Ulf Leonhard

As CEO and founder of Leonhard Ventures (www.leoven.com), Ulf has over 20 years of equity consulting and strategic business consulting experience, spanning a broad range of sectors (e.g. IT, cleantech, food, forest, agriculture, resource technologies, high tech manufacturing, any kind of manufacturing and related IT, water) and entrepreneurial stages (start-up, early stage, expansion).

Since 1997 he has organized over 110 matching events spanning multiple sectors in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, the United Kingdom, USA reaching approximately 10,500 participants from more than 35 countries. His network includes more than 400 investors throughout Germany, Europe and North America.

An entrepreneur and visionary, Ulf conceptualized and successfully launched a number of firsts in the investor-entrepreneur matchmaking arena including:

• Deutsche Praesenzboerse (German Equity Fair) – the first matchmaking forum for the German-speaking region (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) targeting IT and life sciences innovations (1996)
• Dinner & Deals – intimate investor-entrepreneur dinners (up to 15 ) that allow deeper relationship building and faster deal collaborations (1998 to present)
• European Venture Market – the first European funding forum, attracting over 3,800 participants at over 16 events. (2004 to present) www.europeanventuremarket.com
• ExpoFin – conference and exhibition hall focused on SME funding (2007 to present) www.expofin.de
• NoMeBa – a new platform for German, Swiss and Austrian SMEs (small and medium sized businesses) to present to and meet private equity investors (2009 to present) www.nomeba.de
• WaterVent – the first European matchmaking forum focused exclusively on supporting water innovations: www.watervent.com
• World Resource Ventures - matchmaking forum focused on resource and clean technologies: www.worldresourceventures.com