The board of managing directors leads the foundation. It is made up of three members who have many years of experience in investing and managing large amounts of assets. The board of trustees appoints the board of managing directors. The board represents the foundation in and out of court.
The board members are Anja Mikus (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment Officer), Dr. Thomas Bley (Chief Financial Officer, Chief Risk Officer) and Stefan Spannagl (Chief Operating Officer).
Anja Mikus (66), is CEO and CIO of the German sovereign fund KENFO and has been working in the investment industry for more than 30 years. After graduating at the University of Göttingen, she began her professional career in 1988 in the Allianz Group, where she progressed from Asset Management to become managing director of Allianz Kapitalanlagegesellschaft and a member of the management board of Allianz Pimco Asset Management in Munich. From 2001, she was managing director of Union Investment Privatfonds GmbH, and was responsible for portfolio management and the investment strategy of the Union Group in Frankfurt am Main. From 2014 to 2017, she worked at Arabesque Asset Management Ltd. in London and Frankfurt am Main as Chief Investment Officer & Partner. Between 2015 and 2020 Mrs. Mikus was a member of the supervisory board of Commerzbank AG. Anja Mikus was born in Kassel in 1958.
Dr. Thomas Bley (62) ), who holds a doctorate in economics, began his corporate career at Deutsche Bank AG in 1994. After a three-year stint as an Associate Banker at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London at the end of the 1990s, he moved back to Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt am Main, where he worked as a Senior Credit Analyst until 2003. He then returned to the Thames for several years as Managing Director of Eurohypo AG. Back in Germany, Bley briefly worked as Managing Director and Chief Credit Officer at Hypo Real Estate and then again at Eurohypo from 2007. In 2008, he was also involved in the rescue operation for Hypo Real Estate as a member of the steering committee of the banking consortium that had provided liquidity assistance. In 2009, he became a member of the Board of Managing Directors of Eurohypo, with responsibilities including risk management, finance and legal affairs. From 2014, he worked at Deutsche Bank Group in various functions as Managing Director and COO. Since December 2017, the Hamburg native has been Chief Financial Officer (CFO) & Chief Risk Officer (CRO) of the foundation KENFO in Berlin.
Stefan Spannagl (58) is a trained banker and began his professional career in 1993 at what is now Hypo-Vereinsbank in Munich after completing a degree in IT at the Technical University of Munich. There he initially worked in the technology division with a focus on retail and investment banking and was most recently Managing Director of the group-wide IT provider of the HVB Group. From 2005, Spannagl was responsible for operations as COO of Quirin Privatbank and a Swiss service provider in the field of asset management. From 2019 to 2021, he worked for the French banking group BPCE in Germany as part of a transformation project for a German fintech investment. He has been a member of the KENFO Executive Board since April 2021 and, as Chief Operating Officer, is responsible for HR, business management and project management.
