Christoph Herrmann

Christoph Herrmann is a Director at Affentranger Associates SA (AASA), the Zurich-based principal-investment and corporate-finance firm founded in 2002 by Swiss financier Anton Affentranger (former CEO of UBS Warburg's private banking and later CEO of construction group Implenia). AASA describes itself as "a business platform focused on the theme of value creation, with its core competency in hands-on management," pursuing "sustainable long-term returns through a symbiosis of capital and labour investments into turnaround, transitioning and venture companies."

Before joining Affentranger Associates, Christoph Herrmann worked at PwC Canada as a Director in Corporate Finance / M&A, according to business-data profiles (Apollo.io / RocketReach). This corporate-finance and transaction-advisory background is consistent with AASA's dual identity as both a principal investor and an advisory house.

It is worth noting that AASA underwent a significant restructuring: in March 2021, the firm's corporate-finance advisory activities and assets were sold to Capitalmind AG, a newly formed Zurich boutique led by former AASA Managing Partner Markus Decker (Capitalmind AG became the Swiss arm of the pan-European Capitalmind group). Following that transaction, Affentranger Associates merged with Corporate Investment Management Affentranger Holding SA (CIMA SA), which continues to manage the group's principal investments. Anton Affentranger remains founder and chairman of the group.

• Principal investor, not a passive LP: AASA invests its own capital alongside operational "labour," aiming to create value through active, hands-on management rather than purely financial participation.
• Stated thesis (firm's own words): to achieve "sustainable long-term returns through a symbiosis of capital and labour investments into turnaround, transitioning and venture companies."
• Situation-driven rather than sector-driven: the firm backs businesses in a transition or value-creation phase; its portfolio ranges from clean-industrial technology to healthcare services and software.
• Swiss focus: investments and operations are centered in Switzerland, with the firm headquartered in Zurich.
• Check size and formal stage criteria are not publicly disclosed; external databases variously tag the firm as seed/angel/venture, but the firm's own materials emphasize transition and turnaround situations over an early-stage-only mandate.