IMFS Distinguished Fellows


Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Theodor Baums

has the Endowed Chair for Civil and Business Law at the Institute for Law and Finance (ILF) at Goethe University, which he founded and where he now serves as a member of the management board. He was the chairman of the Government Commission on Corporate Governance, a member of the Advisory Board of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) , counsel to the the EC Commission on company law, and ethics advisor to the management board of the Deutsche Bundesbank. From 2009 until 2020 he was a member of the German governments commission on the Corporate Governance Code.

Prof. Baums is co-editor of several scientific journals and publication series. He has published more than 150 books and articles on corporations, civil and antitrust law. Prof. Baums has frequently advised the German Federal Government and Federal Parliament on questions concerning company and securities market regulation and was also an advisor for international organizations like the World Bank and the OECD. In 2006, he was awarded the Order of Merit 1st class of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Prof. Baums studied law and Catholic theology in Bonn. After receiving his doctor juris he was a professor in Münster and Osnabrück before he came to Frankfurt in 2000. He is a Professeur associé of the University of Luxemburg as well as Dr. rer. pol. h.c. und Dr. iur. h.c. He has been a Founding Professor of the IMFS.


Dr. Willy Friedmann

served in different capacities in the areas of monetary policy, financial markets and trade at Deutsche Bundesbank from 1978 to 2009, and most recently as head of the economics department. Before his service with the Deutsche Bundesbank, he was in charge of monetary policy and financial markets at the German Council of Economic Experts. Since 2009 he has been Chairman of the Foundation for Monetary and Financial Stability (Stiftung Geld und Währung) and was a member of the Board of Trustees of the IMFS. During this time Willy Friedmann was associated with Goethe University as member of the foundation’s Board of Trustees.


Prof. Dr. Hermann Remsperger

was Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank from 1998 to 2009 where he was in charge of the department for economics and statistics as well as the research center.  In 2006 he became responsible for all matters relating to the bank’s international relations. In this capacity he represented the Deutsche Bundesbank in the economics and finance committee of the EU, at the G7 and G20 meetings as well as the Financial Stability Forum. Previously, he was chief economist at BHF Bank. He was a lecturer and honorary professor at Goethe University Frankfurt from 1979 to 2014. As Chairman of the Council of the Foundation for Monetary and Financial Stability (Stiftung Geld und Währung), Hermann Remsperger also served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the IMFS since its establishment. He retired from these roles in 2015.


Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Reinhard Schmidt

is Seniorprofessor at the House of Finance of Goethe University, focusing on financial systems in industrial and developing countries, especially compare of financial systems in Europe, international firms and their strategy and structure, finance theory, international economic relationships and regulation as well as development financing.

He is a member of the European Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee. Furthermore, Prof. Schmidt is author and editor of 25 books and 70 contributions to compilations and has published more than 60 scientific articles in national and international magazines.

From 1991 to 2014 Prof. Schmidt held the Endowed Chair of Finance and Accounting at Goethe University, before that he was a professor in Trier and Göttingen. As a Visiting Professor he taught at various universities like Stanford, Georgetown University in Washington D.C., Wharton School in Philadelphia and in Paris and Milan. He has also been an Affiliated Professor at the IMFS.


Dr. Jens Weidmann

Dr. Jens Weidmann was President of the Deutsche Bundesbank from 2011 to 2021. Since 2015, he has also held the office of Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Prior to that, he headed the Department for Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Federal Chancellor's Office from 2006 to 2011. During this time, Weidmann also worked closely with Chancellor Angela Merkel as personal representative charged with preparations for the world economic summits of the G8 and G20 countries. From 2003 to 2006, he was already Head of the Monetary Policy and Monetary Analysis Department at Deutsche Bundesbank.


Gerhard Ziebarth

worked at Deutsche Bundesbank from 1986 to 2014 in various functions in the public finance division and the macroeconomic analysis and projections division of the economics department and most recently as head of the statistics department.

Before joining the Bundesbank, he was a member of the research staff of the German Council of Economic Experts. From 2015 to 2020, he chaired the Executive Board of the Foundation for Monetary and Financial Stability and was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the IMFS. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the House of Finance and a member of the Board of Trustees of Goethe University Foundation.

Gerhard Ziebarth is a member of the Alliance for Monetary and Financial Stability (Aktionskreis Stabiles Geld) and is associated with Goethe University as a lecturer.