Corporate News

Continuity in change: HDI Bancassurance Board of Management member Iris Kremers hands over to Holm Diez but remains Supervisory Board member

  • Iris Kremers is stepping down from all Board of Management positions at HDI Germany at her own request, but will stay on with the group as a Supervisory Board member. The move comes for personal reasons as part of her life plans
  • Holm Diez, currently Chief Sales Officer at neue leben, will succeed Iris Kremers as the Board of Management member responsible for bancassurance at HDI Germany
  • Successful savings bank manager Evi Popp will follow Holm Diez at neue leben, becoming the authorised representative responsible for sales

Iris Kremers will hand over her Board of Management positions at HDI Germany at her own request to Holm Diez with effect from 1 July 2022. The move comes for personal reasons as part of her life plans to spend more time on activities outside the business and with her family. She will continue to contribute her extensive bancassurance expertise to HDI Germany as a Supervisory Board member and consultant. She will remain a Supervisory Board member of Lifestyle Protection AG and Lifestyle Protection Lebensversicherung AG. As at 1 January 2023, she will also succeed Norbert Kox on the Supervisory Board of HDI Deutschland AG. Other Supervisory Board mandates will follow over time.

Collage_Diez-Kremers-Popp

Iris Kremers is currently the Board of Management member at HDI Deutschland AG responsible for bancassurance, which comprises neue leben insurers, PB insurers, TARGO insurers and LifeStyle Protection insurers. She was appointed to the boards of management of the Talanx subsidiaries in 2007, and has chaired them for more than a decade.

The business management graduate joined the bancassurance business in 1997 and successfully held a number of management positions at national and international level, including strategic project management, strategic development and Internet IT systems. She was appointed to the Board of Management of HDI Germany in 2010.

Changes to the Board of Management

Iris Kremers’ successor on HDI Germany’s Board of Management will be Holm Diez, who will also become Chairman of the boards of management of neue leben insurers. In addition, he will become a member and chairman of the boards of management of PB insurers and TARGO insurers.

Holm Diez has been the Board of Management member responsible for sales at the neue leben companies since 2017. The engineering graduate’s achievements in his area of responsibility in the past five years include expanding cooperation with savings banks throughout Germany, successfully establishing new products on the market, and deploying innovative technical solutions to expand and progress digital sales support for the savings banks.

Before that, he worked as a management consultant in a number of functions in the financial services area, ending up with responsibility for the insurance and real estate business at one of Germany’s largest savings banks.

The new head of sales at neue leben will be Evi Popp. She will be appointed as an authorised representative with effect from 1 August 2022. Following approval by BaFin, the German supervisory authority, she will be appointed at the beginning of 2023 as a member of the boards of management of neue leben Holding AG, neue leben Lebensversicherung AG, neue leben Unfallversicherung AG and neue leben Pensionskasse AG. Evi Popp comes from Kreissparkasse Heilbronn, where she is Director of Private and Retail Customers. The certified savings bank economist has extensive experience of the savings banks sector, where she has worked for 26 years, largely in management. Past positions were in the retail and private clients area and as a managing director in the international corporates business serving a number of savings banks.

The appointments are subject to approval by BaFin.

Bancassurance continues its successful development

Torsten Leue, Chairman of the Board of Management of Talanx AG and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of HDI Deutschland AG, said: “My warmest thanks go to Iris Kremers for her extraordinarily successful work for HDI Germany’s bancassurance operations. I would like to pay tribute to her achievements in turning the Talanx Group’s banking partnerships into an engine of the Retail Germany business’s success over the past two decades. Her decision to focus more on her private life is a sad one for us, but at the same time I am extremely pleased that she will continue to contribute her know-how and expertise to the Group as a Supervisory Board member.”

“We are saying goodbye to an absolute expert in bancassurance on our boards of management. Iris Kremers successfully expanded the cooperation with our banking partners, making us one of the most important bancassurance players in Germany. I am very grateful to her for this”, said Dr Christopher Lohmann, the member of the Board of Management of Talanx AG responsible for the division, and Chairman of the Board of Management of HDI Deutschland AG. “Holm Diez is an ideal successor. He brings extensive experience of both bancassurance and the HDI Group. In the past five years, Holm Diez’s innovative ideas in the sales, technology and human resources areas have allowed neue leben to move forward decisively. We are convinced that he will continue the bancassurance area’s success. Evi Popp is another great asset who is joining us from the savings bank organisation. She is both a sales expert and someone who can shape the business – just the right mix to maintain and expand neue leben’s existing success. I wish both of them a great start and every success in their new positions.”

With effect from July 2022, HDI Deutschland AG’s Board of Management will consist of the following members: Dr Christopher Lohmann (Chairman), Holm Diez (Bancassurance), Sven Lixenfeld (Life & Investments), Herbert Rogenhofer (Property/Third-party Liability/ Accident/Motor), Stefanie Schlick (Sales & Marketing) and Jens Warkentin (Finance).


Disclaimer

This news release contains forward-looking statements which are based on certain assumptions, expectations and opinions of the Talanx AG management. These statements are, therefore, subject to certain known or unknown risks and uncertainties. A variety of factors, many of which are beyond Talanx AG’s control, affect Talanx AG’s business activities, business strategy, results, performance and achievements. Should one or more of these factors or risks or uncertainties materialise, actual results, performance or achievements of Talanx AG may vary materially from those expressed or implied in the relevant forward-looking statement. Talanx AG does not guarantee that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does Talanx AG accept any responsibility for the actual occurrence of the forecasted developments. Talanx AG neither intends, nor assumes any obligation, to update or revise these forward-looking statements in light of developments which differ from those anticipated.