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Latest press releases
Management

Dr. Roland Folz Chief Executive Officer
Combining banking experience with expertise from mobility and telecoms industries

Dr. Roland Folz Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Roland Folz is Chief Executive Officer of solarisBank AG (since February 2017). Folz has over 25 years of experience in the banking and financial services sector, with additional senior management expertise in the mobility and telecoms industries. He joined solarisBank from Deutsche Bank, where he spent almost eight years in various regional and global CFO responsibilities. Prior to Deutsche Bank he held executive roles within the T-Com/T-Home division for Deutsche Telekom AG and was CEO of DaimlerChrysler Bank AG. As Co-CEO of Direkt Anlage Bank AG, Folz expanded Germanys first discount broker into 6 European countries, eventually taking the company public in 1999.

Marko Wenthin Chief Commercial Officer and Co-founder
Startup, payment and banking experience brought together

Marko Wenthin Chief Commercial Officer and Co-founder
Marko Wenthin is Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of solarisBank AG. Before co-founding solarisBank, Wenthin was Managing Director of Deutsche Handelsbank specializing in lending to internet companies and providing payment solutions to both on and offline businesses. He was also the CEO and founder of GroupPlatina GmbH where he created Sofort Bank, the banking sister of sofortueberweisung.de – Germany’s largest e-commerce payment provider. Prior to this, Wenthin was the COO and a board member of Deutsche Bank PBC S.A, Poland and worked for Deutsche in Argentina. Marko combines his profound knowledge of finance and banking with entrepreneurial and digital expertise.

Andreas Bittner Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder
Operations expert in banking and BPO companies

Andreas Bittner Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder
Andreas Bittner is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of solarisBank AG. Before building solarisBank from the ground up, Bittner held Managing Director positions at Avaloq and Elaxy, two leading software providers for banking applications. Prior to this, he was the COO and Managing Director of Fondsdepot Bank GmBH. Andreas Bittner has over 20 years of experience within banking technology & operations, including board level managing positions in banks, software & BPO companies.

Dr. Jörg Howein Chief Product Officer
10 years of experience in banking with the focus on strategy and digitalization

Dr. Jörg Howein Chief Product Officer
Dr. Jörg Howein is Chief Product Officer and General Manager at solarisBank AG (since May 2017). In this position, he manages all product teams of the company and oversees product development as well as new product initiatives. Prior to taking on the position of CPO, Jörg was VP of Projects & Growth of solarisBank. He gained his expertise as a financial strategy consultant at zeb consulting, one of Europe’s leading financial services consultancies. After his tenure at zeb, Jörg joined KI finance Cologne, a consulting boutique with the focus on digital banking. Jörg studied Banking and Finance at the University of Münster and holds a PhD in economics from Schumpeter School of Business at the University of Wuppertal.

Alexander G. Engel Chief Financial Officer
Combining over 10 years of experience in finance, risk management, treasury and business intelligence

Alexander G. Engel Chief Financial Officer
Alexander G. Engel is Chief Financial Officer and General Manager at solarisBank AG. His role at solarisBank covers finance, risk management, treasury and business intelligence. Alexander has gained over 10 years of financial sector experience during his tenure with Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and London. As a Managing Director, he had the global responsibility for strategic cost management and analytics.
Prior to this, he held senior positions in various departments of Deutsche, including Head of Analytics of EMEA Finance. He was also deeply involved to expand the bank’s businesses by strategic acquisitions of Postbank and Berliner Bank. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank AG, Alexander was Assistant Manager in Audit Financial Services at KPMG.
Alexander holds an MSc in Business Administration from Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, with a focus on Accounting and Banking.

Peter Grosskopf Chief Technology Officer
With over 10 years of experience in IT, Peter bridges the gap between finance and tech

Peter Grosskopf Chief Technology Officer
Peter Grosskopf is Chief Technology Officer of solarisBank and former Chief Development Officer at HitFox Group and the Fintech Company Builder Finleap. He leads all strategic tech and R&D initiatives and is responsible for the tech vision of the company. Prior to joining HitFox, he founded the software engineering company Zweitag in 2008 and profitably grew it to 27 engineers in 5 years. Peter has an MSc in Information Systems from the University of Münster and is a former lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Münster, where he taught “Test-Driven Web Development with Ruby on Rails” and web engineering. Peter is also a frequent speaker at various industry events.
Upcoming events
Disruption Forum – Berlin Fintech
10.04.2018 , Berlin, GermanyBlockchain Summit
28.04.2018 - 28.04.2018 , Frankfurt am Main, GermanyBitkom Digital Banking Conference
16.05.2018 - 17.05.2018 , Berlin, GermanyFintech World Forum 2018
30.05.2018 - 31.05.2018 , London, EnglandAwards

The Fintech 250 (2017)
The Fintech 250 by CB Insights identifies and recognizes the 250 most promising, private fintech companies from around the world. solarisBank is proud to have been included in this list in 2017.

Winner: SZ-Finanzgründer (2017)
In 2017, solarisBank was named Fintech of the year (German: SZ-Finanzgründer) by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung after pitching on stage at the annual 'SZ Finanztag' event.

The Fintech 100 (2017)
The Fintech 100 list by H2 Ventures and KPMG has recognised solarisBank as one of the ‘Top 50’ established fintech firms around the globe, based on innovation, capital raising activity and size.