Anshu Jain, former co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, dies

Anshu Jin, co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, delivers a speech at the bank’s annual general meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, May 21, 2015. REUTERS/Kay Pfaffenbach

Aug 13 (Reuters) – Anshu Jain is a senior financial executive known for his assistance to German bank Deutsche Bank AG. (DBKGn.DE) Take over Wall Street’s biggest company, he died Saturday night after a five-year battle with cancer, his family said. He was 59 years old.

Jain, who was born in India, spent two decades building Deutsche Bank into one of the world’s largest global banks. He was the first non-European to lead the German establishment.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the European debt crisis that followed, Jain pushed Deutsche to remain Europe’s “last man” as US companies advanced into global banking.

Years of risky investment banking expansion came back to haunt the bank, as regulations made complex deals more expensive. As co-CEO, he has struggled to reduce risks and control a long list of scandals that have led to billions of dollars in fines.

He resigned from the German bank in 2015, and has been president of US financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald since 2017.

“It will be remembered for his leadership in financial services and his deep commitment to the environment,” said Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, who said he knew Jain well.

Born in the Indian city of Jaipur, Jain received his BA from Delhi University before completing his MBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

His family said that he was a vegetarian all his life, he loved wildlife photography, safaris in Kenya’s Masai Mara, and wildlife conservation.

He joined Deutsche in 1995 to launch a division specializing in hedge funds and derivatives. Then he headed bond and emerging markets trading, and later, as head of the investment bank, he overtook his boss, then-CEO Joseph Ackerman.

He was appointed to the Deutsche Board of Directors in 2009 and was responsible for the corporate division and investment bank from 2010. From 2012 to 2015, he was the co-CEO.

“Anyone who has worked with Anshu has experienced emotional leadership from intellectual intelligence,” said the current CEO, Christian Swing.

Jane was diagnosed in January 2017 with duodenal cancer, which affects the small intestine, but was able to outgrow his initial diagnosis by four years, the family said.

Until his last day, the family said, Anshu had stuck to his lifelong determination to ‘not be a statistician’.

Additional reporting by Vera Eckert in Frankfurt and Maria Bonzhat in Bengaluru; Editing by Franklin Paul and Clelia Ozil

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