Martin Blessing

Martin Blessing (born July 6, 1963) is a German banker and Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank AG, Germany's second largest bank.
Blessing is a graduate of the University of Frankfurt and the University of St. Gallen (HSG), where he was also a member of the International Students' Committee. In addition he holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago. He was born in Bremen, Germany. He is from a family of bankers. His father was a member of the Board of Deutsche Bank and his grandfather was President of the German Federal Bank.
From 1989 to 1996 he worked for McKinsey including two years as partner. Following this he worked for Dresdner Bank, Advance Bank (which subsequently failed) and then joined Commerzbank as a Member of the Board in 2001. In 2008 he became CEO and a year later made the decision to take over Dresdner Bank. The takeover ultimately led to the combined bank being bailed out twice by the German government. Though initial attempts were made to blame the bailout on Dresdner, there were major losses within the original Commerzbank group, particularly at its EuroHypo subsidiary.