Stella Vermögensverwaltungs

Christoph Schlegel serves as managing director and chief investment officer, responsible for investment strategy and allocation. Julia Thiele-Schürhoff, daughter of founder Heinz Hermann Thiele, provides family oversight and governance. The firm maintains a deliberately lean team, consistent with the late founder's preference for trusted long-term operators over a large institutional staff — former investment strategist Stefan Kamm worked directly with Thiele for many years.

The firm's direct real estate arm, OPES Immobilien, originates and develops its own Munich commercial and mixed-use projects, giving the office an internal sourcing engine unusual for a family office. On direct co-investments and private equity, the firm draws on the industrial networks built by Heinz Hermann Thiele through Knorr-Bremse, Vossloh, and his long board-level involvement with the Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft. Fund commitments provide access to managers across geographies including North America, Asia, and Africa.

Stella Vermögensverwaltungs is a single family office, but its structure blurs the line toward an industrial holding company. Through OPES Immobilien GmbH, the office directly owns, develops, and manages a concentrated portfolio of Munich real estate assets — OPES Tower, Alte Akademie, and the Moosacher Straße mixed-use cluster — rather than investing through third-party funds. On the venture and private equity side, the office acts as a traditional allocator through direct co-investments, SPVs, and fund commitments across stages from venture to buyout.

The firm maintains a dual approach: direct co-investments and SPVs sit alongside fund-of-fund commitments, infrastructure, and private credit allocations. This blended strategy allows the firm to access specialized managers globally while retaining direct exposure to select deals — notably the pre-IPO crypto custody investment — where the Thiele network provides an information edge. The real estate portfolio is an exception, managed entirely through the direct operating subsidiary OPES Immobilien.

The firm's allocations span venture capital, growth equity, and buyout stages, with additional commitments to infrastructure, private credit, and secondaries. Real estate development and long-term holding form a separate, directly operated strategy through OPES Immobilien. The technology allocation includes AI/ML and biotech, while confirmed sector interests extend across industrial tech, climate tech, mobility, fintech, edtech, and agritech — reflecting the industrial roots of the Thiele fortune.

The fortune originates from Heinz Hermann Thiele, who built controlling positions in Knorr-Bremse AG — a global market leader in rail and commercial vehicle braking systems — and Vossloh AG, a rail infrastructure and technology company. Thiele, who passed away in 2021, was one of Germany's wealthiest industrialists, with his stake in Knorr-Bremse alone valued at roughly $15 billion at the time of the company's 2018 IPO. The widow Nadia Thiele, daughter Julia Thiele-Schürhoff, and son Henrik Thiele inherited the controlling shareholding.

Yes, the Heinz Hermann Thiele Family Foundation and Knorr-Bremse Global Care operate as distinct philanthropic vehicles alongside the family office. The foundation directs charitable capital toward social, educational, and arts causes — the late founder was an active arts patron in Munich — while remaining operationally separate from Stella Vermögensverwaltungs' investment activities. Julia Thiele-Schürhoff oversees both the family office and foundation, maintaining continuity of governance and mission.