Professor Seifert began his career with McKinsey & Co, moving later to Swiss Re. From 1993 to 2005 Professor Seifert was CEO of Deutsche Börse. As CEO, Professor Seifert transformed the Frankfurt market from a local market into one of the most important exchanges in the world. He developed the successful electronic trading platform Xetra and integrated the futures exchange Eurex into the firm. Professor Seifert has a reputation as a visionary and strategic thinker, but he has also shaped thinking about what it means to be a financial market, for instance Deutsche Börse floated well before its main rivals, the London Stock Exchange and Euronext.
Of course Professor Seifert particularly caught the attention of the City of London when he tried to merge Deutsche Börse with the London Stock Exchange in 2000 and led Deutsche Börse’s controversial takeover discussions with the London Stock Exchange in 2005. Professor Seifert resigned from Deutsche Börse last year, though he remains active in a number of professional capacities, for instance as a Member of the Advisory Board for the Monetary Authority of Singapore and as a Professor for Capital Market Theory at the European Business School.
Professor Seifert is a modern renaissance man and a noted jazz musician. He has published frequently including a sweeping new vision in his (co-authored) book “European Capital Markets” published in English in 2000 and a factual thriller about hedge funds and markets, “Invasion der Heuschrecken” (“Invasion of the Locusts”), coming out in 2006.