WPK
2 September 2022

Press release:
Wirtschaftsprüferkammer Board Elected for 2022 – 2026 Term / Andreas Dörschell – New Wirtschaftsprüferkammer President

Image: © Ben van Skyhawk

At its constitutive meeting on 2 September 2022, the advisory board of the German Chamber of Public Accountants, Wirtschaftsprüferkammer (WPK), which was elected by WPK’s members in July 2022, elected Andreas Dörschell as the new WPK president. Dörschell is a public accountant, tax advisor and managing director of FALK GmbH & Co KG, a medium-sized accounting firm. In addition to his audit work, Dörschell is a certified business valuation expert.

For more than 20 years, Andreas Dörschell has been a volunteer in his profession and professional politics. He has served as a member on the board of WPK since 2014.

When taking over office, Dörschell emphasized his commitment to professional autonomy. “I envision a Chamber that ensures oversight with a sense of proportion and transparency – a Chamber that represents the profession with one voice in society and politics,” explained Dörschell. Dörschell expressed his thanks for the trust put in him which he associated with the expectation of constructive exchange between the members of all WPK bodies about the different requirements and segments of the profession – from individual public accountants to large accounting firms. “Our task is to understand the interests of each segment and find qualified and professional policy solutions together that can be implemented by every segment,” says Dörschell.

For Dörschell, an especially important task is finding and fostering new talent. Dörschell stressed, “Without strong new talent, there can be no bright future or certainty of succession. We must excite young people about this beautiful and unique profession. It’s not just about checking numbers, but about much more: our modern profession stands for understanding financial relationships, sophisticated business models and competence in digitalization and sustainability matters. In all that we do, we provide trust. Trust must be earned and maintained. Every day, our profession contributes to a functioning German economy. This is what we have to make clear.”

It is therefore especially important for the audit profession to be transparent and act independently, critically and with integrity and according to its own professional and ethical principles. WPK is the guarantor of this transparency.

Dörschell believes that WPK’s challenges can only be overcome through the joint action of its elected representatives.

The first new vice president of WPK is Dr. Christof Hasenburg, public accountant and lawyer and notary and tax advisor from Berlin, second vice president is Maximilian Amon, sworn auditor and tax advisor from Munich.

The advisory board also elected 10 other persons to the board which consists of 13 persons: 11 public accountants, 2 sworn auditors. The board represents accounting firms of all sizes. In addition to 9 members of small and medium-sized firms, the 4 largest accounting firms (“big four”) are also represented.

The chairperson of WPK’s advisory board for the 2022 – 2026 term is Dr. Karl Petersen, public accountant and tax advisor from Munich. The first deputy chairperson is Ute Menges, sworn auditor and tax advisor and legal advisor from Bayreuth, second deputy chairperson is Verena Heineke, public accountant and tax advisor from Düsseldorf.

The composition of the board and advisory board of WPK ist shown on  www.wpk.de/wpk/organisation/ (in German).

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