Helaba hires Schmid from Aareal to succeed Fenk

Helaba, the German Pfandbrief bank, has hired Christian Schmid from Aareal Bank to take over from Jurgen Fenk as its board member for real estate.

Schmid will be responsible for a number of divisions within the firm including real estate lending, debt capital markets, sales management real estate and real estate management.

Fenk, who announced his departure from Helaba in December, will leave his post as a member of the board of managing directors on September 30 this year.

“In Schmid, we have been able to gain an experienced real estate expert for Helaba’s board of managing directors,” said Gerhard Grandke, managing chairman of the Helaba’s supervisory board. “His profile ideally suits the bank’s conservative and risk-sensitive business model and he will help us to noticeably boost Helaba’s syndication activities,” Grandke added.

Prior to joining Helaba, Schmid was head of business and syndication management at Aareal Bank for five years.

The banking specialist began his professional career in 1989 at Deutsche Bank, where he was mainly involved in corporate finance and real estate activities.

In 2002, he moved to Eurohypo, where he initially headed up the newly-created syndication team for continental Europe. Three years later, in 2005, he assumed the management of the company’s debt capital partnership department. From 2007 until his appointment at Aareal Bank, he managed the firm’s debt capital markets unit, in which a variety of the bank’s debt instruments were placed on the market by means of syndication, securitisation or portfolio measures.

Schmid’s appointment is still subject to approval by the German European supervisory authorities.