Solarisbank appoints new CIO, CTO dual leadership team as firm scales

Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform Solarisbank has made two C-level executive appointments, chief information officer and chief technology officer, who will be assuming responsibilities from former CTO Hima Mandali.

Solarisbank CIO Ingmar Krusch and CTO Dennis Winter

Ingmar Krusch will be the company’s new chief information officer (CIO), while Dennis Winter will assume the role of chief technology officer (CTO).

The newly created dual leadership team reflects the fact that almost half of the European firm’s 700 employees are part of the tech and product teams, the firm says.

Solarisbank chief platform officer (CPO) Jörg Howein is “convinced” the close-knit dual leadership “can master the challenges of a growing tech organisation”.

The two tech professionals have been working for Solarisbank for several years and will report directly to CPO Howein.

“As a result of the Contis partnership and the expansion with local branches and tech hubs, Solarisbank has grown into a multinational company,” Howein says.

Winter was most recently vice president of technical operations at Solarisbank and in this role responsible for the secure and compliant operation of the tech platform.

Before joining the company, he worked for more than 15 years as an engineer with a focus on systems development and automation.

In his new role as CTO, Winter will be responsible for the strategic development of the tech architecture, the security strategy as well as the integration of the Contis platform.

Krusch was most recently vice president of engineering at Solarisbank and in charge of developing and scaling product engineering.

With more than 20 years of experience in the web portal, mobile and fintech business, he is a “seasoned” tech manager on the engineering, architecture and infrastructure side.

As CIO he will drive the tech organisation as a whole, including coordination between the engineers in all hubs as well as alignment and implementation of the tech and product strategy.