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John Cryan

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John Cryan
BornDecember 16, 1960 (age 65)
Sunderland, England
NationalityBritish
EducationUniversity of Cambridge
OccupationBanker
CompanyX Cyber Group
TitleChairman, X Cyber Group
SpouseMary Cryan

John Michael Cryan (born 16 December 1960) is a British banker. He was chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank from July 2015 to April 2018. Before that he spent more than two decades in corporate finance and client advisory work in London, was group chief financial officer of UBS from 2008 to 2011, and was president for Europe at the Singaporean state investment company Temasek Holdings from 2012 to 2014.

After leaving Deutsche Bank, Cryan became a non-executive director and, from January 2020 to October 2023, chairman of the London-listed hedge fund manager Man Group. Since January 2019 he has also been a director and chairman of X Cyber Group, a British cyber intelligence and advisory company based in Gloucestershire.

Cryan trained as an accountant with Arthur Andersen before moving into investment banking at S.G. Warburg in 1987. He joined Deutsche Bank's supervisory board in 2013, chairing its audit committee, before being appointed to the executive board as co-chief executive in 2015 and becoming sole chief executive the following year. His tenure at Deutsche Bank was dominated by heavy losses, a large capital raising, a reorganisation of the bank's structure, and the resolution of legacy litigation inherited from before his appointment; he was replaced by Christian Sewing in April 2018 after the bank's shares continued to fall.

Early life and education

John Michael Cryan was born on 16 December 1960 in Sunderland, in the north-east of England, and was described as 54 years old when Deutsche Bank announced his appointment as co-chief executive in June 2015.[1] His month and year of birth, December 1960, are independently confirmed in his director's filings with the UK company registrar.[2]

Cryan studied at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1981.[3]

Career

Arthur Andersen and S.G. Warburg, 1980s

Cryan began his career as an accountant with Arthur Andersen before moving into investment banking. He joined the London merchant bank S.G. Warburg in 1987, beginning more than two decades of corporate finance and client advisory work for financial services companies.[4] S.G. Warburg was later absorbed into Swiss Bank Corporation and then, following the 1998 merger of Swiss Bank Corporation and the Union Bank of Switzerland, into UBS, and Cryan continued his career within that lineage.

UBS, 2008 to 2011

Cryan was appointed group chief financial officer of UBS in September 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis.[5] He remained in the role until 2011, when he left the bank.[6]

Temasek Holdings, 2012 to 2014

In 2012 Cryan moved to Singapore to become president for Europe at Temasek, the Singaporean state investment company, a position he held until 2014.[7]

Deutsche Bank supervisory board, 2013 to 2015

Cryan joined Deutsche Bank's supervisory board in 2013, where he chaired the audit committee and also sat on the risk committee.[8] When he was appointed to the bank's executive Management Board in 2015 he resigned his supervisory board seat, as German corporate governance rules require separation between the two bodies.[9]

Deutsche Bank co-chief executive, July 2015 to May 2016

On 7 June 2015, Deutsche Bank announced that Cryan would become co-chief executive alongside Jürgen Fitschen, effective 1 July 2015, succeeding Anshu Jain.[10] The bank said Cryan would become sole chief executive on 19 May 2016, once Fitschen's term ended, having overseen a transition intended to be smooth after Jain's early departure.[11]

Deutsche Bank sole chief executive, May 2016 to April 2018

Cryan became sole chief executive and chairman of the Management Board in May 2016. Signing the bank's 2016 annual report from Frankfurt am Main in March 2017, he described 2016 as "a very challenging year" in which the bank also "demonstrated our resilience and changed much for the better, despite a tough environment."[12] Under Cryan, Deutsche Bank recorded a net loss of €6.772 billion for 2015 and a further net loss of €1.356 billion for 2016, before returning to a pre-tax profit of €1.228 billion in 2017, although the bank still recorded a net loss of €735 million that year.[13][14]

By his own account, Cryan's priorities as chief executive were to strengthen the bank's capital position, simplify its structure, cut costs and resolve outstanding litigation.[15] In early March 2017 he announced a reorganisation of the bank into three divisions: Deutsche Bank would retain Postbank and combine it with the Private & Commercial Clients business, rather than sell it as previously planned; a minority stake in Deutsche Asset Management would be floated; and the Global Markets, Corporate Finance and Global Transaction Banking units would be merged into a single Corporate & Investment Bank.[16] Alongside the reorganisation, the Management Board decided on a capital raising expected to bring in around €8 billion, intended to lift the fully loaded Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio to approximately 14 per cent on a pro forma basis and to remove uncertainty about the bank's capital strength.[17]

On 8 April 2018, Deutsche Bank's supervisory board replaced Cryan as chief executive with Christian Sewing, with immediate effect.[18] His removal followed a prolonged decline in Deutsche Bank's share price during his tenure.[19]

Man Group, 2015 to 2023

Cryan became a non-executive director of Man Group, the London-listed hedge fund manager, on 15 January 2015, while still on Deutsche Bank's supervisory board.[20][21] In September 2019, Man Group announced that Cryan would become its chairman with effect from 1 January 2020, succeeding Ian Livingston.[22] Man Group's chief executive Luke Ellis said at the time that Livingston would "remain a friend of the firm," while Livingston said the move gave Cryan "sufficient time in the role" under UK governance guidance limiting individual board tenures.[23]

Cryan served as Man Group's chairman until October 2023, when he was succeeded by Anne Wade, who had joined the board in April 2020.[24]

X Cyber Group, since 2019

Cryan was appointed a director of X Cyber Group Ltd, a British information technology services company, on 25 January 2019.[25] He remains an active director of the company as of September 2026.[26] X Cyber Group, registered in Gloucester and classified under "other information technology service activities," describes itself as a provider of intelligence and advisory services focused on trust, safety and security in the digital domain, founded by former UK public-sector cyber operations and intelligence professionals.[27][28] On the company's own website, Cryan is described as its chairman.[29]

Leadership and management style

Cryan came to Deutsche Bank's executive leadership from a background in audit, financial control and risk rather than trading or dealmaking, having chaired the supervisory board's audit committee and served on its risk committee before taking the top executive role.[30] That orientation was reflected in the priorities he set out as chief executive: building capital, cutting complexity and closing out legacy legal problems ahead of pursuing growth.[31]

Cost control was a recurring theme of his tenure. Cryan's management team set a target of reducing the bank's adjusted cost base, including Postbank, to around €22 billion in 2018 and €21 billion in 2021, and pursued this partly through headcount reductions: Deutsche Bank's full-time-equivalent staff fell from 101,104 at the end of 2015 to 99,744 at the end of 2016 and 97,535 at the end of 2017, while its branch network shrank from 2,790 to 2,425 over the same period.[32][33] At the same time, Cryan's leadership team increased investment in compliance, hiring more than 350 people into the compliance and anti-financial-crime functions in 2016 with plans to add over 600 more the following year, after the bank paid several large regulatory penalties for anti-money-laundering and other control failings.[34]

Major deals and strategic decisions

The centrepiece of Cryan's strategy, announced in early March 2017, was the reorganisation of Deutsche Bank into three divisions and an accompanying capital raising of around €8 billion, structured to lift the bank's fully loaded Common Equity Tier 1 ratio to about 14 per cent.[35] As part of the same plan, Cryan reversed an earlier intention to sell Postbank, deciding instead to retain and integrate it with Deutsche Bank's German retail business, and to pursue a partial float of Deutsche Asset Management rather than an outright sale.[36]

Cryan's tenure also completed the wind-down of Deutsche Bank's Non-Core Operations Unit, a portfolio of unwanted assets created in 2012. The unit was closed on schedule by the end of 2016, having disposed of around €120 billion of risk-weighted assets, more than 90 per cent of its original portfolio, for a capital benefit of approximately €8.5 billion.[37] Disposals completed during 2016 included the bank's Abbey Life insurance business, its 19.99 per cent stake in China's Hua Xia Bank, and its United States brokerage unit, Private Client Services; the bank also announced the planned sale of its Sal Oppenheim asset servicing business.[38]

Financial and market performance

Deutsche Bank's shares fell sharply for much of Cryan's tenure. According to the bank's own reporting, its share price stood at €22.53 at the end of 2015, fell to €17.25 by the end of 2016 (having traded as low as €9.90 during the year), and stood at €15.88 by the end of 2017.[39][40] Total net revenues fell from €33.525 billion in 2015 to €30.014 billion in 2016 and €26.447 billion in 2017.[41][42]

The bank's capital position strengthened over the same period even as profitability did not: the fully loaded Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio rose from 11.1 per cent at the end of 2015 to 11.8 per cent at the end of 2016 and 14.0 per cent at the end of 2017, aided by the 2017 capital raising.[43][44] Total assets fell from €1.629 trillion at the end of 2015 to €1.475 trillion at the end of 2017.[45][46]

Board memberships and outside roles

Alongside his executive and chairmanship roles, Cryan was a director of two related United Kingdom companies associated with the performing arts organisation Gabrieli Consort & Players: Gabrieli Consort & Players Limited, where he served from 27 November 2002 to 18 May 2018, and a related entity, Gabrieli, where he served from 1 August 2006 to 18 May 2018.[47][48] He resigned both directorships within weeks of leaving Deutsche Bank in 2018. His other outside roles are described above under Career: non-executive director and later chairman of Man Group from 2015 to 2023, and director and chairman of X Cyber Group from 2019.

Controversies

Cryan's time as Deutsche Bank's chief executive included the resolution of several serious regulatory and legal matters, some inherited from before his appointment. In September 2016, details of the bank's settlement discussions with the United States Department of Justice over its sale and pooling of residential mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis were leaked. Cryan later wrote that the initial settlement proposal was higher than the market had anticipated, which "prompted concerns about the financial impact on Deutsche Bank," affecting both its share and bond prices and its relationships with clients; the matter was resolved before the end of 2016.[49]

In January 2017, Deutsche Bank reached resolutions with the New York State Department of Financial Services and the UK Financial Conduct Authority over a Russian "mirror trading" scheme and related failings in the anti-money-laundering control function of its investment banking division.[50] Cryan's management team responded by substantially increasing headcount in compliance and anti-financial-crime roles.[51]

Personal life

Cryan is married to Mary Cryan. Companies House records list his country of residence as the United States.[52]

See also

References

  1. ↑ <ref>"Deutsche Bank Appoints John Cryan to Succeed Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain".Deutsche Bank AG.7 June 2015.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  2. ↑ <ref>"X CYBER GROUP LTD, Officers".Companies House.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  3. ↑ <ref>"Deutsche Bank Appoints John Cryan to Succeed Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain".Deutsche Bank AG.7 June 2015.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  4. ↑ <ref>"Deutsche Bank Appoints John Cryan to Succeed Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain".Deutsche Bank AG.7 June 2015.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  5. ↑ <ref>"Deutsche Bank Appoints John Cryan to Succeed Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain".Deutsche Bank AG.7 June 2015.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  6. ↑ <ref>"Deutsche Bank Appoints John Cryan to Succeed Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain".Deutsche Bank AG.7 June 2015.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  7. ↑ <ref>"Deutsche Bank Appoints John Cryan to Succeed Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain".Deutsche Bank AG.7 June 2015.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  8. ↑ <ref>"Deutsche Bank Appoints John Cryan to Succeed Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain".Deutsche Bank AG.7 June 2015.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  9. ↑ <ref>"Deutsche Bank Appoints John Cryan to Succeed Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain".Deutsche Bank AG.7 June 2015.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  10. ↑ <ref>"Deutsche Bank Appoints John Cryan to Succeed Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain".Deutsche Bank AG.7 June 2015.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  11. ↑ <ref>"Deutsche Bank Appoints John Cryan to Succeed Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain".Deutsche Bank AG.7 June 2015.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  12. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  13. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  14. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2017, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  15. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  16. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  17. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  18. ↑ <ref>"John Michael Cryan, Officer appointments, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft directorship resigned 8 April 2018".Companies House.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  19. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2017, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  20. ↑ <ref>"John Cryan Chosen as Next Man Group Chairman".Finance Magnates.16 September 2019.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  21. ↑ <ref>"MAN GROUP LIMITED, Officers".Companies House.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  22. ↑ <ref>"John Cryan Chosen as Next Man Group Chairman".Finance Magnates.16 September 2019.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  23. ↑ <ref>"John Cryan Chosen as Next Man Group Chairman".Finance Magnates.16 September 2019.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  24. ↑ <ref>"Anne Wade".Man Group plc.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  25. ↑ <ref>"X CYBER GROUP LTD, Officers".Companies House.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  26. ↑ <ref>"X CYBER GROUP LTD, Officers".Companies House.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  27. ↑ <ref>"X Cyber Group".X Cyber Group Ltd.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  28. ↑ <ref>"X CYBER GROUP LTD, Company overview".Companies House.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  29. ↑ <ref>"X Cyber Group".X Cyber Group Ltd.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  30. ↑ <ref>"Deutsche Bank Appoints John Cryan to Succeed Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain".Deutsche Bank AG.7 June 2015.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  31. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  32. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  33. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2017, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  34. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  35. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  36. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  37. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  38. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  39. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  40. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2017, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  41. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  42. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2017, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  43. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  44. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2017, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  45. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  46. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2017, The Group at a Glance".Deutsche Bank AG.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  47. ↑ <ref>"John Michael Cryan, Officer appointments".Companies House.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  48. ↑ <ref>"GABRIELI CONSORT & PLAYERS LIMITED, Company overview".Companies House.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  49. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  50. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  51. ↑ <ref>"Annual Report 2016, Letter from the Chairman of the Management Board".Deutsche Bank AG.March 2017.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
  52. ↑ <ref>"X CYBER GROUP LTD, Officers".Companies House.Retrieved 28 September 2026.</ref>
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