Mr. Walz holds a diploma in business administration (Diplom-Kaufmann) from University Augsburg, Germany, a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and is CEFA Investment Analyst.

In addition to his research experience with McKinsey & Company, Inc., he has M&A research know how and did M&A consulting from 1996 to 1998 with HypoVereinsbank. Between 1998 and 2003 he was director at Concord Effekten AG and was responsible for corporate finance projects, focusing on IPOs, M&A and private equity investments.