Charles Prast

Charles Prast
Born	Charles William Prast Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Residence	Barcelona, Spain, Cyprus
Nationality	Anglo-American
Alma mater	Bates College
Occupation	President & CEO of Private Media Group Corporate financier for Commerzbank
Years active	1989-present
Board member of	Milestone Capital Partners CPZ Partners

Charles William Prast (born 1966) is an Anglo American media investor and investment banker. He is the president and CEO of Private Media Group, assuming office on 2012. Previous to moving to Private Media, Prast was a corporate financier with Commerzbank Securities based in London. He was interim CEO of the firm from May 2002 until November 2003.

Charles William Prast was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States. He attended Greens Farms Academy in Greens Farms, Connecticut and double majored in Economics and French at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

Shortly after graduation from college, Prast began his financial career with Dean Witter Reynolds in Paris France where, at 21, he was appointed as Operations Manager of their Paris branch. In 1989, Prast moved to Drexel Burnham Lambert’s Paris office as an Associate Director. Following Drexel Burnham’s closure in 1990, Prast and several colleagues co-founded a hybrid asset management and institutional equity sales operation for Legg Mason and Banamex in Paris.

In 1993, Prast moved to London to join former colleagues from Drexel Burnham Lambert who had created NatWest Markets USA, the US broker dealer and investment banking arm of National Westminster Bank. In 1997 Prast left NatWest to join Furman Selz’s London office as a Director and equity holder. Shortly after his joining, Furman Selz agreed to be acquired by Dutch banking giant ING Group for $600 million and was integrated into ING Barings, ING Group’s investment banking arm.

At the end of his buy-out related contact, Prast left ING Barings to join Commerzbank AG in London where he helped build the media banking group and played a key role in raising over $1bn in equity and equity-linked financing for US and European interactive entertainment companies including Ubisoft SA. Building on Commerzbank’s successful IPO of $300m European erotic retailer Beate Uhse AG, Prast also began to provide investment banking services to adult entertainment companies, believing that the Internet would become a disruptive technology for adult content providers and create challenges that would require consolidation and capital.

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