EN
Dr. Veronika
von Heise-Rotenburg
CFO & Managing Director @Everphone
Angel Investor – Board Member – Speaker
Business lawyer with a doctorate in capital markets law, McKinsey, today CFO — focused on building and scaling asset-based financing models, professionalizing the finance function incl. data, legal, people & culture; supervisory board mandate at a listed bank.
From growth to profitability, from start-up finance to institutional grade.
Focus areas
Asset-based Financing
Building and scaling securitization structures: funding growth against the value of the company’s own assets rather than against equity.
Two facilities, five lenders, €270m of financing volume; arranged with Citigroup. The securitization is privately placed with banks, not funded in the public capital market. Press releases: Series D, credit facility expansion
Scaling & Transformation
Moving finance functions out of start-up mode into structures that hold: accounting, controlling, reporting. At Everphone also building legal, credit assessment, data protection and compliance from scratch, and taking on people & culture; team building and right-sizing are both part of the job. The structures hold up under external scrutiny: statutory audits, tax audits and bank due diligence.
Appointed CFO and co-managing director with responsibility for global finance: press release. Led Cluno from growth financing through to the acquisition by Cazoo, followed by building the country structures and the move to IFRS: acquisition, conversation. On the people & culture remit: podcast. Sources in German.
Technology & AI
AI in productive use in the finance function since early 2023, not in pilot. It requires clean data and a clear allocation of accountability for machine-generated results.
Started a few months after ChatGPT launched. AI adoption and the ERP implementation together produced around 30 % efficiency gain in the finance function. Handelsblatt
Governance & Leadership
Supervisory board seat at the listed BAWAG Group AG and chair of its audit committee. Agile finance leadership: high-functioning teams steered through OKRs rather than individual targets, built on a feedback culture and psychological safety.
The mandate and the committee chair are documented in BAWAG Group’s corporate governance section; certified “Qualified Supervisory Board Member” and “Financial Expert” by Deutsche Börse; chapter “Agile Leadership in Finanz-Teams” in Agile Konzepte im Controlling, ed. Pia Burkarth, Haufe 2025.
“If you want to understand how finance really scales a start-up, this book is a reliable field guide. At Everphone, Veronika effectively built a small fintech inside the company, because this form of financing did not exist before – least of all at start-ups.”
Jan Dzulko, serial founder, former CHECK24 board member, angel investor
Professional Career
Everphone GmbH
Location:
Berlin/München
Date:
05/2022 – today
Position:
CFO & Managing Director of several group entities
Responsible for:
Finance, Data, Legal, Risk/Compliance/ESG, People & Culture; Establishment of the Munich branch
Cazoo/Cluno GmbH
Location:
Munich/Paris/London
Date:
2018-2022
Position:
Cluno GmbH: CFO and later Managing Director
Cazoo-Gruppe: EU Finance Director & Managing Director
Responsible for:
Accounting, Controlling, Refinancing & Financial Technology, Solvency, Legal
Autobank AG
Location:
Wien/Oberhaching
Date:
2014-2018
Position:
Head of the German branch of Autobank AG & Authorized Signatory
Responsible for:
Retail (car leasing, car financing B2B and B2C), wholesale (car dealerships), deposits
Traxall Germany / HLA Fleet Services GmbH
Location:
Oberhaching
Date:
2014-2018
Position:
Commercial Director & Authorized Signatory
Responsible for:
Finance & Accounting, Controlling, Human Resources & Organization, Legal, Risk Management
Hannover Leasing Automotive GmbH
Location:
Pullach
Date:
2009-2015
Position:
Head of Risk Management & Authorized Signatory
Responsible for:
MaRisk, money laundering and fraud prevention; credit management, process management, strategic back office projects, including management of the spin-off of HLA Fleet Services from Hannover Leasing Automotive and sale to AutoBank AG
McKinsey & Company, Inc.
Location:
München
Date:
2008-2009
Position:
Associate in the banking/financial services sector
Responsible for:
Focus on risk and liquidity management, merger and post-merger
Education
Training
2007-2008
Universität Augsburg
2005-2006
University of Dayton
2002-2006
Universität Augsburg
Continuing Education
2025
2016
2009-2018
since 2012
Various management seminars and coaching sessions on leadership
Supervisory and Advisory Board Positions
since 04-2025
Member of the Supervisory Board and Chair of the Audit Committee of BAWAG Group AG
since 04-2024
Chair of the Advisory Board of Golfstrom Energy GmbH
2022-2025
Supervisory Board Member/Deputy Chair of Project Immobilien
2009-2022
Member and (since 2016) Chair of the impartiality committee of AirCert GmbH
Press, Publications and Appearances
Press Selection
2026-01
2024-10
2024-01
2023-10
2022-05
2021-05
Selected Publications
Selected Speaking Engagements
2023, 2025
2021-2026
since 2010
Lecturer for various seminar providers (including Management Circle, Forum Institut)
How do you actually become a (good) CFO?
I have been hearing this question from my network for years — and it is what set this book in motion.
Published in July 2026 by Schäffer-Poeschel: the edited volume Finanzmanagement in Start-ups und Scale-ups, a German-language handbook for the CFO role. 512 pages, 13 chapters from accounting to strategy and leadership, 25 contributing authors from practice, every chapter peer-reviewed.
Keynotes
Including topics such as finance strategy, agile finance leadership, tech in finance and female finance & governance.
Blog
In-depth information on professional topics: more detailed than LinkedIn posts, more hands-on than journal articles. The blog is written in German; my English writing appears on Substack.
Awards
06-2026
GenCFO Awards — Finance Leader of the Year, International SME (2026). My report on LinkedIn.
04-2026
World Finance Forum – CFO of the Year SME. My report on LinkedIn.
09-2025
Speaker Award “Masterclasses” @Finance-Summit, Düsseldorf
And what else?
Female Empowerment
Initiator, co-founder and co-CEO of the Female Finance Circle — the network for senior women in finance leadership
Animals, nature and sustainability
Natural garden, 2 cats, 10 chickens, 60,000 bees; organization of private clothing swap events and vegan diet
Since 2016: Mentor
for scholarship holders of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the Bayerischen Elite-Akademie as well as at MentorMe
2015-2021: Marathon / Ultramarathon; Mountain hiking
Including 2-Oceans Ultramarathon, KiniTrail, Berlin Marathon, Streakrunner since 2015
2006-2018: Argentine tango
Teaching, DJ, festival organization, article series and reviews for several tango media
