From building a trading platform and designing a training program on options, futures, and other derivatives for hundreds of European bankers on behalf of German bank Vereins- und Westbank AG early in his career, Dirk has come full circle to concentrate on options education.

An executive leader in the fields of Global Banking, Corporate Finance and Technology, Dirk is an active investor and has co-founded and/or served as chief executive and board member of several startup companies across three continents – Europe, Africa and North America.

As FOUNDER/Managing Director of consulting firm LTR Ltd., Dirk conducted corporate research and due diligence in Europe, Africa and the US on behalf of corporate clients including well-known British Industrialist “Tiny” Rowland, and served as an advisor on mining issues to several South African governments and was an expert witness in several merger cases before the court of the European Commission. Working on behalf of the Rowland Family Trust and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Dirk built one of the largest leadership development programs in the SADC region in cooperation with Standard Bank of South Africa.

He then later partnered with Jon and Pete Najarian to co-found their own investor education company optionMONSTER and sister online trading company tradeMONSTER with Dirk serving as co-founder/CEO. Under Dirk’s leadership, both companies achieved renown for the quality of content offered and innovation. optionMONSTER gained a reputation as the leader for option education and tradeMONSTER was the first online broker to deploy streaming, desktop-like trading in a web browser and rated “Best for Options Traders” by Barron’s for numerous years running, prior to both companies being sold to General Atlantic in 2014.

Dirk earned an MA (Dipl.-Kfm) in General Business Administration and Finance with a focus in Banking & Corporate Finance from the University of Hamburg, Germany.