Executive Bodies

Thomas Groß has been the CEO of Helaba since June 2020. He is responsible for Group Steering, Human Resources and Legal Services, Accounting and Taxes, Group Audit, Frankfurter Sparkasse as well as Frankfurter Bankgesellschaft.

After completing his studies in business engineering, Groß began his professional career in 1992 as a consultant as the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). From 2000, he was a Partner and Managing Director in BCG’s Frankfurt office, specialising in consultancy for financial service companies. His focus was on banks and savings banks (Sparkassen) in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Central & Eastern Europe. Thereafter, Groß assumed various management roles at the Unicredit Group. From 2008 to 2012, as the Chief Risk Officer, he was a member of the Board of Managing Directors of WestLB. Since 2011, he also held the position of Chief Financial Officer, with responsibility for accounting, controlling and tax. Thomas Groß has been a member of the Board of Managing Directors of Helaba since 2012 and the Deputy CEO since 2015. On 1 December 2025, he also assumed the Presidency of the Association of German Public Banks (VÖB).

Since July 2025, Frank Dehnke is Executive Vice President of Helaba, responsible for the divisions of Saving Banks and SME, Public Sector, WIBank LBS and Sparkassen-Immobilien-Vermittlungs-GmbH.

He degreed in Business Economies with specialization in Savings Banks at the German Savings Banks Academy in Bonn in 2000. Prior to that, he completed an apprenticeship as a savings bank officer at Stadtsparkasse Remscheid, where he worked in different manager and management positions, most recently as Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors from 2011 to 2019. In 2020 Frank Dehnke joined the Management Board of Managing Directors of Sparkasse Oberhessen in Friedberg, of which he also served as Chairman. Since July 2025, he is Executive Vice President of Helaba.

Since August 2025, Dr. Sonja Rauner serves as an Executive Vice President as well as Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Helaba. She oversees the divisions of Information Technology, Operations, Organisation and the CIO/COO Office.

Dr. Sonja Rauner studied Mathematics at the University of Bonn, where she worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Applied Mathematics from 2001 to 2005 as part of her doctorate. In 2005, she joined the international banking group HSBC, where she held various management positions in the divisions of transformation, operations, and transaction banking. Notably, she served as Head of Operations at HSBC Germany from 2019 to 2022, Member of the Management Board at HSBC Service Company Germany GmbH (2020 -2022), and most recently as Head of Operations at HSBC Continental Europe (2022-2025). In 2025, she became Executive Vice President at Helaba before being appointed to the Executive Board in August 2026.

Tamara Weiss has been a member of Helaba’s Executive Board since December 2023. As Chief Risk Officer (CRO), she is responsible for the divisions of Risk Controlling, Credit Risk Management, Restructuring/Recovery and Compliance.

Having completed a degree in business administration, she launched her career at Volksbank Backnang before joining LBBW in 2000. Her most recent position there was Head of Risk Management CRE, Project & Transportation Finance. Previously, she had been responsible for Credit Risk Controlling and Processes for six years.