As ETL GLOBAL celebrates 10 years empowering SMEs, the network takes a closer look at the individuals and firms that have been instrumental in its success. In this first publication, Anne-Kathrin Steinröder shares her journey, her passion for building connections, and her perspective on leading ETL GLOBAL’s international network.
Coordinator Anne-Kathrin Steinröder brings together all the threads of the ETL GLOBAL Network
With empathy and strategy, Anne-Kathrin Steinröder, head of the ETL GLOBAL Network, maintains contact with numerous partners, customers and colleagues around the globe. Since 2018, the experienced tax advisor and specialist for international tax law has been coordinating the extensive network of experts and is continuously working on expanding it. With great success: ETL GLOBAL has become a well-known international player both in Europe and worldwide. Through the network, colleagues and clients gain exclusive and country-specific knowledge and receive needs-based support in their respective business areas of activity. This means that possible risks, for example when setting up a branch abroad, can be efficiently addressed. Anne-Kathrin is always on the move, be it professionally in tax law or personally with her running shoes in her luggage.
The path to tax consulting
From an early age, Anne-Kathrin has learnt to be flexible. As an army child, born in Frankfurt am Main, she grew up in many cities, including Karlsruhe, Augsburg, Nuremberg and the Cologne and Bonn area. “All these removals have left their mark on me; I’m used to always start over and adapting to new circumstances.”
The family holidays were just as formative, and Anne-Kathrin caught the travel bug at an early age. “My grandfather had a fancy green VW van from the 70s and we drove to Andalusia in it several times, for example,” says the head of the ETL GLOBAL network. “Travelling abroad and discovering new things was a lot of fun for me even as a child,” she adds.
After graduating from high school and with foreign language skills in English, Spanish and French under her belt, Anne-Kathrin decided to study business administration at the University of Cologne. “Business administration keeps many doors open if you don’t yet know exactly where you want to go professionally,” she says. It was only a student job in a law firm that made her aware of the profession of tax consultant. But her desired career choice initially caused skepticism: “Tax consulting was another step away from the desire to work internationally, because you can’t do much with German tax law outside of Germany,” explains the head of ETL GLOBAL Network.
At university, she became involved relatively early on with AIESEC (Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales), a student organisation that promotes international understanding through exchange between students worldwide. When the opportunity to spend time abroad arose during her main studies, Anne-Kathrin Steinröder applied to the renowned business school ESADE in Barcelona and was accepted. She also completed two internships abroad during her studies: one at an auditing firm in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the other at the German Chamber of Foreign Trade in Bogotá, Colombia.
Shortly before Anne-Kathrin finished her studies, the head of the HR department of a large audit firm asked her why she wanted to become a tax consultant. “‘That doesn’t suit you at all. You have to do something with people,’ he said to me at the time,” she remembers laughing. But her plan was set: with a double master’s degree in business administration and international management, Anne-Kathrin single-mindedly pursued her plan of becoming a tax consultant.
“I was a tax consultant at 27 and then it just happened that I was suddenly working in the international outbound business, i.e. for German companies with branches abroad, and always dealing with colleagues who worked internationally,” says the head of the ETL GLOBAL Network. This allowed her to combine everything that she enjoys: tax consulting, internationality and working with people.
Connected to the whole world
When her husband moved to the Finnish capital Helsinki for work, Anne-Kathrin went with him and dared to make a fresh start, a personal and professional challenge: In her early 30s, she started from scratch linguistically and learned step by step to read and understand Finnish tax laws. This enabled the tax and specialist consultant to continue working in her profession. Fortunately, her employer at the time had a project in Finland for which Anne-Kathrin was the ideal candidate. “Thus I became the ‘bridge’ to the local tax authorities and at the same time set up a branch in Finland for my employer,” she explains.
At that time, Anne-Kathrin was primarily looking after clients from the inbound sector, i.e. companies based abroad with a branch in Finland. At the same time, she successfully helped to build an international network for her employer. The networker had arrived professionally. She finds the connection between the “human factor” and tax consulting in an international context particularly rewarding. And the diverse perspectives that arise from different languages, cultures and personalities are an enrichment both professionally and personally. “Every day, I am in contact with colleagues from all over the world. It can be hard work, but I really do enjoy it,” adds today’s Head of the ETL GLOBAL Network with a smile.
Where all threads of the ETL GLOBAL Network converge
In 2017, a call came in that changed everything: A consulting agency contacted her with a promising job offer for another large company. “I had never heard of ETL until then,” Anne-Kathrin admits. No wonder, because ETL GLOBAL, founded in 2015, was still in its early stages. The international tax specialist quickly recognised the development opportunities for ETL as a group of tax, legal and consulting firms with a focus on SME clients. “And I then ensured the current international recognition with the network,” she adds mischievously.
With over 15 years of consulting experience in Germany and abroad, Anne-Kathrin took on the role of coordinator. She built up and expanded the international network with new cooperation partners, and maintained and expanded existing partnerships. As Head of the ETL GLOBAL network, Anne-Kathrin uses her expertise and countless contacts with local partners abroad to observe the dynamic and global interplay between their offers and the clients’ demands: “The bigger ETL GLOBAL becomes, the more requests for other countries we receive,” she explains.
“The network is not only made up of ETL GLOBAL acquisitions in our focus countries, but also of collaborations in countries where we are not present with our own resources.” The excellent collaboration between the Head of the ETL GLOBAL network and the ETL GLOBAL Investment Team was quickly rewarded: In 2022, ETL GLOBAL was awarded the “Rising Star Network Award” by the British magazine International Accounting Bulletin (IAB). Already in 2021, according to the IAB and Accountancy Age, ETL GLOBAL had officially become an international player based on sales and personnel, ranking 7th in Europe and 15th worldwide.
Anne-Kathrin’s first participation in an ETL GLOBAL Conference took place in Amsterdam in 2018.
ETL GLOBAL keeps pace with clients worldwide
What Anne-Kathrin appreciates about ETL GLOBAL is the openness to individuality: “Nobody is forced into a certain role here. Everyone can be who they want to be.” On her business trips, the Head of the ETL GLOBAL network always takes the time to get to know colleagues and partners better over a joint meal. She places great value on a trusting and very personal cooperation: people know each other, their professional careers, their family backgrounds and sometimes even their individual food preferences. It is often the seemingly small and human aspects that lead to cooperation partners or clients being satisfied with the respective contact person, she adds.
In the course of her career, Anne-Kathrin has learned how important it is to balance a global network – between “think big” and “attention to detail”. ETL GLOBAL’s goal is to always act with foresight: in the coming years, perhaps to cover two or three more countries from a region with new cooperation partners – organic growth without losing sight of ETL GLOBAL’s performance promise: “The clients clearly set the direction.” It is a constant process, also influenced by political and economic developments, summarises the Head of the ETL GLOBAL Network.
The international ETL Group deliberately focuses on quality rather than quantity – especially with regard to the global expansion of partnerships. The cooperation partners are hand-picked: “You have to get to know each other personally – little by little, new cooperation partners are integrated into the network and we then work on a few cases together,” explains the tax and specialist consultant. Only when a basic quality standard has been ensured and mutual trust has been developed can the new cooperation partner gradually become a permanent member of the network.
Although Anne-Kathrin nowadays only rarely delves into the details of each case, she sees it as her job to take another look from a “bird’s eye view” and to point out possible risks at an early stage and to give recommendations for action. “We keep up with our clients and accompany them wherever a secure market promises them business,” she emphasises. “Knowing our many different partners, their goals and individual wishes, being in contact with them and supporting them successfully: that’s what makes my job as a coordinator so exciting!”
A look back at ETL GLOBAL Conferences
