Birch Wealth Care

EUGENE COLLINS

Eugene has over 15 years Banking and Debt Capital Markets experience, having held Senior Director level roles at several leading Investment Banks, including HSBC, Barclays Capital, Nomura International and Commerzbank AG.

Most recently he worked within Barclays Capital’s Risk Solutions Group covering Interest Rate Hedging for UK and European corporate and institutional clients. He has also held a number of senior regulatory change advisory and consultancy roles at HSBC Global Banking & Markets division.

Eugene relocated to Switzerland in 2020 to set up and oversee the Private Family Office structure on behalf of the controlling shareholders of a significant German Commercial Property and Project Development company.

Ronald Holtkamp

Ronald has over 10y experience as an international tax advisor (LL.M.) and more than 20y experience as a Private Banker/Family Officer structuring wealth, delivering a high level wealth management services and solutions to entrepreneurs, wealthy families and (U)HNW individuals. He has a broad experience in all aspects of asset management / family office services / tax-legal-financial engineering issues / wealth transfer solutions etc. Furthermore he has an excellent understanding of legal and tax compliancy and the cross border regulatory environment, Incl. FACTA, etc. He favors a ‚holistic’ WM approach, carefully analysing client’s legal/tax/financial needs and provide practical tailor-made solutions to clients’ unique requirements with a timely implementation.

Ronald has a goal oriented attitude in order to efficiently reach objectives / targets. At Birch he drives the acquisition of new clients, while managing his own client book. He is a reliable business partner, building trust with prospects, clients & business partners by putting client first and providing exceptional service and a thorough follow-up. As an innovative wealth management all-rounder with a high degree of initiative and self-motivation, he has the ability to maintain high standards of work while working under pressure. His excellent communication skills in English, German and Dutch (trilingual), spoken French with basic Swedish knowledge enables him to overcome cultural barriers and to meet challenging organizational goals. Experienced negotiator and dealmaker, building profitable long-term business.relationships.

Derrick van Vught

Derrick van Vught, from Berlin, Germany, is a seasoned banker with more that 20 years of international wealth management experience.

Derrick studied at the University of Mannheim, Germany, Economics and Finance, and Economics at the University of Moscow.

Derrick started his career at Man Investments in Pfäffikon, Switzerland, as a sales Director. His next step was at Credit Suisse, Zürich, Switzerland, where he entered the Wealth Management arena.

Standard Charted bank Singapore was his next stop before joining the CIS/Russia team at UBS Singapore. In 2013 Derrick joined Banque Pictet & Cie in Hong Kong. Derrick returned to Europe in 2016 to join Birch Wealth Solutions as specialist senior consultant. As a solutions provider Derrick has a strong focus on asset protection (Tax & Legal) structuring and supporting entrepreneurial clients with their Wealth Management and financial requirements. Derrick has a large network under the ‘financials’ and the legal and tax eco system in Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Derrick is married and has a daughter and son. Among German, English and Spanish, Derrick is also fluent in Russian, Han Chinese and several other languages.

Chris A. Pedersen

Chris Pedersen, from Arhus, Denmark, is a seasoned Investment Specialist and focuses on international entrepreneurial clients. At Birch Wealth Solutions, Chris is responsible for alternative investments and deal sourcing.

Chris began his career in the financial sector at the US stockbroker Salomon Smith Barney, where he handled institutional clients as well as wealthy individuals. Later he became part of the CitiGroup Wealth Management division in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with responsibility for derivatives and stock trading.

After having gained experience at the exchange at Euronext, he moved to Switzerland, where he worked as Private Banker for LGT Bank and GS Banque with the responsibility for Nordic and British (U)HNWI clients. Chris has also been employed as a specialized wealth manager in Switzerland focusing on tailor-made investment strategies.

Chris has 20 years of experience in the financial sector, and has obtained trading authorization on the New Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and EuroNext and holds a PCG in Business Administration.

Chris is married and has a son. He speaks Danish, English and French.

Pétur A. Haraldsson

Pétur has been a key advisor to international corporate and private clients for over twenty years. He has been based in Luxembourg and Sweden and has led project teams in a variety of demanding business transactions. His early career includes management and CEO positions in Europe and the USA.

Pétur is especially focused on start-up / early-stage tech and AI companies as an advisor for Financial, Legal and Tax matters.

Pétur has co-founded several ventures and served on the Boards of companies in industries including finance, technology, telecom, engineering, energy, mining, software, retail and real estate.

Pétur is the Founder and Executive Chairman of FIDESTA and is also active in Social Enterprising, i.e. founder of Driving Sustainability (www.drivingsustainability.org)

Pétur is married and has three daughters. He speaks Icelandic, Swedish and English.

Advisory Board members

Matti Copeland

Matti Copeland from Helsinki, Finland, is an Off Counsel Advisery Board Member to Birch Wealth Solutions. He brings with him over 15 years of capital markets and investment banking experience with Citibank in New York, Nordea and Danske in Helsinki. After his banking career, Matti served as a Partner at Deloitte (Helsinki, Finland), an Investment Director at Capman (Helsinki, Finland), a Managing Director at Aura Capital, and most recently as Executive Director at EY in Helsinki, Finland.Matti is also an active investor and serves on many Boards in the start-up sector. Between 2008-2014 Matti served on the Board and as a Head of Strategy and M&A of Basware Oyj, a Helsinki listed software company.

Matti holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Helsinki School of Economics, Aalto University. He is an Alumni President of the Stanford Graduate School of Business in Finland, having graduated from Stanford Executive Program in 2000.

Matti is married and has a daughter and son. Matti is a native Finnish and English speaker.

Christian Jakovlew

Christian’s focus is on strategic advisory, M&A, funding and financing as well as turn-around management. He understands various business environments and cultures and speaks several languages (Finnish, Swedish, English, German, Russian and Japanese.

Christian founded Excellentia Partners ltd., Helsinki, Finland, in 2000. The company maintains a network of professionals in comprehensive management advisory. Clients include both Nordic and International companies. Birch cooperates with Excellentia in several business cases.

Earlier in his career Christian worked in Pharmaceutical field in both Sweden and Finland with global responsibilities. He spent three years building business in Latin America and India for the a Finnish Pharmaceutical company. In Japan and Switzerland Christian was a representative of Reuter’s. In Sweden he has been lecturing in Sigtuna Humanistiska Läroverk near Stockholm, Sweden.

Christian is a graduate (international business administration) from Uppsala University, where he studied in Swedish, English and French. He has attended several management and leadership courses around the world. Christian is married and has a daughter and son.