Dr. Thorsten Pötzsch, born in Essen in 1963, has been Executive Director of the Securities Supervision/Asset Management Division of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) since September 2021. Previously, he served as Executive Director of the Resolution Division since January 2018.

Before joining BaFin, Dr. Pötzsch was a member of the Steering Committee of the Federal Agency for Financial Market Stabilization from 2016 to 2017. Prior to that, he held various specialist and management positions in several federal ministries from 1994 to 2016. Most recently, he headed Sub-Directorate VII B, Financial Market Regulation, National and International Financial Markets, at the Federal Ministry of Finance. From 2002 to 2007, he served as a division head in the Federal Chancellery. Prior to that, he held various positions at the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry of Justice, and RWE AG .

Dr. Thorsten Pötzsch is a member of the Board of Supervisors and the Management Board of the European Securities and Markets Authority ( ESMA) and a member of the Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions ( IOSCO). He is also Chairman of the ESMA Sustainability Standing Committee .

Dr. Pötzsch studied law at the universities of Passau, Münster, and Munich. He received his doctorate from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he worked as a research assistant. He also served as a lecturer at the University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom, from 1991 to 1993.