- Annual General Meeting approves all items on the agenda with a large majority
- Carola Paschola and Axel Hellmann elected as new Supervisory Board members
- Ansgar Kaschel starts as new Head of Sales
- Executive Board contract of Dr Stefan M. Knoll extended until 2026
DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG ("Deutsche Familienversicherung"), a digital insurer and the leading InsurTech company in Europe, held its annual general meeting on 25 May 2022. At this meeting, the Executive Board and Supervisory Board were given a vote of confidence for the 2021 financial year and all items on the agenda were approved by a large majority. The focus was on the by-election of new Supervisory Board members. The commencement of work of a new Head of Sales and the extension of the Executive Board contract of the CEO, Dr Stefan M. Knoll, is hereby announced.
Changes in the Supervisory Board
The Annual General Meeting appointed two new members to the Supervisory Board. Carola Theresia Paschola and Axel Hellmann were newly elected to the Supervisory Board to replace the two departing members, Dr Hans-Werner Rhein and Herbert Pfennig. Ms Paschola was elected Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board at the constituent meeting of the newly elected body held on the same day. The self-employed management consultant has held several management positions at international companies. For example, she worked for the American computer company Dell, the French media and technology group Vivendi and the American credit card provider American Express. In the insurance industry, she gained extensive experience at the British specialist insurance company Domestic & General. There, as Managing Director, she had overall responsibility for the markets in Germany, Austria and Poland. Axel Hellmann, a fully qualified lawyer, is the Spokesman of the Executive Board of Eintracht Frankfurt Fußball AG, where his responsibilities include Sales & Marketing. Before being appointed to the Executive Board in 2012, Mr Hellmann worked as a lawyer at various law firms in Frankfurt. He is of counsel at the international law firm White & Case LLP.
"I would like to thank Dr Rhein and Mr Pfennig for many years of very good and trusting cooperation and for their personal commitment as members of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Familienversicherung, which went far beyond what was required. Both will remain on friendly terms with the company and Dr. Rhein additionally as Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board. With Mrs Paschola, we have succeeded in gaining a highly competent and very well connected personality as a member of the Supervisory Board. The fact that the Supervisory Board followed our proposal to elect Paschola as Chairwoman rounds off the new orientation also in the Supervisory Board. Among other things, we expect Mrs Paschola to support the desired internationalisation of the company through her diverse connections," comments Dr Knoll, CEO and founder of Deutsche Familienversicherung. "With Mr Hellmann as our new Supervisory Board member, we are impressively underlining our close connection with Eintracht Frankfurt, of which Deutsche Familienversicherung has been a partner since 2012. We expect Mr Hellmann to provide additional impetus in our cooperation with Eintracht Frankfurt and look forward to the European role that Eintracht Frankfurt Fußball AG will now play. This will give Deutsche Familienversicherung a name recognition advantage not only in the national environment, but also in Europe," Dr. Knoll continued.
New Head of Sales starts on 1 June 2022
Ansgar Kaschel will take over the responsibilities as Head of Sales at Deutsche Familienversicherung on 1 June. Mr Kaschel holds a degree in economics and was already responsible for online sales at Deutsche Familienversicherung as Head of Department from 2015 to 2019. He is now moving from Continentale Krankenversicherung, where he was most recently responsible for direct sales, broker sales, online sales, as well as marketing and web development as a division manager at Europa Versicherung. Mr Kaschel will be responsible for direct, online, DRTV (Direct Response Television) and broker sales as well as marketing at Deutsche Familienversicherung.
"As a proven expert in online and direct sales, he will use his many years of experience to expand and further develop the sales of Deutsche Familienversicherung. We expect Mr Kaschel to further improve the core sales channels, direct, online and DRTV, and to re-harmonise growth and cost efficiency on the basis of predefined sales cost rates. I am therefore pleased to have gained a digitally-minded Head of Sales for Deutsche Familienversicherung in Mr Kaschel," emphasises Dr Knoll.
New 3-year contract for Dr Stefan M. Knoll
Furthermore, the Executive Board contract of Dr Stefan M. Knoll, which expires next year, was extended by three years until 2026. The 64-year-old founder of the company has been a member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Familienversicherung since 2007 and CEO since 2015. His term of office included the introduction of the 16-product matrix, the digitalisation of all sales processes and a large part of the operational and claims settlement processes, the IPO and the internationalisation of the company with its market entry in Austria
"The extension of Dr Knoll's Executive Board contract by the current Supervisory Board gives the fast-growing company the necessary stability and constancy. As a founder and entrepreneurial personality, he brings the necessary "entrepreneurial spirit" to the company with his extraordinary wealth of ideas and stands for a return to profitability of Deutsche Familienversicherung this year and for the next development steps. Irrespective of this, we must now use the next few years to find a qualified successor," comments Carola Paschola, Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Familienversicherung.
During his speech at the Annual General Meeting, CEO Dr Knoll, confirmed the positive outlook and the profitability target while continuing strong growth. For the financial year 2022, Deutsche Familienversicherung is planning a positive pre-tax result.
Further documents on the virtual Annual General Meeting 2022, including detailed information on the professional background of the new Supervisory Board members and the voting results, are available on the Deutsche Familienversicherung website in the Investor Relations/ Annual General Meeting section.
Your Contact
Lutz Kiesewetter
Head of Corporate Communication & Investor Relations
Tel.: +49 69 74 30 46 396
E-Mail: lutz.kiesewetter@deutsche-familienversicherung.de
About DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG
DFV Deutsche Familienversicherung AG (ISIN DE000A2NBVD5) is a fast-growing InsurTech company. As a digital insurance company, DFV covers the entire value chain with its own products. The company's goal is to offer insurance products that people really need and understand immediately ("Simple. Sensible."). DFV offers its customers multiple award-winning supplementary health insurance (dental, health, supplementary long-term care insurance) as well as accident and property insurance. Based on the state-of-the-art and scalable IT system developed in-house, the company is setting new standards in the insurance industry with digital product designs throughout as well as the option of taking out policies via digital voice assistants.