COFRA Holding, the investment group owned by the family behind C&A, has chosen former Schroders Capital chief Georg Wunderlin as its next CEO. The appointment puts a private-markets specialist in charge of a business that increasingly invests alongside outside clients, rather than deploying family capital alone.
Announced November 10, the move takes effect in April 2027, subject to regulatory approval. Wunderlin will also join the board, succeeding Boudewijn Beerkens, who is retiring after 11 years with COFRA, including eight as CEO. The group reports more than €40 billion in assets under management.
For family offices, the interest extends beyond the executive appointment. COFRA illustrates a particular approach to expanding family capital: retaining ownership while building investment businesses that also serve other investors.
Family ownership, professional management
Wunderlin will be COFRA’s first CEO appointed from outside the founding Brenninkmeijer family, Reuters reported. Beerkens belongs to the extended family. Reuters puts the ownership group at approximately 50 to 60 people and reports that the family continues to own the entire business.
That distinction matters. Bringing in an external chief executive is not the same as bringing in external shareholders.
COFRA is also more accurately described as a family-owned investment group than as a conventional single-family office. Its ownership traces to descendants of Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer, who founded C&A in 1841. Today, its principal investment businesses span private markets, real estate and asset management.
Three businesses, different ways to invest
Bregal backs private-markets managers through activities including fund commitments, secondaries, co-investments and investments in management firms. It says it has supported more than 100 general partners since its founding in 2002. Its investment activities and partner firms collectively represented €24 billion in assets under management as of March 2026, a measure that includes unfunded commitments and certain minority-owned partners.
Redevco is the real-estate arm, with strategies ranging from retail parks and logistics to real-estate debt and living and leisure properties. Its website reports €10.5 billion under management and more than 340 physical assets.
Anthos Fund & Asset Management serves clients including family offices, foundations and faith-based organizations. Its offering includes outsourced chief investment officer services, alongside strategies across public and private markets.
These are distinct investment businesses, not interchangeable routes into one family portfolio. Their individual figures should not be added together as a measure of the family’s personal wealth: assets under management can include client money, and the reporting definitions and dates differ.
What Wunderlin brings
Wunderlin joined Schroders in 2019 to build its private-assets operation. According to COFRA’s announcement, that business expanded from $38 billion to $116 billion under management through acquisitions and organic growth. His experience includes bringing specialist managers onto a shared operating and fundraising platform.
COFRA says its own capital will continue to be invested alongside clients’ capital as its businesses expand. The leadership change is being presented as continuity of strategy, not a wholesale portfolio reset.
For prospective investors, the practical questions are therefore specific: which manager controls an investment, how much capital the sponsor commits, how fees and conflicts are handled, and what liquidity the vehicle offers. Family ownership can support a long investment horizon. It does not, by itself, establish the terms or risks of any particular fund.
Featured photograph: An archival winter view of Zug, Switzerland, in January 2021, where COFRA Holding is headquartered. Photo: Roy Egloff / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
