Company

From Berlin’s first fintech to Europe’s largest retail exchange

With a smart idea, pioneering spirit, and a highly motivated team, we founded Tradegate in 2001 as Berlin’s first fintech company. Initially launched as an ECN, it quickly won over investors with its fast, automated executions free of brokerage fees and other charges. Consors, Germany’s first online broker, became a strategic partner. Tradegate soon became the preferred trading venue for German retail investors.

In 2009, the company received approval from the State of Berlin to operate a fully licensed securities exchange, marking the first establishment of a new exchange in Germany in over 150 years. That same year, Deutsche Börse AG acquired a stake in both Tradegate AG and the operating company for the newly formed Tradegate Exchange. Tradegate AG retained its key role as a market maker on the exchange and continued expanding its electronic trading platform. Our formula for success: excellent technology, fast execution, and unbeatable costs. Within just a few years, Tradegate AG transformed Tradegate Exchange into Europe’s leading exchange for retail investors.

Our latest innovation: the tradegate.direct app— a trading tool for your pocket with a unique range of features. It provides private investors with smart, direct access to the stock exchange— anytime, anywhere, and free of charge.

The leading figures

Founder and CEO

Holger Timm

The CEO has been an entrepreneur in the financial sector since 1986. Since Tradegate AG became an independent entity within the corporate group in 1999, he has been responsible for its strategic direction as CEO. Additionally, he oversees administrative market follow-up functions such as organization, human resources, compliance and legal affairs, credit market follow-up, internal auditing and anti-money laundering, marketing, as well as accounting including controlling and regulatory reporting.

Member of the Executive Board

Thorsten Commichau

Thorsten Commichau has been with the company since 2000 and played a key role in developing the Tradegate ECN, leading an in-house software development team. He was appointed to the executive board in 2007 and is primarily responsible for ensuring the continuous operation of our extensive proprietary IT systems, as well as the ongoing development of all our internal software solutions across all business areas. His responsibilities also include sales and client relationships with our affiliated service providers.

Member of the Executive Board

Karsten Haesen

Karsten Haesen has been working within the group of companies since 1999, initially at Berliner Effektengesellschaft and Ventegis Capital AG. Since 2022, he has been responsible for developing and marketing the new tradegate.direct business segment and was appointed to the executive board of Tradegate AG at the same time.

Member of the Executive Board

Jörg Hartmann

Together with Kerstin Timm, Jörg Hartmann is responsible for overseeing market making operations on Tradegate. His specific focus is trading in domestic stocks and the entire ETP universe, including the rapidly growing sector of personal investment plans processed by numerous custodian banks via Tradegate Exchange. He has been a member of the executive board since 2000.

Member of the Executive Board

Klaus-Gerd Kleversaat

Klaus Kleversaat co-founded Berliner Effektenbank in 1998 and has since held various board and supervisory positions within the wider group of firms. Following a restructuring of the group, Berliner Effektenbank became a division of Tradegate AG, where he now serves as an executive board member for the private banking sector.

Member of the Executive Board

Kerstin Timm

As a founding board member, Kerstin Timm has been responsible for overseeing market making activities alongside Mr. Hartmann since 1999. Her current primary focus is trading in all foreign ISINs listed on Tradegate Exchange, with intraday market balancing on their respective primary exchanges.

Members of the Supervisory Board

Frank-Uwe Fricke (Chairman)

CEO of Euro Change Wechselstuben AG
Member of the supervisory board of Tradegate AG since June 16, 2011
Chairman since June 16, 2023
Member of the audit committee

Prof. Dr. Jörg Franke (Deputy Chairman)

Member of the supervisory board of Berliner Effektengesellschaft AG
Member of the supervisory board of Tradegate AG since August 19, 2003; serving as chairman from February 16, 2006, to June 16, 2023
Chairman of the audit committee
Member of the risk committee