Credentials

Christoph Rommel

Founder & Managing Principal

Major Accomplishments

With over 30 years of relevant experience taking Christoph from apprenticeship to board level, he has held a number of diverse roles in Corporate & Investment Banking as well as in Private Wealth & Institutional Asset Management in Europe and in Asia/Pacific.

During his professional career, he built a proven and substantial track record in various aspects of the financial industry. This experience includes:

  • 25+ years as international senior executive banker in Europe and Asia;

  • Lending to private and public sector borrowers across a wide range of industries;

  • 10 years of sector focus on and exposure to Infrastructure, Transportation, Logistics and Renewable Energy;

  • Dealing with public and private shareholders/financial investors (LPs);

  • Dealing with several major crisis situations in Global Markets such as the Japanese RE bubble (1990), European dot-com bubble (2000), Lehman/Global Markets collapse (2008/9) and European Sovereign Debt crisis (2010);

  • Being a proprietary investor & entrepreneur in unlimited personal liability for a balance sheet of about EUR 2 bio;

  • Being incremental in the significant proprietary M&A process, selling Delbruck & Co to ABN AMRO;

  • IR, Sales, Risk & Compliance Management based upon strongest personal integrity and a commitment to highest ethical standards, while at the same time being always origination focused/sales-driven;

  • Extensive exposure on international level to relationship development & management in origination and distribution with C level senior executives, entrepreneurs, government officials and regulatory bodies;

  • Being a leader and change manager in Managing General Partner and CEO roles, accountable for highly qualified professionals in multicultural, result-oriented organisations;

  • Strong cross-cultural and interpersonal skills and a convinced team player with good communication and consultation skills, being used to matrix organisations with collective decision-making processes;

  • Special strength in terms of strategic thinking and execution/implementation of long- term strategies;

  • Being a passionate 'European citizen' and ‘old-school banker’ with a truly global and entrepreneurial mind, committed to and passionate about building bridges between Europe, Asia and Africa.

Biography

Christoph began his banking career in 1980 with Bayerische Vereinsbank Group, Munich where he was initially responsible for corporate clients in Augsburg Branch from 1983 – 1989. From 1990 - 1992 he was posted to Japan as Senior Manager Corporate & Investment Banking, Tokyo Branch. Between 1993 and 1996 he was based in Milan Branch as CEO & Country Head Italy. Beginning of 1997 Christoph was transferred to London Branch as CEO & General Manager CIB UK.

In mid-1999, after a 20 years in-house career from Apprenticeship to Managing Director level, Christoph returned to Germany and joined Delbrück & Co Privatbankiers, Berlin/Cologne, as a Managing General Partner and became a true "Privat-Bankier" and entrepreneur in unlimited personal liability in one of Europe's oldest private banks (founded in 1712).

In January 2003 - in the context of ABN AMRO’s acquisition of Delbrück- he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the new Delbrück AG, Frankfurt aM. After the successful acquisition and integration of another private bank, Bethmann-Maffei, Christoph left ABN AMRO Group by end of 2005 and returned to Asia.

From 2006 - 2012 he served as Regional Head Asia Pacific & CEO Singapore Branch of one of Germany’s largest lenders and chaired the bank's entire business activities and network in the Asia-Pacific region with offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Hanoi and Mumbai.

After a brief tenure in 2013 as Group-CEO of a Singapore based Alternative Asset Management firm, Christoph returned again to Europe and founded in Milan the Merchant Banking Advisory platform “VdD Consult” and in early 2016, he / VdD Consult became a partner in LANCEA LLP, a London based, independent and FCA regulated Investment banking firm.

From 2018-22 Christoph served 5 years as “Senior Advisor Treasury & M&A” to IGES Group, Berlin and in spring 2023 he was appointed to the Advisory Board of CheMin Group, Augsburg.

Christoph (German citizen, Italian PR, ex-Singapore PR) is a graduated apprenticeship-banker who studied Business Economics in vocational school in Germany (Augsburg). He is married and the father of three children