Rob Benson
About Rob Benson
Rob Benson, 46, serves as Chief Compliance Officer of The New Germany Fund, Inc. (GF) since 2025 and concurrently holds compliance leadership roles across DWS entities, including Director at DWS (since 2024), Senior Team Lead for AFC & Compliance US (since 2025), and Vice President at DBX Advisors LLC (since 2025) . GF’s proxy states officers are elected annually and that the Fund pays no compensation to officers; Benson reported no GF securities on his Form 3 and is listed with no beneficial ownership in the proxy, underscoring limited fund-level pay/ownership alignment for this role . As a closed-end fund with no employees, GF has not established a compensation committee and does not disclose TSR or financial performance metrics tied to officer compensation in its proxy materials .
Past Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| DWS | Director | Since 2024 | Senior legal/compliance leadership; oversight across registered investment companies |
| DWS (AFC & Compliance US) | Senior Team Lead | Since 2025 | Leads anti-financial crime and compliance function supporting fund complex |
| DBX Advisors LLC | Vice President | Since 2025 | Executive responsibility within DWS ETF/advisory affiliate |
| DWS Legal | Associate General Counsel | 2023–2025 | Legal leadership supporting registered investment company governance/compliance |
| DWS Legal | Vice President & Senior Counsel | 2021–2023 | Senior counsel for U.S. mutual/closed-end fund complex |
| DWS Legal | Assistant Vice President & Counsel | 2017–2021 | Counsel within DWS Legal organization |
External Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| None disclosed in GF proxy filings for Benson | — | — | — |
Fixed Compensation
GF pays no compensation to officers; compensation for DWS-employed officers (including Benson) is not disclosed by GF.
| Metric | FY 2023 | FY 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Fund-paid officer compensation | None (officers receive no compensation from the Fund) | None (officers receive no compensation from the Fund) |
| Compensation committee | Not established (neither Fund has employees) | Not established (neither Fund has employees) |
Performance Compensation
| Metric | Weighting | Target | Actual | Payout | Vesting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not applicable (no fund-paid officer compensation; performance metrics/payouts for officers are not disclosed by GF) | — | — | — | — | — |
Equity Ownership & Alignment
| Ownership Item | As of May 16, 2025 (Proxy) | Form 3 Filed May 20, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Beneficial ownership (shares) | None | No securities beneficially owned |
| Derivative securities (options/RSUs) | None disclosed | None reported |
| Shares pledged as collateral | None (no beneficial ownership) | None (no beneficial ownership) |
| Officer election cadence (alignment context) | Officers elected annually by Board | — |
Context: As of May 16, 2025, all Directors, nominees, and executive officers as a group owned 6,236 GF shares (<1% of outstanding), indicating overall low insider ownership at the fund level; Benson individually reports none .
Employment Terms
| Item | Disclosure |
|---|---|
| Role | Chief Compliance Officer of GF |
| Start date | Since 2025 |
| Election/term | Officers are elected annually by the Board following the Annual Meeting |
| Address of record | 5201 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256 |
| Other employment contract economics (severance/CoC/clawbacks) | Not specified in GF filings; GF pays no officer compensation and has no compensation committee |
Investment Implications
- Absence of fund-paid compensation and no disclosed performance metrics or incentive payouts for officers indicates no direct pay-for-performance linkage at the GF level for Benson; any compensation levers exist within DWS employer structures and are not disclosed in GF’s proxy .
- Zero beneficial ownership and no reported derivative holdings eliminate near-term insider selling pressure from Benson and suggest limited fund-level alignment via equity for this role .
- Annual officer election cadence provides governance continuity but does not reveal retention economics (severance/change-of-control) at the fund level; retention risk, if any, would be tied to DWS rather than GF .
- For trading signals, lack of Form 4 activity coupled with no holdings removes insider transaction cues; governance oversight remains the primary lens for evaluating Benson’s impact (compliance leadership across the fund complex) .