Those who describe Josef Ackermann as “combative” will not be surprised to learn that the Swiss-born chief executive of Deutsche Bank was once urged to take up a full-time military career.
Mr Ackermann — against whom German prosecutors yesterday agreed to drop charges in his retrial over bonuses at Mannesmann in return for a €3.2 million settlement — distinguished himself in the Swiss army, in which he was the highest- ranking reservist officer in his regiment. Mr Ackermann, 58, who was instead drawn to investment banking, first at Credit Suisse, and for the past ten years at Deutsche, has still had need of martial skills.
He has been pilloried for injecting Anglo Saxon-style capitalism into the 136-year old Frankfurt institution, in which he has unwound its web of cross-shareholdings in German industry, slimmed down its board and shed nearly a quarter of its payroll. Many say that his next task may be to defend Deutsche from a foreign predator.