Thomas R. Fischer

Thomas Richard Fischer (born October 6, 1947 in Berlin ) is a German bank manager and was CEO of WestLB from January 2004 to July 2007 .

Fischer studied economics at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau . After receiving his doctorate in 1981, he worked at VARTA Batterie AG in Hanover until 1985 . He then held various positions at Deutsche Bank , for example in 1991/1992 as managing director of Deutsche Immobilien Anlagegesellschaft mbH.

In 1995 he was appointed to the board of the Landesgirokasse Stuttgart , whose chairmanship he took over on October 1, 1996 after Walther Zügel left the company. He led the Landesgirokasse in the merger to form Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW). Because Fischer did not agree with the planned management model of LBBW, he left the board of the Landesgirokasse at the end of 1998 and became a member of the board of Deutsche Bank on January 1, 1999. Fischer was to serve as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Risk Officer (CRO) on Deutsche Bank's Group Executive Committee, which was founded in 2002 . However, he did not agree with this management structure and the resulting strengthening of the position of CEO and left the bank in January 2002. In May 2002, Josef Ackermann took over the post of CEO from his predecessor Rolf-E. Breuer .

In January 2004, Fischer was appointed CEO of WestLB in Düsseldorf . After considerable write-downs in 2007, Fischer and the entire WestLB board were accused of serious errors in risk control. The criticism related, among other things, to failed speculations. WestLB was speculating on a decline in the difference between the ordinary shares and the preference shares of BMW, Metro and Volkswagen shares. This resulted in losses of 600 million euros. As a result of the crisis in 2006, the painting was self-portrait at the hotel by Max Beckmann sold for 13.9 million euros far below value, which caused another scandal. In July 2007, Fischer was dismissed from the board. His successor was Alexander Stuhlmann .

When he left WestLB, Fischer also had to give up his office as President of the Association of German Public Banks (VÖB) , which he had held since November 2004. He initially retained his position as chairman of the supervisory board of RWE AG, but resigned it on April 30, 2009 and was only a simple member of the supervisory board. On January 31, 2010, he finally resigned from the Supervisory Board.

Thomas R. Fischer was 2nd Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale and member of the Board of Directors of Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank until August 2, 2007 .

literature

• Barbara Nolte, Jan Heidtmann: The one up there. Interior views from German executive floors. , Suhrkamp-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-518-12599-1 , p. 61 ff.

Individual evidence

1. ^ WestLB supervisory board wants to dismiss entire management board Spiegel Online, July 24, 2007
2. ↑ http://www.berliner-kurier.de/news/gemaelde-unter-wert-verscherbelt--finanz-skandal-um-dieses-kunstwerk-344516
3. ↑ RWE press release of May 1, 2009

Web links

• Literature by and about Thomas R. Fischer in the catalog of the German National Library