Professor Hartmut Leser

Professor Hartmut Leser was appointed Honorary Professor at WHU in November 2017. He studied economics at the Universities of Mannheim and Saarbrücken, the London School of Economics, and the University of Michigan. He earned degrees as Diplom-Volkswirt and Master of Economics before gaining a doctoral degree at Saarland University in 1990. In April 2015, he was appointed as WHU Senior Fellow.

Professor Hartmut Leser started his career as an portfoliomanager, head of quantitative management, and head of equities at Metzler Investment GmbH. He then worked for Credit Suisse Germany as director and head of asset management. From 1997 to 2006, he was active in the area of investement consulting at FERI Institutional Management GmbH and founding partner at Heubeck-FERI GmbH. From 2007 to 2022, Professor Leser worked at abrdn Investments Deutschland AG, since 2010 as CEO. Under him, the company was expanded into the largest foreign asset management house in Germany. In 2022 Professor Hartmut Leser was appointed partner and CIO of FREO Group and also assumed the role of CEO of FREO Germany GmbH, based in Frankfurt. In 2024 he exchanged his operational responsibilities for various non-executive directorships in the asset management industry.

Since 2007, Professor Hartmut Leser has been teaching in WHU programs, such as the "Asset Management" class in the WHU Master and MBA programs. On various occasions, he has acted as speaker as well as a supporter of several Campus for Finance – WHU New Years’ Conferences. In addition, he regularly supports internships and theses.