The appointment as chief executive of Bayern LB in 2010 was a signal that the bank, which has its base in Munich, was about to embark on a radical path of repositioning and restructuring. Haeusler has a distinguished track record in the finance sector, working extensively at Bayern LB and also contributing to the management of a number of other banks. His reputation as a known performer in the banking world led to him being considered as a safe pair of hands at a bank that had undergone some turmoil following an unsuccessful investment venture in Hypo Group Alpe Adria of Austria.
Haeusler, who turned 60 in 2011, has had a long career in international investment banking, going back to around 1978, when he started out at Deutsche Bundesbank after working for a period as an intern at the company. He had received training as a banker and as a lawyer, with the financial part of his education being received at Deutsche Bank in the town of Darmstadt in Germany. His legal studies were then carried out in Frankfurt and in Geneva, in the period before he took up the Deutsche Bundesbank internship. However, it is in the years following 1994 that Haeusler established himself as a major player in international banking.
After 16 years at Deutsche Bundesbank, Haeusler was appointed to the board and to the central council at the bank. However, two years later, in 1996, he then moved on to Dresdner Bank, where he served on the board of the investment banking arm, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. In addition, he took on external directorial responsibilities at a number of companies, including Airbus Germany, as well as a series of other high profile positions in Germany, such as membership of the German Stock Exchange Advisory Panel.
It was in 2001 that Haeusler confirmed his growing international reputation with a move to the IMF, based in Washington DC. At the IMF, he managed the Capital Markets Department as counsellor and director, before leaving in 2006 to take up a joint base in Frankfurt and Paris as part of his appointment to a number of roles at the US investment bank Lazard. Lazard appointed him a managing director and vice chairman of the Lazard international business, and he also became a member of the Lazard Germany advisory board.
Between 2008 and 2010, Haeusler served on the board of RHJ International, a financial investment company, and during this period he also became an acting deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Bayern LB. It was this appointment that put him in a prime position to take the reins as CEO in 2010.
Meanwhile, in addition to his duties as Bayern LB CEO, he is also on the supervisory board at MKB Bank Zrt and on the administrative board at DekaBank. Haeusler is a member of the Group of Thirty.