Heiner Hoefer and Stephan Manz join Capco as partner

The German division of global financial services consultancy Capco has added two partners to its ranks: Heiner Hoefer and Stephan Manz. 

Heiner Hoefer joined Capco at the start of this month as a partner in its Insurance practice. He brings around two decades of consulting and financial services industry experience to the firm, most recently serving as a partner in KPMG’s financial services practice. Prior to that, Hoefer worked for Oliver Wyman and for German insurance company Allianz, where he held roles in line management (Head of Customer Orientation, Operation and IT) and as a leader in the firm’s internal consulting wing (Allianz Inhouse Consulting).

Earlier in his career, the newly appointed Capco partner and graduate industrial engineer and MBA also worked for Accenture and KPMG in his first spell at the global accounting and consulting giant. Commenting on his appointment, Bodo Schaefer, who leads Capco’s Frankfurt office where Hoefer is based, said, “We are delighted to welcome Heiner, a well-known digital expert. His expertise, experience and extensive industry network will help Capco expand its insurance presence.”

The move comes at a time when the insurance industry, in Germany and beyond, is facing the heat of digital transformation. Digital-savvy start-ups as well as large tech giants are flocking into the space with more innovative, agile and customer friendly services and solutions, forcing incumbents to innovate their business models and customer propositions. As a result, digitisation is moving up the corporate agenda, with a recent BearingPoint study among German insurance executives finding that alongside regulation, digital transformation is a top theme set to dominate boardroom agenda’s in the coming years. 

“I am very pleased to expand Capco's team. With our capabilities, we will help insurance companies successfully master their digital transformation challenges,” said Hoefer, who specialises in business models, customer excellence, digital, and IT and operations.Hoefer’s appointment follows shortly after Capco also added Stephan Manz to its German partner ranks. The experienced Manz – he has more than 35 years of experience in the financial services sector – took over at the helm of the Digital & Innovation practice. 

After working for over a decade at Deutsche Bank, which yesterday called off its merger talks with rival Commerzbank in a deal which would have formed Europe’s third-largest lender (assets of $2 trillion), Manz established his own financial services consulting firm STM Consulting. At the German banking institution, Manz latterly worked as COO Platform, responsible for the further development and digitalisation of the infrastructure of Deutsche Bank's global private and business customer division, and as Co-Head of PBC Services, heading the global back office with around 10,000 employees. 

“The financial industry is experiencing an epochal change… both in the front end and back end,” said Manz, who will leverage his experience to bring innovative solutions to the table of Capco’s clients. Schaefer:  “Manz has extensive experience in the implementation of major projects. In addition, he has been in charge of numerous restructuring and pilot projects in the digital environment. With his know-how, he will help our customers secure their place in the digital ecosystem.” 

Established in 1998, Capco is a consulting firm dedicated to the financial services industry, specialising in banking, capital markets, wealth and investment management, finance and risk & compliance. The firm has over 25 offices in leading financial centres across the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. 

In other senior consulting appointments in the German financial services space, Strategy& – PwC’s strategy consultancy wing – last year named Robert Bischof the head of its Banking practice in Germany.