Dr Guenther Dobrauz Saldapenna
Guenther is a partner at PwC in Zurich, leader of PwC Legal Switzerland, a member of PwC’s Global Legal Leadership Team directing the firm’s global legal practice, comprising of 4000+ lawyers in 90+ countries, and the firm’s Global LegalTech Leader.
He received his Masters and PhD degrees in law from Johannes Kepler University (Linz, Austria). Guenther also holds an MBA from the University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Business (Glasgow, UK) and has participated in Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School Executive Education Programs.
Before joining PwC, Guenther held a similar position at another Big 4. Prior to this, Guenther was a Legal Counsel for an international hedge fund group for several years and has also served for a number of years as Managing Partner and Legal Counsel of a Swiss Venture Capital firm. Guenther has also practiced in court and with a leading business law firm.
Today, Guenther specialises in supporting the structuring, authorization, and ongoing lifecycle management of financial intermediaries and their products. In addition, he is focused on leading and supporting the implementation of large scale regulatory change and compliance alignment projects at Swiss and international financial institutions; with particular focus on EU and Swiss regulations. Guenther is also the trusted advisor to several governments, international organisations, and supervisory authorities. His passion is innovation, linked to Exponential Technologies and working with the unfolding dynamics of LegalTech, RegTech, and DLT.
Guenther is the author of eight books on innovation and the European, Swiss, and Liechtenstein legal regulatory frameworks, as well as of 100+ publications in international expert magazines and has to date spoken at more than 200 conferences worldwide. Guenther is a permanent member of the Swiss Fund & Asset Management Association’s Specialists Committee “Legal & Compliance Asset Management” of the economie suisse “Financial Market Regulation” working group, of the Regulatory Working Group at Swiss Fintech Innovations, a Member of the Advisory Board of the Swiss LegalTech Association and of European Law Observatory on New Technologies (ELONTech), What is more, he is the co-Host of Legal Hackers Zurich and a lecturer at various universities around the world.