People

In the beginning of 2014 Julian Deutz will be appointed to the Executive Board, according to Axel Springer on 2 July. The present Head of Group Controlling will already follow in Lothar Lanz’s footsteps at the end of this year. Lanz, 65 years old, in the Executive Board with responsibility as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) since 2009 at publisher “BILD” and internet group, will probably change to the Supervisory Board in April next year. Lanz came from ProSiebenSat.1 Media four years ago.

Celesio has surprisingly and immediately recalled Markus Pinger on 3 July. The reason for this is, according to the Executive Board of directors, “different opinions in reference to the management of the company”. Marion Helmes will be, till further orders, in an acting capacity in charge of the tasks of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), together with her responsibility as CFO. The 47-year-old woman has “decidedly co-created the reconstruction of the group”, it is said.

Richard Beyer will be chairman at Dialog Semiconductor. The former Freescale head is part of the Executive Board since February as independent non-executive director. Furthermore, he is member of the Supervisory Board at Micron Technology. His predecessor Gregorio Reyes will remain in the Supervisory Board, according to the Swabian Apple supplier.

After almost seven years at E.ON Marcus Schenck will return to Goldman Sachs. Klaus Schäfer, at present head of the Executive Board at E.ON Global Commodities, will overtake his position at the energy supplier as from October. Schenck did not decide against E.ON, but rather for Goldman Sachs, the energy giant quoted its CFO on 16 July.

At Gerry Weber International the son of the head of the company will join. With effect from 1 August Arnd Burchardt will be ordered to the Executive Board, together with Ralf Weber, according to the fashion group on 30 July. As Doris Strätker will leave for personal reasons, the Executive Board will increase with one member. Her contract ended at the end of July 2013. Burchardt will be in responsibility of Strätker’s resorts wholesale, licences and marketing. He is in charge of the core brand Gerry Weber for many years and has influenced its positive development clearly, according to the enterprise. Ralf Weber will be in charge of business and the development of the company.

Jochen Scharpe has informed the Executive Board that he will resign and leave the Supervisory Board “for personal reasons” at the end of the year, the GSW Immobilien said on 18 July. Thus, after Eckart John von Freyend, who had left the Berlin landlord of apartments at the end of July, his representative also resigns. There is nothing known about a possible successor so far.

Henkel has appointed Barbara Kux to the Supervisory Board on 3 July. The leaving Siemens manager of the purchasing department is intended to be suggested for the additional vote at the shareholder’s meeting in April of next year, according to the citizens of Düsseldorf on 9 July. They say that she is especially adequate for the paste and consumption concern with her experience in the field of persistency. Her predecessor Thierry Paternot came from a French company.

Andrea Bauer will be the CFO at Kontron. The Bavarian producer of small computers appoints the 46-year-old diploma economist, who replaces Jürgen Kaiser-Gerwens, on 16 September. The previous CFO had left the company for “private and business reasons” at the end of June, as was officially told. Bauer’s task is to revitalize Konton again at the side of the new CEO Rolf Schwirz.

Claudia Nemat will succeed Ulrich Middelmann, shortly passed away, and was ordered to the Supervisory Board by court, as LANXESS informed. The university physician is a member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Telekom since October 2011. Before, she was in charge of various positions at McKinsey & Company for 17 years. She is the first woman to enter in the control committee as a representative of the capital side.

Fredy Raas will replace Erich Greipl, who died a few weeks ago, in the Supervisory Board of METRO. The Executive Board of the trading group has, in agreement with the nomination committee of the control committee, applied for the judicial summons of Raas, according to METRO. Raas is a member of the management of the Otto Beisheim group and member of the foundation committees of the two Prof. Otto Beisheim foundations in Baar/Schweiz and Munich.

After already two members of the Executive Board have surprisingly left SAP this year, the software group pronounced the resignation of Jim Hagemann Snabe on 21 July. They said that the Co-CEO will stand as a candidate at the next shareholders' meeting on 21 May 2014 for a position in the Supervisory Board of the DAX group. From then on Bill McDermott SAP will be in charge of the only leadership. The vote for Snabe in the control committee requires 25 per cent agreement on the shareholders' meeting in order to avoid the waiting period of 2 years. The founders of SAP hold 22,7 per cent of the votes. The protection community of the investors considers the waiting period of 2 years as unavoidable as possible neglects of duty of former Board members are not controlled under certain circumstances.

Siemens intends to overcome the deep crisis in leadership with Joe Kaeser. The present CFO succeeds Peter Löscher as the head of the electrical company. Under Löscher`s leadership the greatest European industrial group repeatedly failed profit objectives. After two profit warnings within less than three months, Siemens announced the premature leaving office of Peter Löscher as CEO.

 

 

Scholz: from Praktiker to recycling

Former Praktiker CFO Markus Schuerholz has joined the board of Scholz AG with a mandate to restructure and strengthen the company and lighten the workload of CFO Parag-Johannes Bhatt. Schuerholz had been monitoring a restructuring package that he had ushered into Praktiker in 2010. It was abandoned in March of this year, however, shortly before the building trade supplier went bankrupt.

Schuerholz faces a highly challenging task in Scholz AG. The first quarter figures of EBITDA show a downturn of 50% with net debts of some 1.1 million Euros , including 2012 bonds worth 183 million euros, maturity date 2017, with an interest rate of 8.5%.

 

Gesco: the new generation

Stefan Heimoeller was voted on to the Gesco AG board of surveillance during the last AGM in July. Heimoeller, with 13% of stock, is the the largest single shareholder of the Sdax-listed company.

His predecessor, long-serving board member Willi Back, had to all intents been the creator of the Gesco business model. Now, after a nine-year stint that included chairing the board of surveillance, Back is resigning his mandate to the up-coming generation in a move that has been planned for some time.

Heraeus: family ties

With the appointment in June of former CFO Jan Rinnert to replace CEO Frank Heinricht, the Heraeus family is again at the top slot of the family group. After lacklustre results for 2012, adversely affected by the slump in the solar panel market and downturn in sales, the new CEO is expected to tackle downsizing of the Hanau-based company. Heraeus staff are bracing themselves. Just a few months ago Rinnert was the alleged architect of the sell-off of the company’s dental product branch, and now the axe is due to fall in the Material Technology division. Several jobs are expected to be lost by the end of 2014, when the company’s Asian division has announced it intends hiring staff. Rinnert himself will occupy two positions by remaining CFO.