Dr Reiner Braun holds a degree in economics and is Chairman of the Executive Board of empirica AG Forschung und Beratung (Berlin). He studied economics at the Universities of Osnabrück and Bonn and completed his doctorate at the University of Cologne. Mr Braun has been a project manager at empirica GmbH since 1994. In 2003, he was appointed to the Executive Board of empirica AG, where he has been Chairman since 2019.

His work focuses on housing markets, income and wealth analyses and retirement provision. Mr Braun has been a member of the Association Council of the German Association for Housing, Urban and Regional Planning since 2007, a member of the BBSR's "Property Prices" working group since 2009 and a member of the Construction and Housing Forecasting working group since 2010.