Management

Dr. Werner Prusseit
CEO THEVA

Dr. Werner Prusseit studied physics at Munich Technical University, gaining his PhD in 1995. After a few years of scientific work, in 1996 he became one of the founding partners of THEVA GmbH, which he has led as sole CEO since 1998.

In 2012 he succeeded in attracting initial VC financing from Target Partners and BayBG, towards the goal of transferring the results of the company’s years of development work on strip conductors into production, and so expanding into energy technology.

Furthermore, Werner Prusseit is one of the initiators and founders of the Supraleitung e.V. (ivSupra) interest group, where he was president from 2006 – 2018.

Advisory Board

THEVA has established an advisory board in the year 2012 to provide active support in all questions concerning the company’s development. This committee includes representatives of investors as well as experts from the technology and business sectors.

Kurt Müller
Founding member of Target Partners

Kurt Müller
Founding member of Target Partners

After getting a degree in computer science and an MBA in Finance, Kurt Müller worked for three years as a strategic consultant for Bain & Company in Boston and Munich. From 1984 to 1986 he was founder and CEO of Lotus Development GmbH in Munich.

In 1986 Müller founded Dataware Technologies, Boston, where he was Chairman & CEO until 1998. Under his leadership the company grew its revenue to 41 million dollars. In 1993 he successfully placed Dataware on NASDAQ.

Together with partners Dr. Berthold von Freyberg and Waldemar Jantz, in 1999 he founded Target Partners. Müller is also on the supervisory or advisory boards of currently seven Target Partners portfolio companies. He was involved in Target Partners’ investments in WLAN AG (Swisscom AG in 2003), NXN Software AG (sold to Avid Technology, Inc. in 2004), gate5 AG (sold to Nokia in 2006) and ubitexx GmbH (sold to Blackberry in 2011).

Müller thus brings 31 years of high-tech management and entrepreneurial experience to his function on the THEVA advisory board, which he has been a member of since 2012.

Michael Mayer
Managing Partner eCAPITAL

Michael Mayer
Managing Partner eCAPITAL

A degreed economist, Mayer began his career as an editor, and in the 1980s worked at the Fraunhofer Institute ISI as head of the Technology Transfer Working Group. From it, in 1990 he founded the management company TechnoStart Venture Capital Group in Ludwigsburg, whose CEO and Managing Partner he remains “on the side”. Mayer has worked with eCAPITAL since 2005, starting in the joint portfolio company Novaled in Dresden.

Since January 2014 he has been a venture partner at eCAPITAL AG in Münster, and since November 2015 has been on its Executive Board.

He has been a member of the THEVA advisory board since 2016.

Prof. Dr.
Robert Bach

Prof. Dr. Robert Bach

Dr. Bach received his PhD in High Voltage and Energy Cable Technology from Berlin Technical University. Starting in 1993 he worked for various energy and telecommunications companies, among them RWE Group in several executive positions, including Director R&D Central Europe and Director Strategic Personnel Management. Other stints were CTO and Executive Board Member at nkt cables group in Cologne and CEO at the Polish company Tele-Fonika Kablo.

Since 2011 he has worked as an independent consultant focusing on technology, strategy and HR. In addition, since 2012 he has been professor for high voltage and electrical technology at the South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences in Soest.

Dr. Bach has been on the THEVA advisory board since 2012.

Dr. Dieter Maier

Dr. Dieter Maier studied physics at the University of Birmingham and received his PhD at the Max-Planck Institute in Stuttgart.

After various positions in technical management, he was made head of a department of Robert Bosch GmbH in the automotive sector.

In 2001 he transitioned to a C-level position at Rodenstock GmbH, and in 2006 he acquired the partnership shares of the Mohr Group.

Since 2008 he has held supervisory board memberships at leading companies (Nordex SE until 2015, RIBE, Pinova Capital and the UKM Group) and various minority interests.

Dr. Maier has been a member of the THEVA advisory board since 2013.

Max Reindl

In 1985 Max Reindl graduated as a Diplom-Ingenieur of precision engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich. He started his professional career at Aesculap AG in Tuttlingen, where among other functions he directed the Laser Development Group. In 1989 he assisted in the establishment of a Medical Laser Department at Baasel Lasertechnik in Starnberg. Upon returning to Aesculap Meditec in Heroldsberg, in 1991 he was put in charge of the Research and Development Department.

In 1996 Reindl went into business for himself, founding the medical technology company WaveLight AG in Erlangen. The company went public in September 1999 and since 2003 has been listed in the Prime Standard. He remained chairman of the company until 2009. Today he is CEO of the Max Reindl consulting company. He also acts as a business angel, in which function he holds shares in various companies with a focus on medicine and medical technology. In addition, he chairs the startup sponsoring association of the North Bavarian Network, innovatives Unternehmertum Nordbayern (F.U.N.) e. V. As an eye laser specialist, he is also a co-founder of the “Vision for the World”, an organization that works to improve ophthalmological care of needy persons in underdeveloped countries.

Max Reindl has been on the THEVA Advisory Board since May 2017.

Senior Advisory Council

Since 2017, THEVA’s management has also been strengthened by a three-member Senior Advisory Council. Through the enormous range of competence and experience of its members, the committee is to contribute to bringing superconducting technology onto the market even faster and more sustainable.

Dr. Georg Bednorz

Dr. Georg Bednorz

Following studies in mineralogy and crystallography at the University of Münster, in 1982 Bednorz gained a doctorate at the Laboratory for Solid Body Physics at the ETH Zürich, and began working the following year at the IBM research lab in Rüschlikon. Together with Karl Alexander Müller, in 1986 he discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramic copper oxide compounds. A year later the two scientists received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery. In 1987 Dr. Bednorz was made an IBM Fellow and in 1998 a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

There followed further awards, such as the German Grand Cross of Merit with Star and Riband and honorary doctorates at the Universities of Salzburg, Regensburg, Tbilisi and Katowice. Since April 2017 Dr. Bednorz has been an honorary member of the superconductor industry association ivSupra.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Klaus Töpfer

As an economist, Dr. Töpfer taught at various universities between 1978 and 2007, including in Hannover and Shanghai. Simultaneously, his political career took him into German Federal government. Among other functions, from 1987 to 1994 he was Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

After leaving the administration in 1998 he held positions at the United Nations, including the Executive Directorship of the environmental program. Sustainability and the environment remain constants in his activities.

Dr. Lothar Stein

Dr. Lothar Stein studied physics in Hanover and Munich, and did his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching. He began his career at Osram as Product Manager for Innovative Products. Following that, in 1983 he joined McKinsey & Company, where he worked until 2012 in Munich, San Francisco and Silicon Valley supporting leading companies worldwide on topics like strategy, growth and innovation. He also led McKinsey Innovation und High Tech Practices, and started several entrepreneurship initiatives including the first business plan competitions in Germany.

Since 2012 he has acted as a private investor in Germany and Silicon Valley and helps companies that develop innovative solutions in the areas of Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things and renewable energy. Dr. Stein is on the advisory boards of several companies and founder institutions.