Chief Compliance Officer · Baobab Wealth Management
Meet Sonja Puetzer
A co-founder who came to financial planning by way of Munich, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. She has managed her own money across borders for two decades, and now helps U.S. expats and foreign nationals do the same.
- Co-Founder
- Chief Compliance Officer
- Cross-Border Planning
An unconventional path to financial planning
Sonja’s path to financial planning is anything but conventional. That’s exactly what makes her valuable to clients whose lives don’t fit neatly into one country or one system.
She began her career with BMW Group in Munich, completing vocational training as an industrial clerk alongside a dual degree in International Business from the European School of Business Reutlingen, Germany and Dublin City University, graduating with both an Irish BA and a German Diplom. From BMW, Sonja joined adidas’ graduate program, rotating through four departments across Germany and Hong Kong before finding her home in apparel product creation. She rose to Category Director at adidas in Shanghai, before moving on to Sportmaster, ultimately serving as General Manager of their most successful private label sports brand across the Sport and Swim Apparel segment.
Living and working across Asia and Europe also meant navigating foreign tax systems, banking structures, and financial decisions across borders, often with savings, investments, and real estate scattered across multiple countries. Watching Jimmy help his clients bring structure and clarity to that kind of complexity is what pulled Sonja toward finance. She made the same transition herself, trading a game plan in sports for a game plan in finance.
Sonja joined Baobab Wealth Management in 2016 as co-founder and became Chief Compliance Officer in 2022. She obtained her Series 65 license in 2024 and is registered as an Investment Advisor Representative with Baobab Wealth LLC, a Florida state-registered RIA. As CCO, she ensures the firm upholds its regulatory obligations and the fiduciary standard at the heart of every client relationship, while also working directly with clients on cross-border financial planning for U.S. expats and foreign nationals.
Sonja speaks German and English natively, along with passable French and Spanish, and enough Mandarin to ask for directions and travel the countryside with confidence.
Raised to go and see for herself
Sonja grew up as an only child in the countryside near Münster, Germany. Her mother was a secondary school principal; her father worked in finance and controlling for the Chamber of Agriculture of North Rhine-Westphalia, and was a firm believer in practical, hands-on education. That philosophy shaped Sonja’s entire approach to learning and problem-solving.
From an early age, her parents encouraged her to explore the world: summer camps in England, a school exchange in France, and a junior high school year in Indiana, USA. She’s been on the move ever since.
Sonja met Jimmy in 2016 while climbing Kilimanjaro in Africa. She was at the time living in Shanghai. After dating for a year inter-continentally, they moved to Hawaii, where their son Hendrik was born in September 2017. Sonja and Jimmy believe deeply in a holistic, global education, one built on travel, cross-cultural experience, and the resilience and grit that come from navigating the world firsthand. They see the world as Hendrik’s classroom, and the understanding that comes from living across cultures as one of the most valuable things they can give him.
The family is currently based in Venice, Florida.
From under the sea to the summit
Outside of work, Sonja is happiest anywhere from under the sea to a mountain summit. She, Jimmy, and Hendrik have sailed thousands of miles across the Caribbean as a liveaboard family on a 41ft Fountaine Pajot catamaran, and, like Jimmy, Sonja holds a U.S. Coast Guard OUPV captain’s license. Underwater, she is an Advanced Open Water Diver with a soft spot for macro life, favorite dive sites spanning the Philippines, Borneo, the Maldives, and Indonesia — with the Darwin Arch still high on the bucket list.
The mountains are another family love. Sonja and Jimmy met on Kilimanjaro and have since summited Elbrus together. Sonja has also climbed Mt. Fuji and Mt. Kinabalu. On two wheels, she has pedaled through some of the world’s most striking landscapes: the length of New Zealand, around Tasmania, Stuttgart to Mallorca, Geneva to Nice, Xinjiang Province, and the full length of Taiwan.
Having traveled to more than 100 countries thus far, Sonja is often the person friends call when they need travel advice for just about anywhere on the map. A former competitive golfer, she now enjoys teaching Hendrik. And when she finally sits still, she is usually deep into a fantasy novel, a cozy murder mystery, or historical fiction.
Sonja’s Journey
From Münster to Baobab
- 1982Münster
Born an only child in the countryside near Münster, Germany, and raised on her father's belief in practical, hands-on education.
- 2002BMW
Began her career with BMW Group in Munich, training as an industrial clerk alongside a dual degree in International Business.
- 2007adidas
Joined the adidas graduate program, rotating through four departments across Germany and Hong Kong before finding her home in apparel product creation.
- 2011Shanghai
Moved to Shanghai, where she rose to Category Director at adidas.
- 2016Kilimanjaro
Met Jimmy on the mountain and co-founded Baobab Wealth Management the same year.
- 2018Sportmaster
Became General Manager of Sportmaster's most successful private label sports brand across the Sport and Swim Apparel segment.
- 2022Full-Time Baobab
Went full time at Baobab as Chief Compliance Officer, adding her Series 65 as an Investment Advisor Representative in 2024.
A life in pictures
More than 100 countries
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