10 On The Weekend is a weekly (-ish) feature in IMI, the concept of which is simple: Each time, we ask the same ten questions of a different IMI Pro, letting readers get to know the interviewee on a more personal and informal level than they might during the ordinary course of business.
Our guest this week is Eva Maria Kullmann CEO and Co-Founder of Ancova Capital
How do you spend your weekends?
We are a very active and slightly workaholic family.
In winter, you’ll find me skiing, either on a mountain or, if we’re in Dubai, at Ski Dubai in Emirates Mall. Otherwise, it’s usually tennis, riding, or any sport that keeps me moving. I genuinely enjoy being active and pushing myself physically.
That said, even on a long walk, my head never really switches off. It’s constantly building, restructuring, optimizing. I find business architecture almost therapeutic. Understanding how things work, identifying inefficiencies, and figuring out how to elevate them to the next level – that’s actually my hobby.
Some people garden. I restructure companies.
What are your top three business goals this year?
My three goals are:
1. Position Ancova as the leading independent wealth advisory and investment management platform for internationally minded families.
2. Continue building a seamless ecosystem where finance meets lifestyle – what I call “fun and finance” – combining institutional-grade reliability with agility and creativity.
3. Scale our regulated investment platform and global structuring services while maintaining the boutique precision that defines us.
Growth is important. But reputation is everything.
What’s your biggest business concern right now?
The normalization of unqualified advice.
There are exceptional firms in our industry – but there is also a growing lack of ethics and fairness. We regularly see clients who have paid excessive fees for inadequate structures or poorly designed solutions. Sometimes it genuinely feels like daylight robbery.
Of course, professionals should be paid well for value delivered. But fairness must come before profit. Integrity must come before speed.
Our philosophy is simple: If the structure isn’t something I would implement for my own family, we don’t recommend it.
Which book is on your nightstand right now?
A slightly unusual combination: The Art of War and Transurfing Reality.
One sharpens strategic thinking and competitive positioning. The other challenges perspective and mindset. I enjoy reading across disciplines – strategy, macro shifts, psychology – because business isn’t one-dimensional.
Building sustainable institutions requires both structure and imagination.
How and when did you first get into the investment migration industry?
Finance was always part of my environment. My uncle built one of the largest asset management firms in the 1990s in New York, during a defining era for institutional investing, and my father was a fourth-generation entrepreneur.
I grew up around capital allocation conversations and strategic business thinking.
I initially served as Managing Director within our family office structure, overseeing operations and strategic investments. Over time, I decided not just to manage capital – but to co-invest and build alongside our partners. That step led me to become a co-founder and principal within the investment platform.
In 2017, we formalized and expanded the structure. What began as a private family office evolved into what is now Ancova Group – a DIFC-headquartered, Cayman-domiciled platform integrating investment management, global structuring, real estate portfolio advisory, and a private members ecosystem.
The vision was simple: Give sophisticated families access to institutional-level infrastructure, without institutional bureaucracy.
What was your proudest moment as a service provider?
Seeing our fund recognized after building a three-year track record and delivering 28% performance last year was certainly a milestone.
But personally, the proudest moments are when clients message me saying our team solved something complex, efficiently, and fairly – and made them feel protected.
I’m extremely proud of the people in our organization. They are intelligent, hardworking, and genuinely care. When clients recognize that, it means more than any award.
Which investment migration market development has surprised you the most in the last year?
The rise of social media personalities positioning themselves as financial authorities.
I enjoy financial content online myself. But structuring wealth, mobility, and cross-border planning requires depth, regulatory awareness, and a 360-degree perspective. What seems simple in a short video can become very complicated in reality.
Visibility is not the same as qualification.
If you could go ten years back in time, what business decision would you change?
I would have entered finance earlier.
After my studies, I explored more creative paths for a few years because I thought finance was “too dry.” Ironically, I later discovered it is one of the most dynamic industries imaginable – you’re exposed to energy, real estate, tech, geopolitics, family governance – all through the lens of capital.
Now I get to combine creativity with structure. So perhaps that detour wasn’t a mistake after all.
What investment migration industry personality do you most admire?
I admire those who elevate standards quietly.
The leaders who focus on compliance, long-term thinking, and sustainable frameworks rather than headlines. The industry doesn’t need more volume – it needs more credibility.
If all goes according to plan, what will you be doing five years from now?
Scaling Ancova into a globally recognized independent wealth ecosystem – where investment management, structuring, mobility, and private access operate seamlessly under one architecture.
With Ancova Société Privée, we are now touching nearly every pain point sophisticated families face. The next step is refinement, scale, and global depth.
Personally, I see myself increasingly focused on knowledge transfer and strategic transformation.
I’m already a guest lecturer at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, teaching board members and senior executives. Over the next five years, I’d like to expand that – sharing unconventional strategic thinking with leaders who want to build institutions, not just companies.
Beyond finance, I would love to build a high-performance consultancy team – a “power unit” that enters industries, dissects inefficiencies, and elevates businesses to their next level.
Whether it’s a financial institution or a small independent business, the principles are the same: structure, clarity, positioning, efficiency, and intelligent capital allocation.
Transformation excites me.
If all goes well, I’ll still be building – just on an even broader canvas.
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