The grenke AG Board of Directors

Personal information

Born in Cottbus on 28 February 1981
Married with two children
 

Milestones

• After completing a BA in Business Administration, Dr. Sebastian Hirsch began his career in 2004 at grenke AG, where he initially co-managed the Group’s refinancing.
• From 2006 to 2009, Dr Hirsch gained an MA in Banking and Finance while heading up the entire Controlling department. In addition he was responsible for grenke Group’s 2008 consolidated financial statements.
• In 2009 he moved to grenke Bank AG and was initially responsible as a General Manager and from 2011 as a member of the Board with responsibility for Markets.
• In 2013, Dr Sebastian Hirsch initially joined grenke AG as General Manager and was appointed to the Board of Directors with effect from 1 January 2017. He is responsible for Controlling, M & A, Treasury, Legal, Taxes and Investor Relations and was appointed Chief Financial Officer with effect from October 2020. The Supervisory Board of grenke AG has appointed Dr Sebastian Hirsch additionally as the Deputy Chair of the Board of Directors effective November 1, 2021.
• In 2021, Dr Sebastian Hirsch awarded his Doctorate at the Steinbeis University.
• On 1 December 2022, as CFO he also took over, initially on an interim basis, as Chief Executive Officer. On 16 February 2023, he was appointed CEO. Since then, Dr Hirsch has continued to perform his duties as CFO on an interim basis until 30 June 2024.
• He is responsible for IT and Digitalisation, Human Resources, ESG, Corporate Communications and Property & Facility Management.
   

Memberships

• Dr Sebastian Hirsch was elected to the Executive Board of Deutsches Aktieninstitut (DAI) in July 2023.
• In September 2023, he was elected to the Advisory Board of Deutsche Bank AG.

Personal information

Born in Wissenbourg, France on 15 April 1970
Married with two children

Milestones

• Gilles Christ studied Sociology at the Strasbourg University. In 2005 he completed his MBA – with a focus on finance, marketing and strategy – at Reims Management School.
• He began his career in 1995 at Groupama - a French insurance company, where he worked in sales, providing B2B and B2C customer care.
• In 1998 he moved to grenke, where he prepared and implemented our market entry in France.
• From 1999 to 2007 he managed the French subsidiary and gradually took on responsibility for the international business of other grenke AG subsidiaries.
• In 2007 he became a deputy member of the Board of Directors with responsibility for all the international business of grenke AG’s subsidiaries.
• Gilles Christ has been a member of the grenke AG Board of Directors since May 2010. He is responsible for Marketing and Sales as well as Legal.

Personal information

Born on 22 November 1979 in Laubach
Married, 1 child

Milestones

• After studying business administration at Justus Liebig University (JLU) in Giessen, where he graduated with honours in 2005, Dr Martin Paal worked as an audit assistant in the Audit - Financial Services division of KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft in Frankfurt from 2005 to 2006.
• From 2007, he worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Financing and Banking at Justus Liebig University Giessen and completed his doctorate on the topic of "Financing Activities and Payout Policies of Industrial Firms in Europe: Venture Capital, IPOs, and Share Repurchases". He was awarded the title of Dr rer. pol. summa cum laude in July 2012.
• He began his professional career in 2012 in transaction consulting for financial services at Ernst & Young GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft in Eschborn. He became a manager and authorised signatory there in October 2014.
• In 2016, he moved to DZ BANK AG in Frankfurt, initially as Group Head of Investment Controlling. In 2017, he was granted power of attorney and promoted to Head of Group Controlling. There he was responsible for the technical and disciplinary management of the department (> 30 employees). In this role, he was responsible for the finance-related parts of the strategic and operational planning process, among other things.
• In June 2022, his professional career took him to grenke AG as Vice President Controlling, where he was granted power of attorney in November 2022. In this role, he was responsible for the technical and disciplinary management of the division. He was responsible for M&A transactions, in particular the acquisitions of the franchise companies, as well as the technical responsibility for DB Costing and the Cost Controlling department.
• In March 2023, he was appointed Chief Representative for Finance and Senior Vice President. He headed the Finance Division and reported directly to the CFO.
• He has been appointed to the Board of Directors of grenke AG effective as of  July 1, 2024 and appointed Chief Financial Officer. In this role, he is responsible for Controlling and M&A, Treasury & Refinancing, Accounting & Tax, Investor Relations and Reporting.

Memberships

Dr Martin Paal was elected to the Supervisory Board of grenke Bank AG in January 2023.