Jan Mieczkowski

Member of the board of DWS Investment Fund
By : Greg Goodale

   Jan Mieczkowski, 45, attributes his position on the board of DWS Investment Fund to a combination of German banking experience and the calm approach to business he learned in Japan. At 21 years old, Mieczkowski emigrated to Germany with his future wife and, settling in Frankfurt, began to work for U.S. investment bank Bear Sterns as a capital market analyst. Two years later he became a U.S. stock consultant. The time difference between Europe and the U.S. allowed him to take up a finance course at the Frankfurt Academy of International Trade, which he admits helped in the closed circles of the German financial world.

   With his sights on a portfolio management position, he became a foreign exchange dealer at Bank of America to beef up his knowledge of currency markets. A year later, he was approached by Deutsche Bank (DB) to set up a money market and foreign exchange department at a joint venture between Deutsche Bank and Japanese bank IBJ.

   Working at IBJ, he found himself in Tokyo in daily contact with the Japanese banking culture, which he prized for its distanced, relaxed approach to work. "There was no reason for artificial urgency, just very strategic, consequential action," Mieczkowski said.

   His Polish background made him a natural candidate to build the foreign exchange arm of DB's newly created operation in Poland in 1995, becoming its manager a year later and dividing his time between Warsaw and Frankfurt ever since. In 1998 DB heaped more responsibilities onto him, appointing Mieczkowski to the board of DB's DWS investment fund.

   Past notes:

   1977 – Moved to Germany

   1980 – Worked as a capital markets analyst at Bear Sterns

   1986 – Graduated from the Frankfurt Academy of International Trade and began work at Bank of America as a foreign exchange dealer

   1989 – Joined Deutsche Bank

   1995 – Transferred to Poland

   1998 – Appointed to the Board of DWS Investment Fund

   A word of advice:

   "Saving on capital markets, especially long term, for 10 or 20 years, has empirically been shown to be the most effective form of saving, but the effectiveness must be judged in the long term."