Friedrich Merz

Friedrich is a former member of the European Parliament and a former chairman of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany. Now he acts as a leading German lawyer and politician, heading up the corporate practice in Germany and as a partner at Mayer Brown. Primarily his role focuses on corporate matters which include finance and compliance, mergers, acquisitions and banking. 

Friedrich's career in politics varies from serving as a Member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1994 to a two year stretch as the chairman of CDU/CSU parliamentary group from 2000-2002. During 1994-2009 he was also a member of the Bundestag.

Before joining Mayer Brown Friedrich became a partner with two national law firms in Cologne. Prior to this he served as a judge for a year at the Local Court in Saarbrücken and following this role he worked for the German Association of Chemical Industry. 

Friedrich is a highly looked upon individual who is welcomed on many supervisory boards from Deutsche Börse which is the German Stock Exchange to Axa and HSBC Trinkaus. He sits on the advisory board of Commerzbank and Borussia Dortmund along with the administrative board of BASF Antwerp and Stadler Rail AG.

Friedrich is a founding member of the 'Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft INSM' which is the new social market economy and in addition he is also a founding member of the future think tank Frankfurter Zukunftsrat. Since 2009 Merz has chairmanned the international network Atlantik-Brücke and been a member of the Trilateral Commission of Europe.

Friedrich's career means he is equipped with the expertise to cover a range of topics in detail from European politics to economic policies and social markets. He makes for an excellent speaker with an original perspective and stories to go with it.