Peter Solmssen is the first and only American to serve as a Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG. He was responsible for the company’s business in North and South America, as well as being the company’s General Counsel.

Prior to joining Siemens, Solmssen was for five years Executive Vice President and General Counsel of GE Healthcare, one of the six operating units of General Electric Company, based in Chalfont St. Giles, UK. While at GE Healthcare, he led an industry-wide compliance initiative that culminated in a new code of conduct for diagnostic imaging vendors. He joined GE in 1998 as Vice President and General Counsel of GE Plastics in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

From 1989 to 1998, Solmssen was a senior partner in the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP of Philadelphia. He was in charge of the firm’s Frankfurt am Main office, specialising in M&A and securities law.

Solmssen started his career as an attorney at the law firm of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll in Philadelphia, from 1982 to 1989. Before that, he served as a law clerk for U.S. Federal District Court Judge Clarence C. Newcomer, from 1980 to 1982.

Solmssen received his J.D., cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he was Articles Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard University. He also studied law at Brasenose College, University of Oxford on a Knox Fellowship.