• Brigitte Réthier to start her new role as Head of Development Cooperation on 15 July
• Christiane Laibach to step down from the KfW Executive Board on 31 July after 36 years

The KfW Board of Supervisory Directors has appointed Dr Susanne Maurenbrecher (47) as Member of the Executive Board of KfW Group for three years with effect from 1 October 2026. She will assume responsibility for the business areas Information Technology (IT), Operations (OS) and Transaction Management (TM) within the Executive Board. This involves taking on the roles of Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Operations Officer (COO).

The news was announced in a statement by Chair of KfW’s Board of Supervisory Directors Katherina Reiche, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, and Deputy Chair and Federal Minister of Finance Lars Klingbeil following the meeting of the KfW Board of Supervisory Directors on 17 June 2026.

At the same time, the Board of Supervisory Directors thanked Christiane Laibach who will retire from her role on the KfW Executive Board as of 31 July. Brigitte Réthier is set to take over on 15 July. Her areas of responsibility will be International Development Cooperation and KfW’s subsidiary Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (DEG). In future, Melanie Kehr will take on responsibility for the Export and project finance business sector, which is based in the subsidiary KfW IPEX-Bank. The relevant committee of the Board of Supervisory Directors signed off on the allocation of responsibilities at its meeting on 17 June 2026.

Christiane Laibach joined KfW in 1990 as a graduate trainee and worked across all the pillars of KfW Group’s international business. She was appointed to the Management Board of KfW IPEX-Bank in 2008 and was subsequently Chief Risk Officer (CRO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) from 2011. She joined the Management Board of DEG in 2015, became Spokesperson for the Management Board in 2018 and Chair of the Management Board in 2020. She has been a member of the KfW Executive Board since 1 June 2021 and is responsible for all international business of the group.

Stefan Wintels, Chief Executive Officer of KfW:

"We will miss Christiane Laibach enormously, on a professional level and for who she is as a person. A total of 36 years at KfW have left their mark. Her level of expertise is outstanding, particularly in development policy and international export and project finance. Her entire career has been a constant upwards trajectory: from graduate trainee through all conceivable positions in the bank’s international business to member of the Executive Board. At the same time, I am looking forward to working with Brigitte Réthier, who will further expand KfW's global partnerships in the interests of Germany with her extensive expertise in the area of international financing."

Dr Susanne Maurenbrecher joined KfW in November 2023 and was initially head of the Group Development and Economics department. Among other things, she was responsible for strategic further development of IT in line with the bank’s overall strategy and for managing the IT change portfolio. Before joining KfW, Dr Maurenbrecher held various positions at McKinsey from 2009 to 2023, most recently as a partner. In this role, she advised banks on strategy and transformation projects. Previously, she held various roles in the NORD/LB Group.

Stefan Wintels, Chief Executive Officer of KfW:

"KfW is taking on many tasks to further strengthen Germany as an economic centre. To achieve this, we will also need effective IT and Operations in the future. With her comprehensive strategic understanding, Dr Susanne Maurenbrecher is ideally suited to help us drive forward the further development of KfW. A special thank you goes to Melanie Kehr, who has been responsible for the IT and Operations departments for over a year in addition to our domestic business."

KfW provides photos for download here: KfW Photo Archive