Helmut Pehle holds a doctorate in economics, and has enjoyed an extensive career in the financial and banking sectors. After working in research and teaching, he began his career in Hamburg as assistant to Alwin Münchmeyer - the senior partner of the private bank Schröder, Münchmeyer Hengst & Co and president of the Association of German Banks. He has since held a variety of prominent positions in economics and politics in Germany.

Pehle was the press spokesman for Lower Saxony’s Ministry of Economics and Transport between 1977 and 1982. From 1982 to 1993, he was the head of the banking industry and business policy division at the Genossenschaftsverband Berlin-Hannover (Confederation of Cooperative Banks Berlin-Hanover). He also served as head of a consultancy for the cooperative banking sector (Volks- and Raffeisenbanks), and as board chairman for a cultural and scientific foundation within the banking group.

From 1993 to 2002, Pehle was a director of DG Bank/DZ Bank and sat on numerous national and international advisory boards. Since 2002, he has applied his expertise within internationally active Swiss management consultancies.

Alongside his role on the supervisory board at White Owl Capital, Helmut Pehle now advises financial services providers and acts as an executive coach. Acting as a shareholder and management board member, he also helped establish an alternative investment boutique. He made a successful exit from the firm in 2007.

Von Stechow has a long career in finance and banking behind him, combined with a degree in industrial management and doctoral studies in business administration. He started out at Effektenbank-Warburg AG, later moving on to various managerial positions at some of Germany’s most renowned financial institutions. This included directorships at Georg Hauck & Sohn in Frankfurt and Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie in Cologne.

Von Stechow was also a chief representative of Trinkaus & Burkhardt KGaA in Düsseldorf and a member of the managing board of DG Bank/DZ-Bank AG in Frankfurt. From 2002 to 2005, he was a member of the executive and managing director of Berlin Partner GmbH – a company devoted to marketing the German capital Berlin. Since the end of 2005, he has been the managing partner at Stechow Management Consulting GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin. The company undertakes supervisory board, advisory board and consulting functions.

Alongside his supervisory board role at White Owl Capital, he also holds advisory positions at C H Reynolds Corporate Finance AG (Frankfurt), Frankfurt’s Society for Trade, Industry and Science, ActiDes Berlin GmbH (Berlin), the Green Hospital Program (Königstein), Pamera Asset Management GmbH (Hamburg), Propan Rheingas GmbH & Co. KG (Brühl), Rheingas Handel GmbH & Co. KG (Dresden), and the Institut für Genossenschaftswesen (Institute for Cooperative and Social Enterprises) at Humboldt University in Berlin.

He has taught economics at Humboldt University in Berlin since 2007, and he held an honorary professorship in finance and banking at the University of Potsdam from 2002 to 2007.