Hallo ihr Lieben!
Our October 2–4 event in the Big Apple is just around the corner. Here is our latest and greatest on the event.
Program Preview
Friday, October 2
- 10:00am-12:00pm: Discussion with Jim Freis, Bosch 12, “Wirecard: Uncovering the Biggest Scandal in German Financial History” to be held at Linklaters LLP, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, between 51st & 52nd
- 12:00pm-6:00pm: Free time to enjoy NYC
- 6:00-8:00pm: Cocktail reception at the residence of the German Consul General, Dr. Jens Jokisch. IMPORTANT: The dress code is business or cocktail. No jeans, athletic wear or sneakers.
- 8:30pm- : Informal gathering at the Vanguard Wine Bar, 1372 1st Ave.
Saturday, October 3
- 8:30am-2:30pm: Annual Meeting, topical panels and lunch at Pillsbury Law Offices, 31 W. 52nd St at 5th &6th Avenue (free, courtesy of alum Thomas Gump, Bosch XIII)
- IMPORTANT: The annual business meeting is for members only. Please have guests arrive no earlier than 11:15 for lunch and learning.
- 8:30-9:00: Registration and breakfast
- 9:00-11:30: Annual business meeting with ACG, Q&A with Steven Soko
- 11:30-12:15: Lunch
- 12:15-1:15: Stefan Liebich, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The American Left, the German Right, and the Working-Class Vote”
- 1:15-2:15: Masterclass Sessions
- Lucie Menz, iac-Berlin, “iac-BAN”
- Raquel Pichardo, Bosch XXXVI, “Energy and Climate”
- Melis Tusiray, Bosch XXVIII, “Artificial Intelligence”
- 2:15-2:30: Close
- Afternoon: Free time — the Pillsbury Law Offices are just steps from MoMA, email us at if you’d like to visit. With enough interest we may be able to arrange for timed tickets so you can avoid the line.
- 6:00-10:15pm: Gala featuring keynote speaker, Kevin Czinger, Bosch VIII at The Union Club, 101 E. 69th St, West Room. IMPORTANT: The Union Club requires jackets and ties for gentlemen and clothing of equivalent formality for women. No jeans, sneakers, or white soled shoes are permitted. (cost share $120pp)
- 6:00-7:00: Cocktail hour
- 7:00: Dinner
- 7:30: Keynote
- 10:15: Close
Sunday, October 4
- 10:00am-12:00pm:Farewell brunch at the Upper West Side home of Jackie Renner, Bosch I, and David Craig, 73rd & West End Ave (please see your confirmation email for exact location)($20pp cost share)
Speaker Bios:
Kevin Czinger, Bosch XIII, Keynote Speaker
As the company’s Founder, Kevin has led and overseen the development and commercialization of its end-to-end factory system called the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPSTM).
DAPS is a one-of-one production system that enables a single factory to make any product for a wide variety of applications, including across weapons, sustainment, and automotive. At scale, Divergent will operate hundreds of manufacturing hubs servicing customers across industries, providing a uniquely flexible and application agnostic next generation manufacturing network for America and its allies.
Today, Divergent structures are being deployed across air, land, sea, and space applications with America’s major primes and directly with the US DoD, including customers such as RTX, Lockheed Martin, and General Atomics. Divergent has also forged partnerships with leading commercial and government partners, including Palantir and the Hamm Institute for American Energy.
DAPS is also fully commercialized and in production in the automotive industry, with structures having been delivered and installed on fully crash-certified, road legal production vehicles with leading sportscar manufacturers around the world including Aston Martin, Bugatti, McLaren, and Divergent’s in-house OEM, Czinger Vehicles.
Introduction to the Divergent Adaptive Production System
Kevin is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School and studied Electrical Engineering at Arizona State’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. He served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve as an enlisted infantry rifleman. Prior to Divergent, he was a founder, inventor and CEO at technology companies engaged in the design, engineering and production of Electric Vehicles, EV battery systems, and Machine Learning.
Jim Freis, Bosch XII, Wirecard: Uncovering the Biggest Scandal in German Financial History
James H. Freis, Jr. (Bosch XII) has devoted his professional career to promoting the integrity of the global financial markets. He currently serves as a board director at banks headquartered in the United States and Germany, and through Market Integrity Solutions consultancy advises on financial services regulation and good governance. He served as the last CEO of Wirecard AG – upon joining the company substantiating massive fraud, then initiating a global restructuring, and eventually putting what had been a blue chip publicly traded company into bankruptcy, while supporting criminal and regulator investigations.
Wirecard was a Germany-based, global payments processor and digital innovator. It was an investor darling, in 2018 replacing Commerzbank in the DAX index of leading German public companies, yet had lingering concerns about its business model. In May 2020 it was announced that as part of a broader management restructuring, Jim Freis would join the Vorstand (management board) in a newly created role for Integrity, Legal and Compliance, as the company committed to obtaining further financial services licenses in new jurisdictions. On his first day, Jim substantiated fraud in the billions of euros on the company’s balance sheet, reported this to the Aufsichtsrat (supervisory board) and was appointed CEO. He will share insights into how the German system and culture likely helped enable the massive fraud; the reforms that were unleashed after this “Enron of Germany” largest financial scandal in the country’s modern history; and the ongoing impact of the case on the regulatory environment, markets and public debate.
In his prior career, Jim served from 2014 to 2020 as Managing Director and Group Chief Compliance Officer for the Deutsche Börse Group, a global provider of financial market infrastructures (including the Frankfurt Stock Exchange). From 2007 through 2012, he served as Director (CEO) of the United States Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which is the country’s financial intelligence unit and anti-money laundering regulator. After his Bosch year with the German Federal Banking Supervisory Authority (a forerunner to the BaFin) and a universal bank, he served as an attorney at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Bank for International Settlements based in Basel Switzerland, and the US Treasury. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School.
Steven E. Sokol, President and CEO, American Council on Germany, Annual Meeting Q & A
Steven E. Sokol has been the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany since 2015. Previously, he served as President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and prior to that he was the Vice President and Director of Programs at the American Council on Germany. Earlier in his career, Dr. Sokol served as the Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, was the Head of the Project Management Department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion GmbH (BICC), and a Program Officer in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
He holds a Doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University as well as an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. He has also studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Freie Universität in Berlin. Dr. Sokol serves on several non-profit boards and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit) for his work to strengthen German-American relations.
Stefan Liebich, Executive Director, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The American Left, the German Right, and the Working-Class Vote”
Stefan Liebich is a former German politician, trained as a business economist, and is now the head of the New York office of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. Served as a member of the German Bundestag for the Left Party (Die Linke) from 2009 to 2021. He was also a member of the Berlin House of Representatives starting in 1995. Since 2023, he has led the New York regional office of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, which focuses on transatlantic dialogues, democratic socialism, and international solidarity.