There is an old adage that pessimists tend to be right more often, but optimists do better business. Hans Joachim Reinke is – there are no two opinions about this – an optimist. And – this is also undisputed – he has understood how to do business very well in recent years.

Assets under management of the Union Investment Group have tripled during Reinke's 15-year tenure as CEO, from 168 billion euros when he took office as CEO in 2010 to more than 500 billion euros today. Even if you take into account the fact that the sun shone on the fund industry for a long time in the 2010s, this is remarkable growth. Especially as this growth is accompanied by a pre-tax profit in the billions.

To give you an idea of how long Reinke has been the CEO of the cooperative funds group: When Reinke took over, Deutsche Bank was still headed by Josef Ackermann, and Deutsche Börse was still headed by Reto Francioni. In other words, it feels like an eternity ago.

Now the 62-year-old Reinke is announcing his farewell. In just over a year, on 1 April 2026, he will hand over his duties to his ten years younger fellow Executive Board member André Haagmann, the investment fund company has announced. The Supervisory Board of Union Asset Management Holding, which is chaired by DZ Bank CEO Cornelius Riese, has already approved the appointment.

Next spring, with Reinke, not only will one of the best-known heads of the financial centre be leaving, but also one of its most trenchant and strong opinioned representatives. Reinke has an opinion on all important topics relating to capital investment and – even more importantly – has a stance on all major controversies in the financial centre and in politics, which are also about values and responsibility. At the same time, he is a curious and attentive listener, „often out and about with customers and the Volksbanks“, as colleagues report – and for this very reason a successful salesman. Anyone who talks to him quickly realises that his cheerful Rhineland nature and his talent for translating difficult issues into impressive linguistic images help him in his work. On the other hand, Reinke also knows how to use softer, serious tones where appropriate, for example in response to the turbulence in open-ended property funds.

In 1987, Reinke began his career with the credit co-operatives in the investment advisory department of Volksbank Wachtberg near Bonn. In 1991, he moved to Union Investment: sales consultant, sales director, sales manager. In 2004, he then checked into the Management Board of the holding company, primarily responsible for business with private customers. On 1 July 2010, he finally took over as Chairman of the Management Board. By the time he leaves in 2026, he will have spent a total of 35 years with the fund provider, which will mark its 70th anniversary next year.

His successor Haagmann has worked for Union Investment since 2006, initially in Group Development and later in a leading role in the institutional business. Among other things, he was responsible for strategy, management and controlling for the entire institutional business. The 52-year-old has been a member of the holding company's Management Board since 2022 and is responsible for the institutional business, investment analysis and the property segment. Just a few weeks ago, he discussed the close interplay between digitalisation and sustainability, as well as the contribution of AI and blockchain technology to process optimisation and risk management, in the pages of Börsen-Zeitung. Supervisory Board Chairman Riese praised Haagmann as a „very experienced manager with in-depth knowledge of the asset management industry.“

The resignation of Reinke will result in minor changes to the areas of responsibility on the Management Board next spring. The future CEO Haagmann will then be responsible for the strategy and management of the entire Union Investment Group. He will also remain responsible for the institutional business. Sonja Albers will be responsible for human resources, fund services and legal affairs as well as investment analysis. Frank Engels will be in charge of portfolio management and then also the property business, while Giovanni Gay will be responsible for the private client business as well as IT and infrastructure.