People

54-year-old Per H. Utnegaard from Norway, presently head of Swissport the airport service provider at Zurich has been selected to succeed Herbert Bodner, caretaker CEO of Bilfinger. Bodner took the helm of the construction company when the former Prime Minister of Hessen resigned his seat on the board of management. The Supervisory Board had appointed Bodner as interim CEO until May 31. The new CEO will be regularly appointed when the candidate has agreed on the date of severance with his present employer. As had been envisaged, the new CFO effective April 1 will be Axel Salzmann, who held a similar post in ProSieben-Sat.1. Salzmann will take the place of Joachim Müller who after repeatedly giving fallacious profit forecasts announced his decision last year to resign.

Deutsche Telekom has invited Ines Kolmsee to join its Supervisory Board, thus raising its gender privilege quota in favour of women to 40 percent. On February 6, the group announced that Kolmsee would succeed the late Bernhard Walter on the Supervisory Board. Kolmsee was chair of the management board of SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Holding from 2006 and 2014, when she was also a member of the Supervisory Board of FUCHS PETROLUB, Umicore and Suez Environnement. This appointment brings the Supervisory Board to numerical completion. According to a company communiqué of February 25, Christian P. Illek will be head of human resources on the Deutsche Telekom management board. This comes as a surprise; after Marion Schick’s resignation for health reasons, Chief Legal Advisor Thomas Kremer was appointed caretaker head, a position he has held for just on one year.

Freenet has invited Sabine Christiansen to join its Supervisory Board. Her experience as journalist and entrepreneur, and her award-winning social awareness and commitment make her a “new member of great worth” as CEO Christoph Vilanek stated on February in Büdelsdorf, in Schleswig Holstein. The former talk show presenter’s appointment is effective immediately in succession to Achim Weiss who resigned his seat for personal reason.

Michael Schneider is scheduled to succeed Othmar Belker as CFO of the NORMA Group by the end of September. Belker’s resignation, agreed on with the company – the Supervisory Board did not renew his contract – concludes eight years of service. Werner Deggim will act as caretaker CFO. The company communiqué of January 30 announcing Belker’s resignation makes no mention of regret.

Heinz-Joachim Neubürger has taken his own life in Munich. He was 62 years old. In Siemens the reaction was one of deep shock. No information has been divulged regarding exactly what happened. In the Siemens vs. Neubürger corruption trial, the Munich Tribunal ruled against Neubürger sentencing him to pay 15 million Euros in damages. The executive had appealed and in December 2014, the parties agreed to settle against a payment of 2.5 million Euros, not least since it was the most that Neubürger would have been unable to pay. The shareholders’ meeting on January 27 voted its approval of this out-of-court settlement. Neubürger had always rejected the allegation of dereliction of duty.

On January 28, the Kassel tribunal appointed Roland Bent to the Supervisory Board of SMA Solar Technology. A member of the board of management of Phoenix Contact, Bent has taken the place of SMA co-founder Günther Cramer who passed away on January 6 last. In Phoenix Contact, Bent, an electro-technical engineer, is responsible for product marketing and development and management of innovation and technology. During the meeting on February 11, Erik Ehrentraut was elected to the chair of the Supervisory Board of SMA Solar Technology. The former chairman of the Supervisory Board had taken a step back to the vice-chair in 2011 which now, is occupied by Kim Fausing on behalf of major shareholder Danfoss.

The appointment of Matthias Müller to the management board of VOLKSWAGEN was on the agenda of the company’s Supervisory Board for February 27. The executive was summoned to take change of a new company area, cooperation among luxury brand sports cars. In addition to Porsche he will be dialoguing with Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini.

Isra Vision: Bolstering up

Industrial image processor lsra Vision AG, is broadening its board of management. The new Ressort Operations sector will be headed by Andreas Gerecke who will be responsible worldwide for optimizing production processes and extending infrastructures. The Prime Standard listed company is confident that this will foster efficiency and hence growth. Gerecke has 25 years of professional experience in international industrial concerns including the post of COO with a subsidiary of ABB.

SMA Solar: Savings

In response to its fall in turnover SMA Solar Technology AG is tightening its belt. Not only is the TecDax listed concern resolved to slash a total of 1600 jobs overall, but it also intends abolishing the position of CFO on the board of management. The company announced that previous CFO Lydia Sommer left the company at the end of February 2015. The management board will therefore be composed of four members led by Pierre-Pascal Urbon who will also take responsibility for the company’s financial affairs.

On leaving Siemens, Lydia Sommer joined the management board of SMA in Summer 2012, with responsibilities that included finance, human resources, compliance and IT. Since at that time, the company’s intention was to place greater emphasis on fostering internationalisation and development, the company resolved to increase the management board by the post of a full-time CFO. When questioned, SMA states that Sommer had contrinbuted to the success achieved in heightening the group’s efficiency, but the reduction of the management board is now a necessity because of how the company has developed.

Uzin Utz: terra terra

Werner Utz, chairman of the management board of Uzin Utz AG, intends to resign at the end of 2015. Thomas Müllerschön, who has been with Uzin Utz AG since 1994 and is now the General Standard-listed company’s CFO has been nominated as his successor from the beginning of 2016. A graduate in Economics and Commerce, and in Managerial Engineering, he has been with the company since 1994 and has been a member of its management board for 12 years with responsibility for finance, distribution and human resources. In his new position, he will decide on company strategy, finance, and control, human resources, IT, legal matters, organization and purchasing.

The founder’s nephew, Werner Utz, expects to join the Supervisory Board during the course of 2016. At the same time, Beat Ludin and Heinz Leibundgut – both of whom work in Uzin Utz – should join the management board.