Committee
The bodies of the association are the General Assembly, the Executive Committee and the Board. The General Assembly is the supreme body of the association. The General Assembly appoints the members of the Executive Committee, adopts the annual financial statements and decides on amendments to the Articles of Association.
The Executive Committee promotes and coordinates the work of the association. It is responsible for the association's political management and control as well as the technical and content-related work and the organisation's focus on treasury topics. The committee is also responsible for the strategic direction of the association. The Executive Committee represents the association externally in association policy and technical matters. Each member of the Executive Committee heads a specialised department. The Executive Committee elects a spokesperson from among its members to chair the Executive Committee meetings and the General Assembly. The Executive Committee determines the membership fees in accordance with the Articles of Association and appoints the members of the Executive Board.
The Executive Board consists of an executive director and two honorary (deputy) directors. Its tasks are to represent the association externally in all operational, non-technical matters and to coordinate and manage the association's services. It is also responsible for advising the Executive Committee on the strategic direction of the association and supporting it in decision-making. The Executive Board is responsible for the proper handling of the Association's day-to-day affairs. It is responsible for preparing and implementing the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Executive Committee. It manages the Association's office. The office is the operational unit of the association and is responsible, among other things, for the implementation of technical content in suitable formats.
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Presidium
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Management Board
Presidium
Regina Deisemann
Further details
Prof Dr Franziska Kahla
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Carsten Linker
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Andreas Sowa
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Gregor Stephan
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Regina Deisemann
Vice President Group Liquidity Management & Treasury Operations
Vorwerk SE & Co. KG
Regina Deisemann has been responsible for the Cash & Liquidity division since 1 January 2018. She was a member of the VDT e.V. Executive Board until 27 October 2022. Since then, she has been responsible for the department's technical work as a member of the Executive Committee. Since November 2025, she has been spokesperson for the Executive Committee.
Regina Deisemann began her professional career by training as a bank clerk before starting in Corporate Audit at Vorwerk SE & Co KG after completing her studies in economics. Here she gained experience in conducting annual audits including consolidation, compliance audits and system audits. Her IHK qualification as an international accountant was helpful in this regard.
As Vice-President Group Liquidity Management & Treasury Operations, she is now responsible for Group-wide liquidity management including the organisation of payment transactions, bank relationship management and the provision of corporate treasury services at Vorwerk. Alongside her career, she took part in a strategic leadership programme at Ashridge Business School, London, via the Vorwerk Academy.
Prior to her appointment as a member of the Executive Board in January 2018, Regina Deisemann had been actively involved in the Cash & Liquidity department of VDT e.V. since 2012. She is a Contributing Member of the CGI-MP Working Group 5 - Bank Services Billing for VDT e.V. and represents VDT e.V. in the Deutsche Bundesbank's Payment Transactions Forum. At the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management gGmbH, she was responsible for the practical teaching content on liquidity management as part of the VDT's Certified Corporate Treasurer postgraduate programme.
Prof Dr Franziska Kahla
Professorship for General Business Administration
Head of the International Business Administration programme
BSP Business & Law School Campus Hamburg
Prof Dr Franziska Kahla has been a member of the Executive Committee since November 2025 and is responsible for managing the Job Profile & Qualification department. She also heads the Northern Regional Group and is responsible for organising the regional meetings. From October 2022 to November 2025, she was a member of the VDT Executive Board and an active member of the B&Q department. Since February 2026, she has been Deputy Spokesperson of the Executive Committee.
After studying business administration with a focus on finance, accounting and taxes at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, Ms Kahla completed her doctorate at Leuphana University in the field of finance with a focus on renewable energies. After completing her doctorate, she joined BDO AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft in Hamburg, where she worked in the Corporate Finance/Transaction Services department, specialising in the energy industry. She then also worked in controlling at an energy grid operator until she was appointed professor at the BSP Business & Law School Campus Hamburg in September 2021. There she heads a chair for general business administration with a focus on investment, financing, cost accounting and controlling.
Carsten Linker
Head of Group Treasury
Pfleiderer Group B.V. & Co. KG
Carsten Linker was appointed as a member of the Executive Board of VDT e.V. with responsibility for Risk Management on 1 September 2014. He previously headed the VDT's "Bank Management" working group and was involved in the Risk Management department in the Frameworks/Governance segment as part of the reorganisation.
Since 27 October 2022, he has continued to manage the department as a member of the Executive Committee.
After completing a banking apprenticeship and working in the credit sector, he studied economics in Bochum. In 2003, Carsten Linker joined HOCHTIEF AG in Corporate Finance, where he was Head of Middle Office with responsibility for Group Finance and Financial Risk Management from 2009. His next career step took him to Hamburg, where he took over as Head of Group Treasury for Germanischer Lloyd in 2012 and managed the integration into a holistic treasury function in Oslo as part of the merger with DNV. In 2018, Carsten Linker took over the Financing & Credit Risk teams in Marquard & Bahls' Group Treasury and thus deepened transactions in Trade Finance. Since mid-2019, he has been responsible for Group Treasury at the Pfleiderer Group and is increasingly implementing capital market financing with sustainability criteria in the PE-led company.
Andreas Sowa
Head of Treasury
PERI SE
Andreas Sowa has been a member of the Executive Board of VDT e.V. since 1 November 2016. He is responsible for the Equity & Debt division. Since 27 October 2022, he has continued to manage the department as a member of the Executive Board. Head of Treasury at PERI-Werk Artur Schwörer GmbH & Co. KG since January 2024.
After training as a bank clerk at Deutsche Bank AG's Dortmund branch from 1989 to 1991, he worked from 1992 to 1996 as a loan officer and client advisor in the corporate client business at Deutsche Bank AG's Halle (Saale) branch. After a year as a loan officer at the Sydney branch of Deutsche Bank AG, Andreas Sowa moved to the Essen branch of Deutsche Bank AG in 1997, where he looked after multinational corporate clients and their group companies based in the Ruhr region until 2003. He then moved from the banking side to the corporate side in mid-2003. Until the end of 2005, Andreas Sowa worked as Group Head of Treasury at Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH in Duisburg, before taking on the role of Head of Treasury at McKesson Europe AG (formerly Celesio AG) in Stuttgart at the beginning of 2006, which was merged into PHOENIX International Beteiligungs GmbH in mid-2023. He has been Head of Treasury at PERI SE since January 2024.
Gregor Stephan
Principal
Mercer Germany GmbH
Gregor Stephan had been joint Head of Asset Management with Prof Dr Degenhart since October 2021.
Since 27 October 2022, he has been responsible for managing the department as a member of the Executive Board.
Gregor Stephan holds the position of Principal at Mercer Germany. Previously, he was Senior Manager Risk Financing and Strategy at Risicom Rückversicherung AG (Risicom), a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens AG.
At Siemens, he was most recently responsible for the investment and underwriting activities in Risicom's Pension Captive and EB Programme. Prior to that, he held various specialist and management positions in pension management, treasury and project financing in Germany and abroad.
He has a German degree in Business Administration / East Asian Studies, an English Master's Degree in Management and a Certified Corporate Treasurer VDT® qualification.
Management Board
Tim Staudt
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Fabio Bear
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Prof Dr Christian Debus
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Tim Staudt
Executive Board
After completing his Bachelor's degree in Insurance and Finance at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, he worked as a finance controller at an insurance company in Wiesbaden from 2011. Among other things, he was jointly responsible for budget and corporate planning. He was responsible for some areas of the annual financial statements. In various projects, he supported system reorganisations and other structuring measures. While working, he completed qualifications as an insurance controller from the DVA and an accountant from the IHK.
Tim Staudt has been working for the association since 2017. After joining as office manager, he took over the management of the head office in 2019 and has been responsible for defining and implementing the association's organisational and commercial processes as well as ensuring and optimising internal processes as Managing Director since October 2022. Together with the office staff, he provides the organisational framework for the association's services and supports the management of the specialist departments.
+49 (0)6431 212 137 14
Prof Dr Christian Debus
Honorary Board of Directors
Prof. Dr Christian Debus took over the Operations & Finance department on 1 April 2017. He was previously a member of the Risk Management department for several years and contributed to various VDT publications and working groups.
Prof Dr Christian Debus will continue to serve as an honorary member of the VDT Executive Board from October 2022, having already been responsible for the "Finance & Operations" board department since April 2017. Previously, as a member of the Risk Management department for several years, he was involved in various VDT publications and working groups. Prof Dr Debus has been a freelance consultant for treasury projects since June 2020. Until then, he was a partner at KPMG, where he headed the Finance and Treasury Management department, whose team of around 60 specialists provides consulting and auditing services for all issues relating to corporate treasury as well as commodities and energy trading. Before joining KPMG in 2002, he spent several years at an international industrial group, where he was responsible for the investment controlling, treasury, general ledger accounting and financial statements departments. He also worked as a professor at a university of applied sciences and as a project manager at an IT consultancy.
Fabio Bear
Honorary Deputy Chairman
Fabio Bär has represented the VDT as an honorary board member since November 2025 and has led the Young Professional Stammtische for several years.
After training as a banker at a regional Volks- und Raiffeisenbank, Fabio Bär worked there as a private customer advisor. At the same time, he completed a part-time Bachelor of Arts in Finance and Management programme at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, which he successfully completed in 2019. He then moved to the treasury department of a family-run company, where he worked in various areas of operational and strategic treasury. Fabio Bär has been working at init SE in Karlsruhe since 2024, where he is responsible for the establishment and further development of the treasury department.
VDT Treasury Day (incl. General Meeting) l 06 November 2025 l Frankfurt
Presidium l Executive Board l Office
Our committees since 1997, Executive Board, Board of Directors, Honorary Members