Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy · in office since 6 May 2025

Timeline Media
Katherina ReicheEnergy · Industry · Public office
10Profile · 2015–2025

Ten years on the industry side

Between leaving the government in 2015 and joining it again in 2025, Katherina Reiche represented Germany's municipal utilities, ran one of its largest distribution-grid companies and chaired the federal government's hydrogen advisory council. This executive dossier sets out each role, the organisation behind it, what she did there and the criticism it drew.

2015–2019Chief executive, VKU
2020–2025CEO, Westenergie (E.ON group)
2020–2025Chair, National Hydrogen Council
Katherina Reiche in a navy suit standing in a bright office corridor
Katherina Reiche in a navy suit in an office corridor.
Mandate register

Every documented role, 2013–2025

Executive posts, board seats and advisory roles outside government. Only roles confirmed by a CV, a company document or official parliamentary papers are listed.

Professional mandates of Katherina Reiche
OrganisationRoleDatesTypeSource
Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS)Chair of the advisory board2013–2015Governance, while state secretaryVKU CV; federal CV
Verband kommunaler Unternehmen (VKU)Chief executive (Hauptgeschäftsführerin)Sep 2015 – end 2019ExecutiveVKU CV; ZfK
Bundesverband Öffentliche Dienstleistungen (BVÖD)PresidentElected Oct 2015AssociationBVÖD release, via Wikipedia
CEEP (European public-service employers)PresidentJun 2016 – Mar 2019AssociationVKU CV
Rat für Nachhaltige EntwicklungMember2016–2022Federal advisory councilVKU CV; RNE releases
Coal commission (WSB)MemberJun 2018 – Jan 2019Federal commissionVKU CV
RWE AG; rhenag AG; EWI KölnAdvisory board memberUndated (before 2019)AdvisoryVKU CV
Westenergie (E.ON group)CEO / chair of the management1 Jan 2020 – May 2025ExecutiveZfK; FAZ; Energate
National Hydrogen CouncilChairJun 2020 – May 2025Federal advisory councilZfK; federal CV
MCI Management Center InnsbruckChair of the advisory boardUndatedAcademic advisoryMCI
Schaeffler AGSupervisory board memberElected 20 Apr 2023BoardSchaeffler AGM results
Ingrid CapacityBoard of DirectorsFrom 25 Apr 2025BoardCompany release; Drucksache 21/1136

The VKU CV also lists membership of Atlantik-Brücke, the board and Kuratorium of the Baden-Badener Unternehmergespräche (2002–2016), the deputy chair of an advisory board at Quadriga Hochschule Berlin and the advisory board of cnetz e.V. A seat on the supervisory board of the Dortmund utility DEW21 is named in a 2025 parliamentary question, but its dates are not documented.

Not on the list

No evidence was found that Reiche sat on the management board of E.ON SE, Westenergie's parent company; she headed a subsidiary. Nor was any evidence found of roles at the CDU-affiliated Wirtschaftsrat or the academy acatech. Claims to the contrary in some online profiles are not supported by the sources.

Period 01 · Association

Verband kommunaler Unternehmen

2015–2019

The organisation

The VKU, founded in 1949, is the federal association of Germany's municipal utilities, the Stadtwerke and other publicly owned companies in energy, water and wastewater, waste management and broadband. Today it counts more than 1,600 member companies with around 319,000 employees; during Reiche's tenure Clean Energy Wire put membership at about 1,500.

Her role

Elected in February 2015, she took office on 1 September 2015 as chief executive and executive member of the presidium, succeeding Hans-Joachim Reck. On her appointment she named energy, climate and environmental policy, security of supply and public services ("Daseinsvorsorge") as her interests.

European and national roles

From June 2016 to March 2019 she was president of CEEP, the European Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing Public Services, and from October 2015 president of the BVÖD, the German federation of public-service providers. From June 2018 to January 2019 she sat on the federal Commission on Growth, Structural Change and Employment, the "coal commission" that recommended ending coal power by 2038 at the latest.

The cooling-off debate

Criticism Her move, made public on 2 February 2015 while she was still a state secretary, came as the cabinet was preparing a law on cooling-off periods for departing ministers. SPD deputy leader Ralf Stegner said government members should set an example. The law, passed on 2 July 2015, did not apply to her case. Full analysis.

Departure

On 17 September 2019 she announced her move to E.ON: "Im Rahmen der Umstrukturierungen bei der Eon SE werde ich zum 1. Januar 2020 eine Leitungsfunktion innerhalb des Unternehmens übernehmen" ("As part of the restructuring at E.ON SE I will take on a leadership role within the company on 1 January 2020"). VKU president Michael Ebling said the association regretted the step very much. Ingbert Liebing succeeded her on 1 April 2020.

Period 02 · Corporate

Westenergie, E.ON group

2020–2025
196k km

Power distribution network operated by the group's grid companies

Westenergie, Oct 2024
37k km

Gas distribution network

Westenergie, Oct 2024
11k

Employees, approximately

Westenergie, Oct 2024
1,400

Municipal partnerships

Westenergie, Oct 2024

The company

Westenergie, headquartered in Essen, emerged from E.ON's takeover of innogy. By its own description it is Germany's largest regional energy-service and infrastructure provider and E.ON's largest subsidiary, supplying electricity, gas, water and broadband infrastructure in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Lower Saxony. Its subsidiaries include the grid operator Westnetz.

Her role

She took charge on 1 January 2020 as chair of the management of what was then called innogy Westenergie GmbH; the company became Westenergie AG in October 2020. She led it until she joined the federal government in May 2025. Bernd Böddeling took over on an interim basis from 20 May 2025.

Distribution grids

Company position In a 2024 statement to the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament, Westenergie said more than 95 per cent of renewable-energy installations are connected to the distribution grid, which it called the infrastructural backbone of the energy transition. An interview with Reiche in Tagesspiegel Background ran under the headline that the focus was "too strongly on the big transmission lines".

Hydrogen in the gas grid

Under her leadership Westnetz ran the H2HoWi project in Holzwickede, the first conversion of a public natural-gas line in Germany to 100 per cent hydrogen, operated from October 2022 to the end of 2023. NRW Minister-President Hendrik Wüst visited the project in 2023.

Lobbying and later disputes

Criticism Reiche was listed as a person conducting interest representation in Westenergie's entry in the Bundestag lobby register until she became minister. In April 2026 she said that Westenergie's business "umfasst kein Gasgeschäft" (does not include gas business) and "Ich war nie in der Gaslobby tätig" (I was never active in the gas lobby); critics pointed to the gas network run by its subsidiary Westnetz. The dispute in detail.

Period 03 · Advisory

National Hydrogen Council

2020–2025

The council

The federal cabinet adopted the National Hydrogen Strategy on 10 June 2020 and created the council alongside it: an independent, non-partisan body of 25 experts from business, science and civil society, appointed by the government to answer its questions and issue recommendations, statements and studies.

Her role

The members elected Reiche chair in July 2020, with Robert Schlögl of the Fritz Haber Institute as deputy. She chaired the council in parallel with her Westenergie post until May 2025. Felix Matthes of the Öko-Institut then took over until the council was restructured.

March 2021: a public rebuke

The council's best-known intervention came in March 2021, when it publicly criticised the slow implementation of the strategy. Handelsblatt headlined it a "Watsche", a slap, for the government.

"It's about picking up speed immediately. The rest of the world isn't sleeping. Other nations were faster than us and are also much more focused."

"Es geht darum, umgehend Fahrt aufzunehmen. Der Rest der Welt schläft nicht. Andere Nationen waren schneller als wir und sind zudem deutlich zielstrebiger"

Katherina Reiche as council chair, Handelsblatt, 23 March 2021

Postscript as minister

On 10 June 2026 the cabinet adopted, on her proposal, a reform of the council. Existing memberships ended on 30 June 2026 and new bylaws shifted its focus towards market and economic questions. Analysis She thus reshaped, as minister, the body she had chaired as an industry executive. Hydrogen policy.

Boards & advisory roles

Around the executive posts

The board seats illustrate how widely her network extended across energy, industry and policy advice.

Deutsche Flugsicherung. As parliamentary state secretary at the transport ministry she chaired the advisory board of DFS, the federally owned air navigation service, from 2013 to 2015. It was her first governance role in a state-owned infrastructure company.

Energy advisory boards. Her 2019 VKU CV lists advisory board seats at RWE AG, at the regional gas and water supplier rhenag AG and at the Institute of Energy Economics (EWI) at the University of Cologne. The CV gives no dates. EWI later co-authored the energy-transition monitoring report that she commissioned as minister in 2025.

Rat für Nachhaltige Entwicklung. From 2016 to 2022 she was a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development, which advises the federal government on its sustainability strategy.

Schaeffler. At the annual general meeting on 20 April 2023 she was elected to the supervisory board of the automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler AG, succeeding Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler-Thumann. The lobbying database Lobbypedia gives 28 April 2025 as the date of her resignation; this could not be confirmed from a primary source.

Ingrid Capacity. On 25 April 2025, three days before Friedrich Merz named her as minister-designate, the Swedish battery-storage developer Ingrid Capacity announced that she had joined its Board of Directors. She held options worth about €3,000, which the government confirmed in August 2025 had been sold.

Recognition. In 2021 she received the Mestemacher Prize as "Managerin des Jahres". In April 2025 MCI Management Center Innsbruck, whose advisory board she had chaired, made her an honorary professor.

May 2025

Winding down before office

In August 2025 the Greens asked the government how her business interests had been handled. The answer, Bundestag document 21/1136, is the most complete official account.

"Before taking office, Federal Minister Katherina Reiche ended all previous professional activities and mandates."

"Die Bundesministerin Katherina Reiche hat vor Amtsantritt alle früheren beruflichen Tätigkeiten und Mandate beendet."

Federal government, Drucksache 21/1136, 4 August 2025, answer to question 21
Disclosure
Without recognising a legal obligation, she disclosed a share in a family company that holds three plots of land in Brandenburg, and the Ingrid Capacity options of about €3,000. The options were sold by August 2025.
Westenergie / E.ON
She holds no stock options, restricted stock units, phantom shares or similar instruments from either company.
Special measures
No blind trust, suspension of voting rights or ring-fencing was ordered: such steps "war und ist nicht veranlasst".
Recusal
Whether she must stay out of decisions affecting former employers was described as a hypothetical question to be judged if a case arises. No formal recusal was documented.
Rules
The ministry has no minister-specific compliance rules; Article 66 of the Basic Law and section 5 of the Federal Ministers Act apply.

Criticism LobbyControl had warned on the day of her nomination that "an energy entrepreneur is being made energy minister" and questioned whether she could keep the necessary critical distance from the energy industry. Analysis The government's answer shows that her mandates and financial instruments were wound up, but also that no additional safeguards were put in place beyond the general legal rules. Whether that is sufficient is the core of the debate examined on the controversies and significance pages.

Sources
  1. VKU — Vita Katherina Reiche (March 2019, PDF)
  2. VKU — Der Verband
  3. Clean Energy Wire — profile and reactions to her appointment
  4. Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung, 10 February 2015 — Reiche to head VKU
  5. VerkehrsRundschau, 4 February 2015 — SPD criticises the switch
  6. LobbyControl, 3 July 2015 — Karenzzeit law passed (PDF)
  7. ZfK, 17 September 2019 — Reiche moves to E.ON
  8. ZfK — Ingbert Liebing new VKU chief from 1 April 2020
  9. FAZ, 11 September 2019 — Reiche takes leading post at E.ON
  10. Energate, March 2022 — Reiche remains head of Westenergie
  11. ZfK, May 2025 — Böddeling steps in at Westenergie
  12. Westenergie — statement to the NRW Landtag, 24 October 2024 (PDF)
  13. Tagesspiegel Background — "Der Fokus liegt zu stark auf den großen Trassen"
  14. ZfK — Westnetz: 100 per cent hydrogen in the German gas grid
  15. Bundestag lobby register — Westenergie AG (R001813)
  16. t-online, April 2026 — Westenergie remarks
  17. ZfK, 9 July 2020 — Reiche chairs the National Hydrogen Council
  18. Nationaler Wasserstoffrat — about the council
  19. Handelsblatt, 23 March 2021 — "Watsche vom Wasserstoffrat"
  20. ZfK — Wasserstoffrat: less committee, more market
  21. Federal press release, 10 June 2026 — reform of the National Hydrogen Council
  22. Schaeffler AG — 2023 AGM voting results (PDF)
  23. Lobbypedia — Katherina Reiche
  24. Ingrid Capacity, 25 April 2025 — board appointment
  25. MCI Innsbruck, 8 May 2025 — honorary professor
  26. Deutscher Bundestag, Drucksache 21/1136 (4 August 2025)
  27. LobbyControl, 28 April 2025 — warning of conflicts of interest