The Flossbach von Storch Research Institute is ten years old this year and its founding director has turned seventy. So it's time to set the course for the future. 

Prof. Dr Thomas Mayer, who will remain associated with the institute but will work as a freelancer in future, will hand over the reins to Prof. Dr Gunther Schnabl (57) with effect from 1 November 2024. ‘We are very pleased that we have been able to recruit Gunther Schnabl for this role,’ say Kurt von Storch, founder and owner of Flossbach von Storch SE, and Thomas Mayer in unison. ‘He is one of the most renowned and influential economists in Germany.’

Thomas Mayer founded the Flossbach von Storch Research Institute in 2014 together with Dr Bert Flossbach and Kurt von Storch and has been its founding director ever since. He previously worked as Chief Economist at Deutsche Bank, European Economist at Goldman Sachs and the International Monetary Fund, among others.

‘The institute was a dream come true for me,’ says Mayer. ‘To work with like-minded people on important topics in an interdisciplinary way, without any prohibitions on thinking, even against the current if necessary, and always with humility before the limitations of our knowledge.’ According to Mayer, the financial market is the right place for this. ‘Because the market makes judgements regardless of the person. On the market, those who see the outlines of what is to come through the fog of uncertainty succeed. And those who are too sure of themselves, whether Nobel Prize winner or layman, fail.’

Gunther Schnabl has held the Chair of Economic Policy and International Economic Relations at the University of Leipzig since 2006, where he headed the Institute for Economic Policy. Before his appointment to Leipzig, Gunther Schnabl worked as an advisor at the European Central Bank. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, the University of Tokyo, the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and at various central banks such as the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank of Japan. 

His research focusses on international monetary policy and the Japanese economy. He has worked with leading monetary economists Ronald McKinnon (Stanford University) and Paul De Grauwe (London School of Economics and Political Science). He is particularly interested in the role of financial markets for growth and prosperity. His latest book ‘Germany's Fat Years Are Over’ shows the reader the causes of the current economic crisis and proposes solutions to maintain prosperity in Europe.

The Flossbach von Storch Research Institute is a think tank committed to free analysis. It positions itself in the gap between sales-related, commercial and purely academic research.  The financial market focus is a unique selling point in the German research landscape. Research focuses on international monetary and financial policy, corporate analysis, the interplay between business and politics and between society and finance. The aim is to contribute to financial education, without which citizens would have only limited control over their economic destiny.

The research findings of the Flossbach von Storch Research Institute are published in commentaries and studies as well as in the form of interviews on the institute's YouTube channel. The Flossbach von Storch asset price index attracts widespread attention. The opinions and contributions of the employees can be found in all important media such as Die Welt, FAZ, Tagesschau, ZDF, WirtschaftsWoche, Handelsblatt, Süddeutsche Zeitung, NTV, Cicero and the Financial Times. Anyone can subscribe to the newsletter!