Biographical data:	30.01.1930 in Essen - 30.11.1989 in Bad Homburg
Institution:	Deutsche Bank
Functions:	Member of the Management Board 1970-1989 (Spokesman1985-1989)

After his upper secondary school education, Herrhausen, who in his own words originally wanted to study philosophy, began his studies of business administration in Cologne in 1949. He graduated in 1952 as Diplom-Kaufmann and went on to obtain his doctorate as Dr. rer. pol. with a thesis on a subject in modern national economics. While he was preparing his doctoral thesis, he worked as Executive Assistant to the Management of Ruhrgas AG, Essen. In 1955 he moved on to become Executive Assistant at the Head Office of Vereinigte Elektrizitätswerke Westfalen AG (VEW) in Dortmund. As loan officer and financial analyst in New York he gathered foreign experience in banking during this period. In 1957, he received a limited power of attorney at VEW and general power of attorney two years later; at the same time he took over the commercial management at VEW's Head Office. In 1960 Herrhausen was appointed Director. He played a key role in preparing and executing the partial privatization of VEW in 1966. After completion of the project, he was appointed member of the Executive Board in 1967. Between 1956 and 1968, Herrhausen published numerous articles in trade magazines on issues concerning national and international power supply, corporate finance and company law. During this time, he was, among other things, assistant lecturer at the Dortmund Social Academy and in the Power Association's own training programme for energy economics, capital investment budgeting and industrial economics. Professionally, he was particularly interested in all questions of modern company management, especially costing, economic appraisal including investment budgeting and linear programming as well as company valuation. With effect from January 1, 1970, Herrhausen was appointed Deputy Member of the Board of Managing Directors by Deutsche Bank's Supervisory Board. He was responsible for international business in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, which was still an emerging economy at that time, as well as for foreign trade finance at the bank and economic questions; apart from that, he was responsible for the Essen Branch Region. In 1971, against the resistance of some of his colleagues, he obtained approval from Franz Heinrich Ulrich, Spokesman of the Board of Managing Directors, to build up a strategic planning system. The longer he was member of the Board of Managing Directors, the more supervisory board mandates devolved upon him as a matter of course. Tests of Herrhausen's abilities began with Stollwerck AG and Continental AG, two companies in need of reorganization. Later on, he assumed many other influential positions. In 1979 he showed interest in succeeding to Joachim Zahn as CEO of Daimler-Benz, a career step which he was unable to realize: "After all, Daimler-Benz is Deutsche Bank's biggest investment. I could have done things there. So it would have been in Deutsche Bank's interests as well." Nine years later, Herrhausen's influence saw SPD member Edzard Reuter appointed CEO at Daimler. The banker sought< "political" offices early on in his career. The Federal Minister of Finance appointed Herrhausen as member of the Study Commission "Fundamental Questions in the Banking Industry" (Banking Structure Commission), whose mandate was to examine the structure of Germany's banking industry and to make proposals to improve the banking sector. It was triggered by the collapse of the Herstatt Bank in 1974. The reform of the German Banking Act was based largely on the Commission's work. Later on, the German Federal Government commissioned him and two other "steel moderators" to produce a blueprint for restructuring the German steel industry; the plan was not successful. Herrhausen was a founder of the "Ruhr Initiative Group". He co-founded the "Action Committee for Europe", an association of influential European industrialists who supported the European integration process. He was also member of the Directorate of Germany's first private university in Witten-Herdecke. In 1985 Herrhausen was elected as one of the two Spokesmen of the Board of Managing Directors. He held this office together with F. W. Christians. He became sole Spokesman on May 11, 1988. "Power is something you also have to want," is one of Herrhausen's frequently quoted aphorisms. He understood the tenure of a leading position in business as an opportunity to assume a responsibility in and for the community. During his years in office, he raised many social and ecological issues. In view of the Third World's serious debt problems, Herrhausen was the first representative of a big bank to support debt forgiveness linked with economic reforms. His strong presence in the media gave him a high level of public visibility, previously unusual for a bank manager. On November 30, 1989, Alfred Herrhausen was the victim of a terrorist attack whose perpetrators are still unknown today.