People
Adidas is keen to have Katja Kraus and Kathrin Merges on the Supervisory Board. In a communiqué of March 17, the sports-goods manufacturer confirmed its endorsement of the two women for the Supervisory Board at the elections to be held in Fürth on April 8 next. Adidas itself has stated its intention to have at least one women stand for election. Up to now the Adidas Supervisory Board has been composed of 12 members, two of whom were women representing the interests of the Board of Directors. Between 2003 and 2011 former soccer player Kraus was on the Board of Management of Hamburger Sport Verein. Merges, on the other hand, has been on the Henkel Board of Directors since 1999 as head of Human Resources. Christian Tourres is leaving the Supervisory Board for age reasons, while Alexander Gründen is leaving for professional reasons.
Bechtle’s Supervisory Board intends to present new member Matthias Metz on June 15. If he is elected, he will proposed for the chair of the Board of Directors and successor to Gerhard Schick. In the wake of Klaus Winkler’s resignation last November, Schick, who had already left the Supervisory Board, agreed to come out of retirement to again chair the Board of Directors of the IT service provider.
Celesio has not only changed its major shareholder; there have been changes in the Supervisory Board too. The new Chairman is John Hammergren, and the Chairman and CEO of McKesson, Celesio’s new major shareholder, has taken the place of Stephan Gemkow who resigned on March 13. Also joining the Board of Directors as new shareholder representatives are Paul C. Julian, Executive Vice President and Group President of the McKesson Corporation, as well as Prof. Wilhelm Haarmann, partner of the law practice Linklaters, In the wake of the restructuring event, Florian Funck and Hanspeter Spek will leave the board. Just over a month ago, McKesson’s efforts to buy their way into the Stuttgart pharmaceutical concern was successful at the second attempt.
Consequent to the Commerzbank General Shareholders’ meeting held on May 8, two managers have to be elected to the Supervisory Board. The decision by the governing body led by Klaus-Peter Müller dates to March 19. New entries include Stefan Lippe, former Swiss Re CEO to replace E.ON CFO Marcus Schenk who left the Supervisory Board to return to Goldman Sachs last September. Nicholas Teller, former member of Commerzbank Board of Directors is also running the gauntlet of voters’ choice . He will guide the Rickmeers shipping line until mid 2014 after which he will replace Prof. Hans-Peter Keitel. The former president of BDI (Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie) will resign his post with the conclusion of the General Meeting.
Deutsche Lufthansa has confirmed that Monika Ribar will join its Supervisory Board to replace Jürgen Hambrecht. Hambrecht, former CEO of BASF, will resign during the shareholders’ meeting of April 29 to re-join BASF, the largest chemical conglomerate in the world now Supervisory Board level. Monika Ribar, former CEO of Panalpina, also worked at BASF in Austria at the outset of her career.
The Board lf Directors of Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft is about to welcome two women. The world’s largest re-insurance company has decided it needs the female touch at the helm, with Doris Höpke and Pina Albo. The two new members of the Board of Directors are law graduates and have, for several years, worked for Munich Re in a variety of positions. They are the first women to be appointed to the group’s Board of Directors for some 21 years. Höpke, age 47, will begin on May 1 with responsibility for the “Health” department which up to now has been led by Nikolaus von Bomhard. 51-year-old Albo instead will commence on October 1, and replace the head of Europe Georg Daschner, who is retiring. In addition to the two new members of the Board of Directors, the Supervisory Board has proposed two new members for itself. Ursula Gather dean of Dortmund’s Technische Universität and, since the death of Berthold Beltz, also chair of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Stiftung watchdog committee; incidentally, the foundation is the largest shareholder in ThyssenKrupp. The second newcomer will be Gerd Häusler who is leaving his position as CEO with Bayern LB. The candidate for the chair of the Supervisory Board is again former CEO of BMW and VW Bernd Pischetsrieder. Peter Löscher and Annika Falkengren, the Swedish bank official did not stand for re-election. Löscher, at the head of Zürcher Renova Management since March, and Sulzer’s proposed candidate for the chair of the Board of Directors and again member of the Supervisory Board of Thyssen Bornemisza Group,the former Siemens CEO preferred to tender his resignation.
Contemporaneous to the conclusion of the shareholders’ meeting on April 16, Gerhard Cromme, Klaus Krone and Michael Otto will leave the Axel Springer Supervisory Board. The publishing company is hoping that Rudolf Knepper, former member of its Board of Directors with responsibility for logistics, will succeed in getting elected to its Supervisory Board this, the second time round. Knepper had been expected to get elected last year but alleged irregularities in one of the Springer logistic subsidiaries came under fire from the magistracy. Despite being in no way involved in the fictitious business transactions staged by a number of Springer group employees, Knepper preferred to withhold his candidature. There is therefore nothing to prevent his election on April 16. On March 5, Springer also let it be known that he wanted outgoing Linde CEO Wolfgang Reitzle on the group’s Supervisory Board. The other two candidates are Lothar Lanz, Springer group outgoing CFO, and Internet investor Martin Varsavsky. Argentine by birth the entrepreneur is president and founder of FON, established in 2006 and now the world’s biggest WI FI provider.
If her invitation to the shareholder’s meeting is anything to go by, Simone Bagel-Trah is a probable candidate to Bayer’s Supervisory Board to replace Ekkehard Schulz who is leaving at the closure of his year’s shareholders’ meeting on April 29. Bagel-Trah, heiress of the Henkel family, is the only woman ever to have chaired the Supervisory Board of a DAX-listed company. When asked at the end of January why she had never stood for election to another Supervisory Board, she replied that she took her job within the chemical and consumer goods group very seriously.
Karl Ulrich Garnadt is moving to the Deutsche Lufthansa group Board of Directors. Former CEO of Lufthansa Cargo AG, he will take over from Carsten Spohr as head of the Lufthansa Passage segment. Spohr, on the other hand, is taking over from Christoph Franz as chair of the Board of Directors. Franz will be leaving the company shortly for the Swiss chemical conglomerate Roche. Garnadt has been with Lufthansa since 1979.
After six years on the Deutsche Post Board of Directors, and more than 25 years in the group, Bruce Edwards is resigning his seat in the Boardroom and going into retirement. In the course of the meeting of March 12, the Supervisory Board accepted his resignation, effective March 10, “with regret”. It then appointed new Board of Directors member John Gilbert as head of the DHL Division Supply Chain with immediate effect.
Less than two weeks after the unexpected resignation of Kathrin Dahnke, CFO of DMG MORI SEIKI, the Supervisory Board has appointed André Danks as her successor. 37-year old Danks, who was head of Capital Markets and Investor Relations has already taken over as CFO at boardroom level in the areas of Finance, Accounting, Controlling, Taxation, Risk Management and Investor Relations.
Heinz-Peter Ross, member of the Talanx Board of Directors, will leave the company towards mid-2014. On March 19 last the insurance company issued a curt communiqué to the effect that the 48-year-old head of business and private clients in Germany would not be continuing in his position. The Supervisory Board has appointed Jan Martin Wicke as his successor from May 1.
Prof. Rolf Nonnenmacher is standing for election to the Supervisory Board of Continental. In 2013, the former Chairman for Europe of KPMG, the consultancy and auditing firm and its top man in Germany left the partnership that still today certifies Continental’s year end accounts. Nonnenmacher will be free to take up his new post from October 1. Until then, Bernd W. Voss remains on board.
Peter Schmitz, whose resignation from Fraport will become effective at the end of August will not be replaced. Schmitz’s decision to resign was his own, and his responsibilities will be distributed among the remaining boardroom members.
Klaus Probst has announced his resignation from LEONI with effect from end June 2015. Probst, who has led the company since 2002, explains his decision as arising from “my own ideas on how to spend my life”. His successor will not be appointed before early 2015. The WCS (Wire & Cable Solutions) industrial division for which Probst is co-responsible will, by contrast, be assigned to Board member Frank Hiller in July this year.
Stefan Freyer resigned his post on the Board of Directors of Cologne-based QSC on March 31. According to the company, the 47-year-old manager decided to dedicate himself to “new professional challenges”. Freyer joined QSC subsidiary Info AG in 1997 as head of sales logistics. Ultimately, his responsibilities covered operational activities, ITC business and IT solutions from Info AG..
SMA Solar Technology, a producer of invertors, has reshuffled responsibilities at boardroom level. Technology has been split into Technical Innovation and Technical Development. Effective April 1, Jürgen Reinert will be appointed member of the Board of Directors member responsible for Technical Development. His responsibility will be for “the development of new platforms of product and the expansion of premises for conducting development worldwide”.
Bernd M Steidle, Board member with responsibility for Marketing and Sales of TecDAX-listed STATEC Biomedical since 2000, has resigned from the company with effect from March 19. Both Supervisory Board and Board of Directors have expressed their thanks to Steidle for his long service with the company and the significant contributions he made to its growth, with best wishes for the future. He will not be replaced on the Board of Directors.
Telegate: New head of finance
Telegate, the telecommunications and advertising concern Prime-Standard-listed on the Frankfurt bourse, has just appointed a new CFO. Franz Peter Weber will take over from the present head of finance Ralf Grüßhaber, on the day of the shareholders general meeting this coming June. Grüßhaber has had a seat on the Telegate board of directors for ten years and is resigning from management at his contract expiry date for personal reasons. He will be proposed for election to the Supervisory Board during the shareholders general meeting..
Grüßhaber’s successor, Weber, will also take over responsibility for the areas of information, technology, legal matters and regulating. Weber has been on the staff of the telecommunication concern for 13 years. He began his career with Telegate AG in 2000 as head of accounts and control. He has been a director in the financial division since 2006.
Heidelberger Druck: news about sales
As of the beginning of April, Marcel Kiessling resigned from his seat as member of the board of directors for sales of Heidelberg Druckmaschinen AG. Kiessling, whose resignation was by common consent, will be replaced by Harald Weimer, presently head of business areas services, spare parts, non-consumable materials and used machinery. This reshuffle at the top is part of the on-going restructuring effort involving in international sales..
Kiessling joined the company in 1989, and was head of business in the United States from 2004 to 2014. He joined the board of directors in 2010. The new board member, Weimer, an engineer, has been with Heidelberg Druck for 15 years and has held a variety of key posts in international distribution, the most recent of which was head of business in North- and South-America. His seat on the board of directors will give him responsibility for managing and optimizing sales worldwide, thus contributing towards guaranteeing Heidelberg Druck’s profitability in time. In addition to Weimer, Heidelberg’s board of directors is chaired by Gerold Linzbach, head of finance Dirk Kaliebe and Stephan Plenz whose responsibility is equipment (product management, purchasing, research and development as well as manufacturing and assembly).
CPU: alone in the driver’s seat
CPU AG the software house listed on the Munich free market bourse, has a new CEO. Commencing April, Roger Heinz will be the only helmsman at the tiller guiding the software house with its over thirty years of experience in IT, communication and financial services
The Board of Directors, therefore, has been downsized. In 2013, the previous two managing directors Werner Binder and Sven Wollenhaupt stated that for personal reasons they would not accept a further term of appointment. So, after 40 years in IT and more than 15 in CPU, Binder resolved to retire while Wollenhaupt after 15 years in CPU is leaving to pick up new challenges.
Wollenhaupt and Binder were together for more than seven years guiding the group that develops software for banks, and services of a software nature quality guarantee and project management for the banking sector. According to a company communiqué, the two former managers are at the disposal of the CPU group in a consultancy capacity to ease the transition period.
Villeroy and Boch: no replacement for the exiting player
Jörg Wahler, CFO of della Villeroy & Boch, has decided to leave the SDAX-listed company at the end of May to be free to pick up new challenges. Head of finance, human resources and compliance, Wahler joined the porcelain manufacturers board of directors in 2011 after twenty years of professional experience managing the finance of such names as Kraft-Jacobs-Suchard, Campbell’s Germany and Reckitt Benckiser.
A note from the management of Villeroy & Boch states that Wahler’s successor has yet to be identified. Until a successor is appointed, the company’s finances will be managed pro tempore by the president of Villeroy and Bosch’s Board of directors, Frank Göring.