Fritz Esterer

I am the CEO of WTS Germany and have been the Chairman of WTS Global since 2009. Before joining WTS, I was the Global Tax Director of Siemens AG for almost fifteen years. Prior to this assignment, I led the tax function of stock-listed PWA AG, which at the time was the biggest German paper company. I started my career in 1982 as a tax consultant at a chartered accounting firm. However, looking back I believe that it was my extensive experience as a Tax Director in multinational companies which shaped me the most. To this day, I always take the in-house perspective when looking at tax issues. It is this spirit that laid the foundations upon which WTS Germany and WTS Global are built. The numerous business partnering models which we carry out successfully on a national and international level, for instance, originated from this mindset.

From the early days, I was convinced that WTS Germany could only be successful within a global set up. As such, we did not want to join any other network, but rather we wanted to create a global firm under the roof of WTS. Thus, we invested heavily in building an organization of hand-picked tax companies all over the world that have the same DNA and with whom we could jointly continue to grow.

Personally, I am fascinated by the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which I am convinced will change our profession dramatically in the next decade. I, therefore, consider it crucial to invest in the development of intelligent automated tax tools.