Career Biography

Dr. Karsten Hardraht has been KfW’s Group General for almost a decade now. KfW is one of the world’s leading promotional banks and has been committed to improving economic, social and environmental living conditions across the globe since 1948. To do this, it provided funds totalling EUR 112.8 billion in 2024 alone. By means of its balance sheet, KfW is the third largest bank in Germany.

KfW Group’s legal team comprises 145 FTE with 110 of them working in KfW. Karsten has a strong track record of deals closed and problems solved for KfW. He has constantly been focusing on evolving the legal function ever since and earned an impressive series of nominations and awards concerning his and his teams’ work, including nominations by Legal500 as in-house lawyer of the year 2024 and in-house team of the year 2026. He joined KfW in 2006 after having worked as an external lawyer in two international law firms. Before having been appointed as group general counsel in 2016, Karsten held management positions in management affairs and regulatory compliance of KfW.