Board member of Volksbank Breisgau-Nord
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Karl-Heinz Dreher and Markus Singler have been on the board of Volksbank Breisgau-Nord for 24 years and are now retiring together at the end of June.
Karl-Heinz Dreher and Markus Singler were born and raised in Elzach, albeit seven years apart. They saw the light of day there in the long-closed hospital. For 24 years, as members of the board of directors of Volksbank Breisgau-Nord, they were jointly responsible for the largest cooperative financial institution in the Emmendingen district with 80,000 customers and 40,000 members. At the end of June they will be leaving together and will retire.
Dreher trained at the Volksbank in Freiburg
“I actually wanted to study sport after graduating from high school,” said Dreher, when banking was not the top priority when choosing a career. However, due to an accident, he had to change his mind. At Volksbank Freiburg, he began his training as a banker, where he then worked for a long time in the corporate customer area. “At 40 you have to be a member of the board,” he remembers the advice of a teacher at the Walter-Eucken-Gewerbeschule. He was appointed to the board of directors of Volksbank Waldkirch on June 1, 1996.
Dreher and Singler met in Waldkirch in 1996
There he met Markus Singler, who had started his apprenticeship at Volksbank in the Kandelstadt in August 1980. “As a ten-year-old I rolled 10-pfennig coins, Grandma’s Romm play money, in paper.” His dream job emerged early on. He had only briefly considered becoming a teacher. Over the years, Singler took on more and more responsibility in the bank. Since May 1997 Dreher and Singler have both been board members of the bank, which merged with Volksbank Emmendingen in 2002. In retrospect, for both of them, “before the feelers were put out in the other direction”, it was a spot on and probably the most important decision of their board life.
Contact with customers was and is important to both of them
The outgoing board members also agree on what was most important to them personally in their work. “Contact with people, advising and accompanying them,” was a top priority for Dreher. “I worked in direct customer business for 38 years,” says Singler as a minder. He has accompanied many of them from financing their first own car to owning their own home and beyond. “It wasn’t just success,” said Dreher. “With some we are through phases in which Spitz had to be reckoned with,” says Singler.
Regionality was the key to success. Also, “because we live in a blessed region with a high degree of industry diversity,” emphasizes Dreher. In the crisis of 2008 to 2010 in particular, the fact that “we as a regional bank are not trying to turn the big wheel” paid off. Also with the result that customer volume and equity have doubled in the past ten years. “The necessity of downsizing was humanly difficult for me,” said Dreher, for whom the employees are still the best capital of a bank. Mutual appreciation and trust within the bank, but also with customers, are priceless.
“The banking world in 2030 will look different than it is today”Karl-Heinz-Dreher
“It is clear that the banking world in 2030 will look different than it is today,” says Dreher, happy that Patrick Heil and Fritz Schultis have found an internal successor for the Board of Management. As generalists who are familiar with the bank, they are well prepared, even for difficult times. Dreher currently sees its regional business partners more heavily burdened by Corona than during the financial crisis and Singler hopes “that there will be no fourth wave, because some could no longer survive it”.
Even if you are never just a private person as a bank manager, Dreher could switch off while cycling and skiing, and football and athletics provided a balance from everyday life. “I have a large group of friends outside the banking world,” said Dreher. Many of them have been with him since primary school. It is worth a lot, do well, with which to raise other topics. Not to be physically or mentally indolent remains valuable to him.
“I will get involved somewhere, less in the banking sector, more in the social field”Markus Singler
Singler found the necessary balance with hiking and tennis, so he decided to cross the Black Forest from north to south on the Westweg with his wife, who is also retiring from work. But he was already drawn into the distance, Canada was a destination, Australia should become one “when it is possible again”. Otherwise, he first wants to enjoy the freedom that early retirement at 58 gives him. “My own planning was for that when I was 60,” says Singler. When the supervisory board brought up the earlier variant in the course of the upcoming generation change, it only considered briefly. But he also wants to look for new tasks for 2022. “I will get involved somewhere, less in the banking sector, more in the social field.”
“Nothing,” replies Dreher when asked about his retirement plans. First of all, he only planned free time and he hopes it will work. Having time with your wife and family and for the mountains, hiking and skiing. The Rohrhardsberg is one of his favorite places and like all his previous life, he is not drawn to the big wide world. “There are blessed landscapes in the immediate vicinity, Europe offers beautiful travel destinations,” he emphasizes. But ideas for volunteer work have already been brought to him.
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