Dual transformation of economy and society

ESMT Open Lecture with Stefan B. Wintels, KfW Bank  
February 8, 2024, at 6 p.m. 
ESMT Berlin, Schlossplatz 1, 10178 Berlin   

This event will take place in person and online. To attend the event on campus, please use the registration form below. To attend the event online, please register here.

We are in a “decade of decision.” Our actions will have enormous consequences for future generations and will determine how they will live. In this decade, we must accelerate the transition to a sustainable society while strengthening both Germany and Europe as an industrial and technology location.  

However, the starting point is anything but simple. The current economic situation is marked by high uncertainty and obstacles to growth, companies’ propensity to invest is subdued, and public investments are lagging.

Yet, the decade of decision is above all also a decade of investments. Three levers will hence be decisive in achieving the goals in this decade: mobilization of private capital, increasing the impact of our actions, and strengthening cooperations worldwide.  

In this ESMT Open Lecture, Stefan B. Wintels will discuss these aspects as well as KfW’s role in enabling people and companies to embrace responsibility for this vital transformation. 

Speaker:

Stefan B. Wintels, Chief Executive Officer, KfW Bankengruppe 

Stefan Wintels has been CEO of KfW since November 2021. He joined KfW as co-CEO in October 2021. 

Prior to joining KfW, Wintels worked at Citigroup for 20 years (2001-2021) in various leadership roles. Most recently, he was the global co-head, Financial Institutions Group and a member of the global executive committee of the banking capital markets & advisory division. He was also vice chair of Citigroup in Germany, chief country officer for Germany, as well as CEO of Citigroup Global Markets Europe AG until March 2020. 

Stefan Wintels began his professional career in 1994 at Deutsche Bank AG (1994-2001) and left as managing director of Deutsche Bank’s corporate development/group strategy department. 

He received a master’s degree in businesss administration from the Technische Universität Berlin and participated in a 2nd year MBA program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 

Stefan Wintels is also chair of the supervisory board of KfW Capital GmbH & Co. KG and a member of the supervisory boards of Deutsche Telekom AG and DHL Group.  

Stefan Wintels lives in Frankfurt with his wife and their four children.

Moderator:

Olga Almqvist, Senior Manager, Societal Impact Financing Initiative (SciFi)   

Olga Almqvist is the senior manager of ESMT’s Societal Impact Financing Initiative (SciFi). In this role, she curates ideas to finance a sustainable and inclusive society through cross-sector collaboration. Prior to joining ESMT, she worked in public sector consulting, evaluating the impact of international development cooperation. Olga holds a master in international public management from Sciences Po Paris and an executive MBA from ESMT Berlin.