Top boss tangle
July 25, 2011
The boardroom battle over who should replace Josef Ackermann when he steps down as CEO of Deutsche Bank is over. Starting in May 2012, Anshu Jain - the current head of investment banking - will pair up with regional management chief Jürgen Fitschen in a joint leadership arrangement.
The dual structure could help Jain, who was born in India, overcome what observers say is his chief professional handicap: his lack of German language skills.
Jain, 48, joined Deutsche Bank in 1995 and has served on its management board since 2009. He has a BA in Economics from Delhi University and an MBA in Finance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank he worked for Merrill Lynch in New York and served as an advisor to the Indian government.
Messy transition
Jain emerged as a front-runner for the top job after former Bundesbank chief Axel Weber, who was widely tipped to succeed Ackermann, announced earlier this month that he would accept a post at Swiss lender UBS instead.
The German financial newspaper Handelsblatt blamed the chairman of Deutsche Bank's supervisory board, Clemens Börsig, for failing to guide Weber to Deutsche Bank. It reported Ackermann had specifically requested that Börsig arrange for Weber to succeed him - something that was believed to be a done deal.
According to the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Börsig is preparing to step down from the supervisory board in May 2012, making way for Ackermann himself to segue into that role. The timing is in line with the bank's next shareholder's meeting.
This is despite previous statements from Ackermann on previous occasions dating back to 2007 that he did not intend to lead the bank's supervisory board, and that he would in fact be ill-suited for the role. In January he announced he planned to retire in 2013, when he turns 65 and his current contract expires.
Big shoes to fill
After becoming Deutsche Bank's first non-German head in 2006, Swiss-born Ackermann shifted the company's focus from private customers to large, lucrative clients, offloading the bank's industrial holdings and some 20,000 employees along the way.
He has been credited with increasing profitability and guiding the company through the financial crisis relatively unscathed.
Under Ackermann's leadership, Deutsche Bank refused a government bailout in 2008. At the time he angered some observers by saying he would "be ashamed if (Deutsche Bank) were to take state money during this crisis."
While his strategies and rhetoric have often made him unpopular in the media, the charismatic banker has maintained close connections to Chancellor Angela Merkel and other politicians. His comments on the European bailout of Greece have been widely reported and closely watched.
Author: Gerhard Schneibel (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Sam Edmonds