Meet Desiree Fixler
Banker, Keynote Speaker and ESG Critic
Desiree is a leading expert in the field of sustainable finance and investment banking with over 25 years of experience in innovating and shaping financial markets. Once a champion of ESG from within, she is now one of its fiercest critics. Renowned for exposing the dark side of Net Zero and DEI, she is a sought-after keynote speaker, media contributor and advisor.
She serves as a trusted advisor to financial institutions and regulators, including the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. In addition to guest lecturing at leading universities, she captivates audiences with her rare insider perspective and unapologetic truth-telling — all in pursuit of restoring trust in financial markets.
My mission is to eliminate ESG and DEI from the corporate world. Businesses should focus on their core competencies, not social and environmental political agendas.
Blowing the whistle on ESG
In a defining moment during her tenure as Group Sustainability Officer at Deutsche Bank’s asset manager, DWS, Desiree exposed material greenwashing at the company- huge disparities between public ESG claims and internal statements and actions. When her concerns as well as her job were dismissed by the C-suite and Board, she decided to speak out publicly. Subsequent investigations by US and German authorities resulted in a dramatic series of events, including a federal police raid, the removal of the top executives and the largest SEC and German prosecutor greenwashing fines to date.
Desiree’s whistleblowing action sent shockwaves throughout the finance industry, catalyzing efforts to tackle greenwashing. She poignantly shares this cautionary yet inspirational story that goes beyond the call for clearer ESG disclosures to emphasize the power of speaking up to drive meaningful change.
Track Record
Prior to DWS, she has held senior roles at JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Zais Group, where she built and managed ESG investing and structured credit businesses. Desiree has also served as a senior advisor to both BlueOrchard and responsAbility Investments to scale blended finance transactions in the institutional capital markets. Her track record of product innovation includes several award-winning and market transformational products, including the development of the iTraxx and CDX indices, as well as a series of impact securitizations.
Desiree holds a BSc Economics (Hons) from the London School of Economics. She is a member of the CFA’s ESG Technical Committee, a member of the LSE’s Entrepreneurship Advisory Group and a former member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Responsible Investing.