// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Stefan Hoops say to the ball? You're always bouncing to my tune, that's a hoop dream.
Stefan Hoops | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 29 January 1980 Hannover, Germany |
| Education | University of Bayreuth |
| Occupations | Banker, business executive |
| Title | Chief Executive Officer, DWS Group |
| Predecessor | Asoka Wöhrmann |
Stefan Hoops (born 29 January 1980), is a German banker and business executive. He has served as chief executive officer of DWS Group, the asset management subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, since June 2022. Since March 2026, he is member of the management board of the Deutsche Bank.
Early life
[edit]Hoops was born in 29 January 1980 in Hannover.[1] He played basketball during his high school years, including during a year of his youth spent living near San Francisco.[2] He studied at the University of Bayreuth where his doctoral thesis explored how financial instruments could be used to alleviate the debt crisis in emerging markets.[3][4]
Career
[edit]Hoops joined Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt in 2003, working on fixed income sales.[5] From 2006 to 2007 he worked for Lehman Brothers in Germany.[6] He later worked in New York, for a time, alongside Greg Lippmann, the Deutsche Bank trader who appeared in The Big Short.[7][2]
Hoops was appointed in a 2019 restructuring, to head a new corporate bank combining the transaction bank and corporate-client businesses.[8][9][clarification needed] Hoops was made chief executive of DWS Group in June 2022, succeeding Asoka Wöhrmann, who resigned amid investigations by US and German authorities into allegations of greenwashing at the firm.[10][11] Hoops was widely described as having been brought in from Deutsche Bank to stabilise the business, although some criticised Hoops' dearth of asset management experience.[12]
Quickly, Hoops removed the ESG classification system at the centre of the allegations, resulting in a 75 per cent reduction in assets classified under environmental, social and governance strategies in DWS's annual report.[13] He acknowledged that the firm's ESG marketing had been overly "exuberant", while maintaining that DWS had not published false reports.[14] In 2024, DWS was fined €25 million by German prosecutors following the conclusion of their investigation.[15] DWS separately reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.[16]
Under Hoops, DWS has pursued a strategy centred on growing its passive investment platform, Xtrackers, alongside expansion into private credit, infrastructure and cryptoassets.[17] [18] By March 2026, DWS shares had roughly doubled since June 2022.[19]
Hoops was appointed to the Deutsche Bank management board in March 2026.[20][21][22] He is the youngest member of this group and responsible for Asset Management.[5][23] Alongside other business leaders including the CEOs of Eon and ThyssenKrupp Steel, Hoops is a member of the Economic Advisory Board of the Green Parliamentary Group in Germany's Bundestag. He was appointed at the point of the group's launch in the first quarter of 2026.[24][25]
Public positions
[edit]Hoops has been an outspoken critic of what he regards as a resurgent culture of machismo in the financial industry and has called on companies to maintain zero tolerance for sexual harassment and to ensure equal opportunities.[26] His position drew public support from other German business executives and was covered widely in the financial and mainstream press.[27][28][29]
In 2025, Hoops argued that President Donald Trump's tariff policies had acted as a catalyst for long-overdue reform in Europe, particularly on infrastructure and defence spending.[30]
Hoops has also expressed an interest in the concept of a pan-European stock exchange, an idea championed by Friedrich Merz among others.[31]
Personal life
[edit]Hoops is an enthusiast of basketball, a sport he played during his school years,[2] and is known for his commitment to strength and fitness training.[32][5] He is married and has three daughters.[1]
References
[edit]- 1 2 Obertreis, Rolf (2022-06-09). "Stefan Hoops". Tagesspiegel Background Finanzen & Sustainability (in German). Verlag Der Tagesspiegel GmbH. Retrieved 2026-06-02.
- 1 2 3 "Andreessen and Horowitz don't mind the haters". Financial Times. 2019-04-03. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
- ↑ Osman, Yasmin (2018-01-10). "How Stefan Hoops became one of the top managers in the global financial sector". Handelsblatt (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-12.
- ↑ Hoops, Stefan (2008). Ansätze zur Lösung der Schuldenprobleme von Schwellenländern durch innovative Kapitalmarktinstrumente (in German). Hamburg: Kovac. ISBN 978-3-8300-3429-2.
- 1 2 3 Kremer, Dennis (2026-05-03). "This man wants to be at the top of Deutsche Bank". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2026-05-12.
- ↑ Kassella, Carolin (2024-12-18). "Vertrag von DWS-Chef Stefan Hoops bis 2028 verlängert". Börsen-Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-02.
- ↑ Storbeck, Olaf; Morris, Stephen (2019-04-01). "Deutsche Bank executive seeks to calm merger fears". Financial Times. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
- ↑ Morris, Stephen; Storbeck, Olaf (2019-07-07). "Deutsche Bank to exit equities trading in radical overhaul". Financial Times. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
- ↑ "DWS chief resigns after police raid over greenwashing". Financial Times. 2022-06-01. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
- ↑ Langley, William; Miller, Joe (2022-06-03). "Trading Places: DWS boss departs, Fidelity's 110 crypto hires, JPMorgan's Brexit moves". Financial News. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
- ↑ "Deutsche-Bank-Tochter DWS: Ex-Chef Asoka Wöhrmann von Greenwashing-Vorwürfen entlastet". manager magazin (in German). 2025-06-17. Retrieved 2026-06-04.
- ↑ Miller, Joe; Walker, Owen; Klasa, Adrienne (2022-06-02). "Deutsche banker takes over asset manager in the eye of an ESG storm". Financial Times. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
- ↑ Ross, Dave (2022-12-26). "Cruelty Free Super backtracks on ethical claims". The Australian. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ Arons, Steven (2022-12-07). "Deutsche Bank investment boss wants to 'tone down' ESG hype". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ Müller, Florian; Storbeck, Olaf (2025-04-02). "Deutsche Bank's asset manager fined €25mn over greenwashing scandal". Financial Times. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ Storbeck, Olaf; Palma, Stefania (2023-08-25). "Deutsche Bank's DWS to pay $25mn to settle SEC probes". Financial Times. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ Ricketts, David (2025-11-17). "DWS survived an ESG crisis. Now the firm's CEO wants to steer it towards a new era". Financial News. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ "Most Influential in European Finance 2026". Financial News. 2026-07-06. Retrieved 2026-07-07.
- ↑ Müller, Florian (2026-03-19). "Deutsche Bank promotes two potential successors to Christian Sewing". Financial Times. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ Martinez, Maria (2026-03-19). "Deutsche Bank appoints Marie-Jeanne Deverdun and Stefan Hoops to management board". Reuters. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ Rüppel, Werner (2026-03-19). "DWS-CEO Hoops erhält die höheren Weihen". Börsen-Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-02.
- ↑ Cheesley, Amanda (2026-03-20). "CEO of DWS Appointed To Deutsche Bank's Management Board". Wealth Briefing. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
- ↑ Fröhlich, Christoph (2026-03-19). "Stefan Hoops rückt in den Vorstand der Deutschen Bank auf". Das Investment (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-04.
- ↑ Olk, Julian (2026-02-19). "Greens establish economic council with surprising composition". Handelsblatt (in German). Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ "Members of the Green Economic Advisory Board". Green Party (in German). Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ Musafer, Shanaz; Acheson, Lucy (2025-03-03). "Diversity backlash: Is 'masculine energy' coming to the UK?". BBC. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ Sychev, Andrey (2025-01-17). "German executives rally behind warning against 'Wolf of Wall Street' machismo". Reuters. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ Schlenk, Caspar; Slodczyk, Katharina (2025-02-12). "DWS-Chef Stefan Hoops im Podcast: "Mein Wokeness-Post hat den Zeitgeist getroffen"". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-02.
- ↑ Osman, Yasmin (2025-01-17). "Anti-Woke-Debatte: DWS-Chef warnt vor Rückkehr der "machohaften Ära"". Handelsblatt (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-02.
- ↑ Fontanella-Khan, James; Aliaj, Ortenca; John, Jamie (2025-05-11). "Donald Trump has shaken Europe out of 'lethargic' habits, says DWS chief". Financial Times. Retrieved 2026-04-16.
- ↑ Withers, Iain; Reggiori Wilkes, Tommy (2025-11-14). "'No playbook' for AI bubble fears says Deutsche Bank investment arm CEO". Reuters. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
- ↑ Schwab, Niklas (2024-11-15). "Physical fitness and its influence on professional success". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 2026-04-16.
Further reading
[edit]- Obertreis, Rolf (2022-06-05). "Wer ist Stefan Hoops, der neue DWS-Chef?". capital.de (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-02.
- Schreiber, Meike (2022-06-02). "DWS: Der neue Chef lobt Vorgänger Asoka Wöhrmann". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-02.
- Hörler, Salomon (2017-09-22). "Bundestagswahl: "Wir könnten ruhig ein bisschen stolzer auf unser Land sein"". Die Zeit (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-04.
- "Zwiespalt wegen Trump: DWS passt Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie an". FONDS professionell (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-04.
- Dörsam, Harry (2026-07-29). "Rekordjagd bei der DWS: Verwaltetes Vermögen klettert auf 1,19 Billionen Euro" (in German). die-Privatbank.de. Retrieved 2026-08-05.
External links
[edit]- Official website (in German)