Axel A. Weber

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Axel A. Weber (2014)

Axel Alfred Weber (born March 8, 1957 in Kusel ) is a German economist , professor and bank manager, and since May 3, 2012 Chairman of the Board of Directors of the major Swiss bank UBS Group AG . He is also a member of the Group of Thirty . As President of the Deutsche Bundesbank from April 30, 2004 to April 30, 2011, Axel A. Weber was one of the key figures during the euro crisis , when the danger of the European Economic and Monetary Union threatened to break up .

education

In 1976 Weber began studying economics and administration at the University of Konstanz , which he completed with a diploma in economics in 1982.

In the following six years (from 1982 to 1988) Weber worked as a research assistant at the “Money and Currency” chair at the University of Siegen and obtained his doctorate in 1987. rer. pole. In 1988 he worked as a visiting professor at Queen Mary College of the University of London and at the Center for Economic Research of the Katholieke Universiteit Brabant in Tilburg .

After his return in 1989 he became a research assistant in the economics department in Siegen .

Career

Chair and expert work

After completing his habilitation at the University of Siegen , he took the chair for economic theory at the University of Bonn in 1994 and switched to the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main in 1998 . From 2001 to 2004 he held a chair for international economics at the University of Cologne . Axel A. Weber was a member of the University Council of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the University of Siegen.

From 2002 to 2004 Weber was a member of the Expert Council for the Assessment of Overall Economic Development (Council of Economic Wise Men ) . He has also been a member of the Deutsche Bundesbank's Committee of Experts since October 2002 and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) .

President of the Deutsche Bundesbank

In April 2004, the non-party Weber was appointed as the new President of the Deutsche Bundesbank as the successor to the resigned Ernst Welteke at the suggestion of Federal Finance Minister Hans Eichel . The election met with a positive response from the public, including business representatives and opposition politicians. With his appointment as President of the Bundesbank, Weber resigned from the Advisory Council, since the members of the Council are not allowed to belong to a ( legislative ) federal body or to the public service (exception: university lecturers, research institutes).

From 2004 to 2011 Weber was a member of the Council of the European Central Bank , a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, Governor of the International Monetary Fund for Germany and a member of the G7 and G20 Ministers and Governors.

Role in the banking crisis

After the crisis on the US subprime market ( subprime crisis ), a banking and financial crisis began in the summer of 2007 . On August 2, 2007, three days after the massive problems at IKB Deutsche Industriebank became known , the Bundesbank published the following statement as a "press release ":

  1. Fears about a banking crisis in Germany are completely unfounded. IKB's problems are of an institute-specific nature. They were effectively absorbed by the assistance of KfW .
  2. The involvement of German credit institutions in the American real estate market is manageable and limited overall. It focuses on investments with high credit ratings .
  3. The comparison of the current economic situation with the banking crisis of 1931 , made in some media reports, is completely absurd .

Weber was later criticized for this from many sides, because as a result, there were definitely "rescue operations" for German banks, such as IKB Deutsche Industriebank , Sachsen LB , WestLB , Hypo Real Estate (HRE) and Commerzbank .

resignation

In February 2011 Weber announced his resignation on April 30, 2011 - one year before the end of his regular term of office. Jens Weidmann was his successor as President of the Bundesbank . This step took place in the middle of the poker game to succeed the outgoing ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet . Until then, Weber was unofficially a candidate for Chancellor Angela Merkel for the office of ECB President. Mario Draghi , a former Vice President of Goldman Sachs , became President of the ECB in November 2011 instead of Weber . The reasons for Weber's sudden resignation were not disclosed to the public.

In December 2013, Weber said in a “Zeit” interview that he had resigned because he had not agreed with the new monetary policy in Europe and had to represent resolutions that he had not considered appropriate. At the same time, ECB President Draghi called German concerns about the consequences of the euro bailout policy “ perverse fear ” in an interview with “Spiegel ”.

Further career

Weber initially taught and researched for a year as a visiting professor at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago .

On May 3, 2012, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the major Swiss bank UBS , where he replaced Kaspar Villiger . He received an initial bonus of a good four million Swiss francs in cash and shares. His predecessor stated that the payment also had to do with the fact that Weber had waived the usual Swiss pension payments "in the millions" and was willing to sign a one-year contract, which is not the norm in Germany.

Weber has also been Chairman of the Governance and Nominating Committee since 2012 and Chairman of the Corporate Culture and Responsibility Committee since 2013 . In November 2014 he was elected to the UBS Group AG Board of Directors and is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of UBS AG and UBS Group AG.

Activities and vested interests

Weber has been a member of the European Financial Services Roundtable since 2012. At the beginning of 2013, he became a member of the Group of Thirty in Washington, DC. In November of the same year, Axel Weber was elected to the Board of Directors of the Swiss Finance Council (SFC), a newly founded lobby organization of UBS and Credit Suisse . SFC has a branch in Brussels .

Weber has been a board member of the Swiss Bankers Association since 2014 . He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Avenir Suisse and the Advisory Board of the Institute for Economics at the University of Zurich. He has also been Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute of International Finance since October 2016 and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) since November 2016 .

Axel A. Weber holds other mandates:

  • Member of the Advisory Board for the Future of the Financial Center
  • Member of the European Banking Group
  • Member of the International Advisory Panel of the Monetary Authority of Singapore
  • Member of the advisory board of the Institute for Economics at the University of Zurich
  • Member of the Trilateral Commission

Awards

  • 2009 honorary doctorate from the University of Konstanz.

literature

Web links

Commons : Axel A. Weber  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Axel A. Weber. In: munziger.de. Munziger-Archiv GmbH, accessed on February 25, 2017 .
  2. ↑ NZZ Conference: Networking Guide: Swiss International Finance Forum 2015, p. 19.
  3. ↑ Bundesbank press release of August 2, 2007 (PDF)
  4. ↑ Government spokesman : Weber is leaving office on April 30th
  5. ↑ Chancellor Merkel - policy competence? Nothing! , Handelsblatt February 11, 2011
  6. ↑ "We were in constant use" , Die Zeit, December 29, 2013 (p. 32)
  7. ↑ Der Spiegel 1/2014 (p. 20ff.): "This perverse fear"
  8. ↑ Senior Fellow Axel Weber IFK-CFS , December 30, 2015.
  9. ↑ 99 percent shareholder votes - Axel Weber with brilliant result on UBS , Basler Zeitung, May 3, 2012
  10. ↑ handelsblatt.com: Inaugural bonus for Weber in the criticism
  11. ^ European Financial Services Round Table , accessed August 30, 2015.
  12. ↑ Mario Draghi's secretive friends focus.de. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  13. ^ SFC About Us Swiss Finance Council. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  14. ↑ Pillar in Brussels: UBS and Credit Suisse found Swiss Finance Council , nzz.ch on November 28, 2013.
  15. ↑ Big bank presidents influence the banking association finews.ch. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  16. ↑ avenir suisse> Organe ( memento from 23 September 2015 in the Internet Archive ), avenir suisse, accessed on 30 August 2015
  17. ↑ UBS Global Topics , accessed on November 25, 2015
  18. ↑ IIF Board elects Axel A. Weber as New Chairman , IIF, accessed on November 2 2016th
  19. ↑ CV Axel Weber
  20. ↑ WIWI: Honorary doctorates. In: www.wiwi.uni-due.de. Retrieved September 10, 2016 .
  21. ↑ Press release of the University of Konstanz ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on April 18, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Weber, Axel A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weber, Axel Alfred (full name); Weber, Axel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bank manager; President of the Deutsche Bundesbank (2004–2011)
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Kusel