AvS – International Trusted Advisors – an international management consultancy specializing in executive search, board search, management appraisal and ownership advisory for family businesses – expands the circle of its Industry Advisors with Verena Pausder, a successful entrepreneur and digital expert. Up to now, the Advisory Board of the globally active firm has been composed of international entrepreneurs and investors including Luisa Delgado, Sylvie Mutschler, Tony Bogod, Wolfgang Colberg and Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard. With Verena Pausder, the firm is now additionally supported by a founder who is well-connected in the start-up scene, and who has also recently become one of the most well-known voices for equal access to digital education for all children.

Verena Pausder comes from an entrepreneurial family and found her way into the digital economy at an early age after her studies in St. Gallen. As Founder and CEO of Fox & Sheep (2012) and HABA Digitalwerkstatt (2016), she and her teams developed successful offerings for the digital life and learning of children. Today, Fox & Sheep is the largest developer of children’s apps in Germany, while the HABA Digitalwerkstatt is now represented at ten locations in Germany. In 2016, Ms. Pausder was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and in 2018 Forbes included her in Europe’s Top 50 Women In Tech. At the end of 2019, Verena Pausder sold her shares to the HABA owners. She is currently active in various supervisory bodies and honorary positions, including as Founder of “Digitale Bildung für Alle e.V.”, Member of the Supervisory Board of Comdirect Bank AG, and Member of the “Innovation Council” of Dorothee Bär, the German Minister of State for Digital Affairs. In recent weeks, she has repeatedly spoken out in public on the subject of “Home-schooling in Times of Corona” and launched a non-profit platform on the subject.

“We are very pleased to welcome Verena Pausder, an outstanding expert in both digitization as well as family businesses, to the circle of our Industry Advisors. As a consulting firm, we will benefit greatly from her expertise and network in the digital ecosystem, and will be able to better serve the needs of start-up entrepreneurs and the Next Generation in family businesses,” says Andreas von Specht, Managing Partner of AvS – International Trusted Advisors. Successful start-ups must – especially in an unprecedented period of crisis – adapt processes, organization and corporate culture to the requirements of fast-growing enterprises, while also drawing on the knowledge of experienced managers. “With Verena Pausder on our Advisory Board, we are significantly strengthening the market position of our team even in this challenging environment”, says Andreas von Specht.

AvS – International Trusted Advisors has grown continuously over recent years and has expanded its consulting team in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin. The international growth of the firm, with additional offices in Switzerland, the UK, Latin America and Singapore, is mainly driven by three developments: firstly, the increasing demand for advice on ensuring successful generational and management succession in family businesses and family offices as well as advice on appointments to supervisory boards; secondly, the evaluation and appraisal of management teams and supervisory boards; and last but not least, the dynamic and developing field of ownership advisory, which includes the development of ownership strategies and mission statements, working with the ‘Next Generation’, and also the mediation of shareholder conflicts.

About AvS – International Trusted Advisors:

AvS – International Trusted Advisors is an international consultancy that advises entrepreneurs, shareholders, supervisory bodies and top management, especially of privately held companies. The firm focuses on succession planning, executive search and board search, management appraisal, board review, and the development and implementation of ownership strategies. The experienced consultants of AvS – International Trusted Advisors are active globally from offices based in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Geneva, Zurich, Paris, London, Singapore and Bogota.