Master Class CEE INSIGHT TALKS with our Corporate Partners on Mitigating Risk and Exploiting Opportunities in CEE

The Insight Talks provide an informal discussion platform with our corporate partners on the topic of the Master Class CEE project seminar.

Spread out over two evenings – 13 January 2026 and 20 January 2026 – the speakers shared their valuable insights on Mitigating Risk and Exploiting Opportunities in CEE. Hannes Steiner, Paul Ionescu (Erste Bank) and Andrea Gritsch (Wolf Theiss) enriched our internal discussions. Dionisi Nikolov and Rainer Matiasek moderated the seminar. Each presentation was followed by Q&A, with a general discussion to close out the evening.

This year’s project seminar focuses on risks arising in and from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as opportunities they present. The speakers addressed the following guiding questions and provided insights into the practical implications for businesses:

• How do they assess and manage the most pressing risks currently affecting their operations in CEE, and which strategies have proven most effective?

• Which opportunities in the CEE region do they see as most promising for long-term growth, and how is the company positioning itself to capture them?

• How do domestic firms in CEE differ from foreign firms in their approach to riskmanagement and opportunity exploitation, and what lessons can be shared across these groups?

• What role do regulatory, political, or cultural contexts play in shaping your company’s risk agility in CEE?

These questions were designed to give our Master Class students practical insights into the seminar’s research themes – balancing risks and opportunities, identifying success models and understanding the interplay between local and foreign firms.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all speakers and look forward to the next Insight Talk with Henkel CEE in March!