ECB gives consent to Reinhard Höll as NLB’s CTO

ECB gave its consent to the appointment of Reinhard Höll as the seventh member of the NLB Management Board and Chief Transformation Officer (CTO). He will begin his five-year term of office after signing the contract, presumably in the next few days.
 

Höll, who was appointed by the NLB Supervisory Board in February 2025, joined NLB in June and has so far performed the functions of the Assistant to the Management Board. Now, after receiving approvals, the new CTO will focus on driving the management of projects, outlined within the NLB Group business strategy presented a little over a year ago and initiated earlier this year. The strategy foresees doubling NLB Group’s balance sheet, revenues, and profits by 2030, to reach more than EUR 50 billion in total assets, recurring revenues of more than EUR 2 billion, and a targeted profit of more than EUR 1 billion, combining organic growth with selected M&As in SEE.
 

The new CTO will (at the end of the transition period) also direct his attention to IT governance to help the Group achieve ambitious IT strategy targets. Those targets include providing the foundation for a truly cross-functional agile operating model, building Group-wide capabilities for a mobile/digital first bank around architectural enablers, upgrading the infrastructure to a highly resilient hybrid-cloud model, establishing a foundation for data-driven decision-making and (Gen)AI, and becoming the powerhouse of the region for digital talent, originating at least 90% of new regular transactions in an E2E digitized way.
 

About the new CTO
 

Reinhard Höll (1983) is an experienced professional with 20 years of background in international banking groups, and as well a consultancy firm with expertise in retail and corporate banking, growth transformation, technology modernisation, organisational design, operating models, and risk management. He began his career at Commerzbank (2004), where he focused mainly on corporate banking, before transferring to Lehman Brothers (2007) and later to Standard Bank (2008), where he began working in his role as a Credit Portfolio Manager in its Treasury and Capital Management team in London and Johannesburg. He joined the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in 2012, where he currently holds the position of a Partner, serving banking, payment players, fintechs, and technology players, as well as investors across Europe. Furthermore, he also leads McKinsey’s Financial Services Private Capital work in Europe.
 

NLB Management Board also consists of Blaž Brodnjak, CEO; Archibald Kremser, CFO; Andreas Burkhardt, CRO; Hedvika Usenik, CMO Retail; Andrej Lasič, CIB; and Antonio Argir, CGPO.