Career path:

  • Vocational training as a bank clerk at Dresdner Bank
  • Studied law, history and philosophy at Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, completing a legal qualification in Bavaria
  • History, philosophy and languages at Kalamazoo College (Michigan, US)
  • French and legal studies at the Université de Lausanne (Switzerland)
  • International Law at the London School of Economics (UK)
  • French at the Université de Lyon II (France)
  • A Master of Business Administration at Bradford University (UK), focusing on strategy and organisational psychology
  • Management training scheme with Insead, Fontainebleau (France)
  • Management training scheme with IMD, Lausanne (Switzerland)

  • Trainee at Dresdner Bank
  • Project team member in the international business division at Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt
  • Risk manager, The Commercial Bank of Namibia, Windhuk
  • Corporate client advisor at Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt
  • Deputy team leader for corporate clients at Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt
  • Project collaborator for the integration of Allianz and Dresdner Bank
  • Head of the corporate clients section Düsseldorf-Duisburg, Dresdner Bank
  • Regional head of corporate client services (Hesse) at Commerzbank in Frankfurt
  • Divisional director (covering northern Germany) for large corporations, also for Scandinavia and for the Centre of Expertise covering Global Renewable Energy Finance at Commerzbank in Hamburg
  • Member of the board of directors of Norddeutsche Landesbank from 2017 to 2021. Responsible at various times for corporate banking, structured financing (particularly in the fields of renewable energy, aviation and marine financing), treasury and capital markets, as well as the US branch office. Deputy chair of the supervisory board of the property development arm Deutsche Hypo, as well as sitting at times on supervisory committeees at the Bremer Landesbank until its integration.
  • Seven assessment centre participations (three of which were led by Egon Zehnder) between 1995 and 2016.

  • Training in credit and loans policy at Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt
  • Risk manager in Windhuk, Namibia
  • Projekt activities at Dresdner Bank in collaboration with the Banque Nationale de Paris in Istanbul
  • Restructuring of the corporate clients division of Dresdner Bank, 1997
  • Purchase of Dresdner Bank by Allianz and the subsequent project phase, 2001/2002
  • Restructuring of the corporate clients division of Dresdner Bank, 2003
  • Purchase of Dresdner Bank by Commerzbank and
  • Subsequent integration phase against the backdrop of the global financial crisis, from 2008
  • Further restructuring at Commerzbank between 2010 and 2016
  • Head of a strategic personnel and leadership concept for the corporate clients division of Commerzbank, 2012
  • Strategic readjustment in the financing of renewable energy at Commerzbank under my management, 2013
  • Integration of Bremer Landesbank into Norddeutsche Landesbank, 2017
  • Multi-year process of capital increase at Norddeutsche Landesbank alongside a root-and-branch restructuring of the entire concern
  • Governing board member responsible for the treasury of Norddeutsche Landesbank during the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath, from Spring 2020

As a committed francophile, I was especially pleased to accept the duties of honorary French consul in Hanover.

As I was primarily responsible for sales functions, this involved around 2000 client visits and meetings – mainly in Germany but also further afield, across Europe as well as in Africa, the US and Asia.

 Above all, what has always mattered to be, and still matters, is honest dialogue between equals – a dialogue with all those I encounter. 

“To understand another person's thoughts and feelings thoroughly, with the meanings they have for him, and to be thoroughly understood by this other person in return -this is one of the most rewarding of human experiences, and all too rare.”
Carl Rogers

For Carl Rogers, one of the most fulfilling experiences is to truly understand another person and to be truly understood by that person in turn.

But there’s also been – and still is – a private Günter Tallner, who has always sought and found a strong connection to his professional alter ego. A manager and supervisor for many years, to whose support I owe a great deal, once told me that I have such a good work–life balance that I'm not really aware of how much of it I have. I strive very hard to achieve this.

The private Günter Tallner indulges his passion, with varying intensity, for absorbing a huge variety of information, covering (jazz) music to sports cycling, from cooking to cuisine to culture, in every imaginable form. And he loves to experience all this with his wife.

And perhaps because it’s not so easy to discern – looking at all these lists – what really lies behind this “Günter Tallner” character and the photo on this website, I’d like to present a few references to give you a better picture.

If your curiosity is piqued, you can find these here.