Stephan Leithner

Stephan Leithner
Stephan Leithner in 2021
Stephan Leithner in 2021
Born1966 (age 59–60)
Innsbruck, Austria
EducationUniversity of St. Gallen (Ph.D.)
OccupationBanker
Known forCEO of German stock exchange, the Deutsche Börse AG
Children3

Stephan Leithner (born 15 May 1966 in Innsbruck) is an Austrian business executive. He became a member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Börse AG in 2018 and its CEO on 1 January 2025.[1]

Early life and education

Stephan Leithner studied at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) from 1985 to 1989 and received his Ph.D. in Finance in 1992.[2]

Career

He began his professional career as a research assistant at the Swiss Institute of Banking and Finance in St. Gallen (Switzerland). In 1992, Stephan Leithner joined the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company and worked in Frankfurt (Germany), New York (USA) and Munich (Germany), becoming a partner in 1997.[3] From 2000 to 2015, he worked for Deutsche Bank AG. In addition to management positions in Global Banking, he was Global Head Corporate Finance from 2010 to 2012 and was appointed to the Management Board of Deutsche Bank AG in 2012.[4] In 2016, he moved to Munich (Germany) to join the Swedish financial investor EQT Partners GmbH as a Partner (Private Equity).[5]

Since 2018, Leithner has been a member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Börse AG, where he was responsible for Pre- and Post-Trading until June 2024. In March 2024, he was appointed Deputy CEO. From June until the end of 2024, he headed the Investment Management Solutions segment. In October 2024, Stephan Leithner was appointed Co-CEO of Deutsche Börse AG and, together with his predecessor Theodor Weimer, led the company in this position until the end of 2024.[6] Since 1 January 2025, Stephan Leithner is the CEO of Deutsche Börse AG.[7]

Project Santorini

From 2012 to 2015, Leithner served as a member of Deutsche Bank's Management Board, with responsibility for Regulatory Affairs, among other functions.[8]

During that period, Deutsche Bank became involved in a controversy arising from structured financing transactions it had executed in 2008 with Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), known internally as "Santorini." Following regulatory pressure from the US Federal Reserve and Germany's BaFin over its balance sheet treatment, Deutsche Bank's Management Board resolved in October 2013 to restate the transactions, reclassifying them from loans to derivatives. As the Management Board member responsible for Regulatory Affairs, Leithner was involved in communications with BaFin during this period. According to Der Spiegel, which obtained the statement of claim in subsequent litigation, Leithner jointly signed a letter to BaFin with Deutsche Bank's CFO on 6 September 2013 — 46 days before the restatement — confirming the accounting treatment of the Santorini transactions as correct and in accordance with applicable standards.[9]

A BaFin-commissioned special audit concluded in late 2014 found that Deutsche Bank had provided regulators with "several false statements" between April 2012 and August 2013, and attributed shared responsibility to Deutsche Bank's legal department, Finance department, and Internal Audit department. The report identified Leithner's legal department as bearing primary responsibility for the bank's handling of the matter during that period.[9]

In November 2019, six former Deutsche Bank employees were convicted by the Milan Court of First Instance in connection with the Santorini transactions, receiving sentences of up to four years and eight months' imprisonment for abetting false accounting and market manipulation, although none served jail time pending appeal. In May 2022, the Milan Court of Appeal acquitted all six completely, finding that the prosecution had been substantially built on Deutsche Bank's internal audit report. The Italian Supreme Court confirmed the acquittals in October 2023.[10]

Civil proceedings arising from the matter are ongoing. In October 2025, four former Deutsche Bank employees filed a claim in the High Court of Justice in London (case CL-2025-000448) seeking in excess of £700 million in damages. Leithner, now CEO of Deutsche Börse AG, is named as a defendant in those proceedings alongside Deutsche Bank and its current CEO Christian Sewing, in his capacity as a former Management Board member. Bloomberg reported that Leithner, Sewing and former CFO Stefan Krause are among those named as individuals whose alleged misconduct led to the claimants' losses.[11][12]

A spokesperson for Deutsche Börse referred questions about the litigation to Deutsche Bank and declined to comment. Deutsche Bank has stated that it considers all such claims to be "entirely without merit" and will defend itself robustly.[11]

References

  1. ^ "WirtschaftsWoche". www.wiwo.de. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  2. ^ "Stephan Leithner - Munzinger Biographie". www.munzinger.de. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  3. ^ "Stephan Leithner - DBOEF | Deutsche Boerse AG - Wall Street Journal". www.wsj.com. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  4. ^ "Neuer Personalchef der Deutschen Bank: Stephan Leithner - der natürliche Aufsteiger". FAZ.NET (in German). 2012-03-08. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  5. ^ "Stephan Leithner wird Partner bei EQT". eqtgroup.com. 2015-10-19. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
  6. ^ "Dr. Stephan Leithner wird Vorstandsvorsitzender". BÖRSE am Sonntag (in German). 2024-03-19. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  7. ^ "Stephan Leithner führt Deutsche Börse". www.merkur.de (in German). 2025-01-01. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  8. ^ "Stephan Leithner to become new Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Börse AG". Deutsche Börse AG. 8 March 2024.
  9. ^ a b Bartz, Tim; Hesse, Martin; Wess, Sara (11 July 2025). "Deutsche Bank CEO Sewing Facing Questions as Lawsuits Loom". Der Spiegel.
  10. ^ Müller, Florian; Storbeck, Olaf; Foy, Simon; Sciorilli Borrelli, Silvia (16 July 2025). "How a decade-old Italian scandal landed at door of Deutsche Bank's CEO". Financial Times.
  11. ^ a b "Ex-Deutsche Bank Manager Sues Bank for at Least $624 Million". Bloomberg. 31 March 2026.
  12. ^ Sims, Tom; Inverardi, Matthias (12 March 2026). "Former Deutsche Bank employees seek $800 million in damages in Monte dei Paschi case". Reuters.

Leithner is a member of the board of trustees of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management gGmbH[1] and the board of trustees of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.[2]

Personal life

Stephan Leithner is married and has three children.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ "Frankfurt School of Finance & Management gGmbH". www.frankfurt-school.de. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  2. ^ "Freunde der Schirn". freunde.schirn.de. Retrieved 2025-01-07.

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