engineering degree from the Technical University of Munich, and an MBA from ENPC, Paris.
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Christine Catania
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 Christine
Catania joined Acton Capital Partners in 2008. Prior to this, she
gathered extensive work experience in various multinational
organisations taking up both governmental and non-governmental
expatriate assignments in numerous countries. Christine is a qualified
Specialised Certified Translator and Commercial Interpreter. She holds
the American University of Cairo’s RSA/CTEFLA Certificate and served
her apprenticeship at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
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Dr. Boris Wertz, Venture Partner
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 Boris Wertz is an Internet entrepreneur and investor and the CEO of W Media Ventures,
a Vancouver-based angel fund that focuses on early-stage Consumer Internet
investments in the Pacific Northwest. Before founding W Media Ventures, Boris
was the Chief Operating Officer of AbeBooks.com, the world’s largest
marketplace for books which sold to Amazon in 2008. Boris joined AbeBooks in
2002 after JustBooks, the German company he co-founded in 1999, was acquired by
the company. Boris successfully finished his PhD as well as his graduate
studies at the Graduate School of Management (WHU), Koblenz, majoring in
Business Economics/Business Management.
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