Marc René François Deschenaux began his professional career as a software developer writing trading applications for commodities and securities. He wrote a small software on a PET Commodore computer connected to a Routers device. This software was called “Autoarbitrage” and continuously scanned various securities and commodities prices to identify profitable arbitrage opportunities. At a time when computerized trading was essentially unheard of, the program provided a huge advantage in terms of trade identification. The program was capable of helping its user identify a profitable trade up to 105 minutes before conventional traders could reach the same conclusion.

After being promoted from being a software developer to trader trainee, Mr. Deschenaux rose through the trading ranks at breakneck speed. In the 1980s, the promotion of traders was based entirely on merit. The traders who made the most money automatically became team leaders. Because of the program he had devised, Mr. Deschenaux became a successful broker at 19, a successful trader at 20, and head of trading at 22. His meteoric rise was too much to take for the old-school senior traders, who regarded Mr. Deschenaux as merely a computer whiz.

As a result of this dissension in the ranks, Mr. Deschenaux was transferred to the “Special Operations Department” where all kinds of complex transactions took place from correcting a mishandled trade to handling counter trading transactions.

Mr. Deschenaux began studying law in 1987 at the University of Geneva. He quickly realized however that the University did not offer the training he sought to become a business lawyer. The program’s focus was in public and constitutional law and catered to the needs of aspiring barristers. Instead of continuing at the University of Geneva, he began his studies in England, also taking advantage of various distance learning opportunities at universities in the United States and United Kingdom.

Marc Deschenaux is a PhD candidate in law at the University of Geneva, where he also has a master’s degree in economic law and is certified in transnational law. He achieved certification on the “Leading with Finance” course at Harvard Business School.

As a young man, Mr. Deschenaux made the most of the opportunities he created for himself, going on to start many successful companies. These companies included Beat Perfumes, S.A., which created the Michael Jackson Perfume, and CD World Corporation. As President and Founder of CD World, Mr. Deschenaux invented The Music KioskTM, a digital kiosk that enabled a consumer to choose from hundreds of thousands of songs, music works, and movie soundtracks and construct a personal compilation on a compact disk.

Following these endeavors, for a four year period Mr. Deschenaux was the Chairman and Founder of Investraders International Corporation, an investment bank in Geneva specializing in distributing private offerings and organizing IPOs. Having grown the firm to over three hundred employees at its peak, some important members of the banking establishment tried to convince him sell the company. When he refused the company experienced problems and was forced to fold.

When he founded CD World in 1995, Mr. Deschenaux understood that his group needed a legal department. While it was not named “Deschenaux & Partners” at that time, these lawyers, namely Mr. Philippe Gobet, esquire, today a lawyer at the Geneva bar, Mr. Guzman Fernandez, esquire, formerly a lawyer at the Geneva bar, Mr. Thierry Luc, formerly a lawyer in Belgium, and Mr. Alexandre Gnatowski-Swirski, a legal advisor, were the first legal team part of the Deschenaux group of companies, which included at that time CD World, Radio World, Publishing World, Finexco – Financial Expertise Corporation and WIPSEC – World Intellectual Property Securities Exchange Corporation. This team operated from 1995 to 2000.

In February 2000, after leaving CD World to create Investraders, Marc Deschenaux recreated a legal team, rehiring Mr. Thierry Luc and adding to the internal team Mr. Robert Wexler, a U.S. tax attorney. As an external team, Mr. Deschenaux hired Schwab, Flaherty & Associés, a Geneva law firm that was the advisor to the OAR-G, a financial industry self-regulatory organization (SRO), which was at that time controlled by the Federal Banking Commission, and today by FINMA.

Socially, in 2002 in Potsdam Germany, Mr. Deschenaux was officially named a Knight of the Teutonic Knights Order and in 2004 in Marbella Spain; he was made a Knight of the Aragon Knights Order.

Mr. Deschenaux not only has mastery of the legal and financial issues important to entrepreneurs, but he can also add value in other unexpected ways. His negotiating skills, as well as his knowledge of technology, puts Mr. Deschenaux in very rare company among top legal professionals. His technological talents became evident early on when as 15 year old computer programmer he sold a piece of software (that was then used in a popular video game) for several hundred thousand dollars, which he then wisely used to self-finance his education.

In 2005, Marc Deschenaux opened a private non-bar law firm, first named “Marc Deschenaux – Non-Bar Law Firm” and later named “Marc Deschenaux & Associés – Non-Bar Law Firm,” which was the predecessor in law to Deschenaux & Partners. It had offices at Rue Sigismond Thalberg, 2, one floor above the former Investraders. He was acting as a legal advisor for various clients, including Biomind, Air Industries, Rosetel and many others.

During the same period, Marc Deschenaux sought to join Schwab, Flaherty & Associés. It was agreed with their founding partner, Mr. Alexandre Schwab, esquire, that Marc Deschenaux’s foreign qualifications were not sufficient to join the law firm despite more than 20 years’ experience in contracts and corporate laws. He was required obtain Swiss law diplomas in order to qualify as an employee of the Schwab, Flaherty & Associés law firm.

So Marc Deschenaux passed the Bachelor of Laws Degree at the University of Geneva in 2008. Upon his graduation, Marc Deschenaux joined Schwab, Flaherty & Associés law firm directly with an “of counsel” status due to his long business and financial law experience. Despite his hiring, Marc Deschenaux continued his law studies and received the Certificate of Transnational Law in 2009 and the Master of Laws in Economy in 2010, while maintaining his activity as a legal advisor at Schwab, Flaherty & Associés. In May 2010, Marc Deschenaux left Schwab, Flaherty & Associés to dissociate his growing financial activity from this law firm.

Marc Deschenaux established, shared offices and collaborated with Mr. Claude Haegi, who had been Mayor of Geneva and President of the State Council of Geneva at Rue de l’Arquebuse, 12. In the summer 2009 he hired Ms. Danusha Harshanee Silva, Ms. Sarah Asper and other law faculty colleagues and built the foundations of the current firm.

Ms. Olga Bozek joined the firm early 2011 as an intern and quickly became partner. In august 2012, shortly after her wedding, she left.

In January 2012, Marc Deschenaux teamed up with a Swiss-Lebanese lawyer, esquire, a Geneva attorney and U.K. solicitor and moved the firm to Rue du Rhône 86, in the multifamily offices run by the Wakim family. He hired Ms. Inna Kempf, Ms. Nadia Pascal and later, Mr. Gael Collin.

In January 2013, Deschenaux & Partners had grown too large and moved to Rue de Lausanne, 42.

In 2013, Michael Horner, an engineer and analyst joined the firm as a partner. He is currently in charge of the strategy of the firm.

In September 2014, now settled in new offices located in Geneva, Rue Rothschild 50, Marc Deschenaux teamed up with two young partners, Luke Hornblower and Julien Machuca.

Luke Hornblower, a U.S. lawyer, is a member of the Bar in New York and New Jersey. He received his legal education in the United States, beginning with a Juris Doctor, followed by a Master of Laws in Securities and Financial Regulation. He is fluent in French and Russian.

As a French citizen, Julien Machuca benefited of a legal and economic education in France. He began with a Bachelor of Laws, followed by a Master of Laws in Private Law and of a Master of Notarial Law. He is fluent in English and Spanish.

In January 2015, Frédéric Gross joined the team which is now made up of five partners. DH&P recruited Mr. Gross from Swiss Investment House, Inc. (SIH) to add financial and analytical expertise of the team and advice clients at the pre-IPO and IPO stages of financing.

In parallel, SIH remains active for the distribution of private offerings.

Areas of Specialization :

• Private Financing
• IPO
• Bond Loan
• Bank Credit
• Acquisition of Companies
• Acquisition of Airplanes
• Acquisition of Boats
• Mergers
• Advise
• Company
• Financial Writing
• Intermediation
• Building Permits
• Patent
• Creation of Companies
• Due Diligence
• Financial Expertise

Mr. Deschenaux has received several noteworthy accolades for his professional work. In 1999, he was elected to the International Who’s Who of Professionals, and in 2003 he was invited by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to speak at the 22nd Annual Government Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation. He has been the treasurer, and a judge-mediator, at the International Court of Mediation and Arbitration (CIMEDA) from 2012 to 2020. He is now an Ambassador of the African Court of Mediation and Arbitration (CAMAR).

Mr. Deschenaux and his firms Deschenaux Hornblower & Partners LLP achieved “International Advisory Experts Award Winner 2020”, “Worldwide Financial Advisor Awards 2020”, “Law Awards 2019” of ACQ5, Switzerland on 5 category- “Corporate Lawyer of the Year”, “Corporate Law Firm of the Year”, “Private Equity and Initial Public Law Firm of the Year”, “Venture Capital Lawyer of the Year”, “Venture Capital Law Firm of the Year”, “Best Securities Law Firm 2019” of Legal 100, “International Advisory Experts Award Winner 2019”, “Corporate LiveWire 2019 Global Awards Winner”, “Corporate USA Today, Annual Awards Winner 2019”, “Advisory Excellence 2018”, “Most Innovative Law Firm of the Year 2016 – Switzerland” of AI (acquisition international)., “Global Law Experts Recommend Firm” and many more.

Mr. Deschenaux and his company Deschenaux Hornblower & Partners are members of the following professional and non-profit organizations:

• Member of the Global Law Experts in Private Equity & Initial Public Offerings
• Member of the International Association of Business Lawyers
• Member of the International Association of Economic Law
• Member of the Swiss Society of Jurists
• Member of the Circle of Business Leaders
• Member of the Hive Global Leaders
• Member of International Experts Order recognized by the United Nations.
• Member of ORDINEX – The International Organization of Experts
• Lifetime Member of the Geneva Law & Legislation Society
• Member of the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers
• Member of the Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association (SECA)
• Member of the Aero Club of Geneva and of the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association
• Former Member of the NASD North American Securities Dealers

Mr. Deschenaux is a native French speaker, and is also able to carry out high level negotiations in English and Italian. He has also knowledge of several additional languages, including German and Arabic. His Chinese is in progress.

Today Mr. Deschenaux is a self-described “man of action” who applies the lessons he has learned in a lifetime of entrepreneurship for the benefit of his clients. One of these lessons is that litigation always represents a failure that could be avoided with proper counsel*. Another is that without failure there can be no success. When clients hire Mr. Deschenaux, they know they have engaged someone who has experienced both success and failure. They know they are speaking with someone who not only understands risk taking and risk management, but also is skilled at giving valuable advice that, if heeded, will lead to business success.

Marc Deschenaux also known as “The Eagle of Wall Street” is a world renowned expert in Corporate Finance from private offerings to Initial Public Offerings (IPO’s). He raised private and public, equity and debt, for companies and governments internationally. Marc Deschenaux is the inventor of the first Charity IPO in History of mankind.