responsAbility Investments, the largest private provider of microfinance investments worldwide, has announced the departure of its CEO and co-founder Klaus Tischhauser at the end of 2015.

Rochus Mommartz, a longstanding member of responsAbility’s Management Board, has been named as his successor.

After 12 years at the helm of the company, Tischhauser will step down as CEO on December 31, 2015 to pursue his childhood dream of sailing around the world.

Nevertheless, he will continue to serve as a member of responsAbility’s Management Board until mid-2016.

He will also retain close ties to responsAbility both as a shareholder and as advisor.

It is planned that he will be proposed for election to the Board of Directors of responsAbility at the Annual General Meeting in 2018.

Commenting on his resignation, Tischhauser said: “The very founding of responsAbility was inspired by an adventure: My two-year cycle tour from Zurich to Cape Town. In 2008, I embarked on another adventure when I crossed the North Atlantic on a sailing boat during a period of unpaid vacation. Even though the establishment of responsAbility has enabled me to live out my entrepreneurial explorer spirit, my desire to sail around the world has never left me.”

“The decision I have taken will allow me to now realize this dream and will, at the same time, enable responsAbility to take a step forward in its development. I am delighted that I can hand the company over to an outstanding global team led by my longstanding colleague Rochus Mommartz,“ he said.

Mommartz has been with responsAbility since it was founded in 2003 and has been a member of its Management Board since 2010.

He is a recognized expert in the field of private sector investing in developing countries and emerging economies.

Before joining responsAbility, he worked as an independent consultant on financial sector development in more than 40 countries and played a key role in the expansion of ProCredit Holding.

He also helped to design the legal and regulatory framework for the microfinance sectors of eight countries.

As a member of responsAbility’s Management Board, he is responsible for the company’s investment activities in Asia and Africa and for equity investments.

Mommartz said: “I very much look forward to taking on this new challenge as CEO of responsAbility. I know the company extremely well and I am convinced of the potential of the Development Investments business model that we have actively built up under Klaus Tischhauser’s leadership in recent years.”

“The focus will now be on working with our proven team of experts at our 10 locations to systematically pursue our existing strategy and further expand our business activities in all their diversity,” he said.

In addition, responsAbility has decided to increase the number of members on its Management Board from three to five.

The decision reflects the company’s impressive growth, which since 2011, has recorded a threefold increase in assets under management.

Over the same period, responsAbility has opened branches in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Geneva, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Nairobi, Paris and Oslo, and has launched new investment vehicles that focus on agriculture and energy, as well as expanded its private equity investments.

The Swiss asset manager responsAbility was founded in Zurich in 2003 and currently has around $3bn of assets under management, which are invested in over 500 companies in 93 developing countries and emerging economies through 12 different investment vehicles.