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Since 17 February Wolfgang Bernhard has been responsible on the Daimler board for production and sales in the car division Mercedes Benz Cars and the van division Mercedes Benz Vans. The Stuttgart carmaker’s board thus now again consists of six people. The contracts of CEO Dieter Zetsche and research head Thomas Weber were each renewed on 17 February for 17 years.

Nico Forster died on 16 February at his residence, Schloss Guttenburg in Waldkraiburg (Landkreis Mühldorf), at the age of 48. The executive had studied Philosophy, Theatre Science and Psychology before making a fortune as cofounder of Drillisch. He used his money among other things to restore historic buildings. He is said to have suffered from a severe kidney disease for some time.

At Gerresheimer the CEO is, surprisingly, to change. Axel Herberg is not seeking reappointment and will leave the board when his contract runs out on 21 June. In autumn he will go to Blackstone to head its investment business in German-speaking countries. The Supervisory Board has appointed long-time board member Uwe Röhrhoff as Herberg’s successor as from 22 June.

Stefan W. Ropers is leaving the MAN supervisory board. At the end of the lorry and machine maker’s next AGM on 1 April, the BayernLB executive is resigning. He is said to want more time for the upcoming restructuring of Germany’s second biggest Landesbank, the latter stated. In place of Ropers, Audi executive Ulf Berkenhagen is to be appointed.

Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft (Munich Re) has secured Benita Ferrero-Waldner for a post on the Supervisory Board. Munich Regional Court appointed the former EU commissioner and Austrian foreign minister to succeed Supervisory Board member Karel Van Miert, who died in June 2009. She is to be put up for election at the forthcoming ordinary AGM on 28 April.

Thomas Fischer has resigned his Supervisory Board post at RWE as from 31 January, a good year before the expiry of his appointment. No reasons for the resignation were given. Wolfgang Schüssel will replace the former WestLB CEO. He must be confirmed by the AGM on 22 April, but before then he has to be appointed by the district court. These proceedings have already been begun.

SAP board spokesman Léo Apotheker resigned on 7 February with immediate effect. No indications were given as to the reasons. Executive John Schwarz also left with immediate effect. Two board members, Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, were appointed board spokesmen on an equal footing. Additionally, Vishal Sikka was appointed as a board member.

At BMA Solar the contracts of Günther Cramer (CEO) and Peter Drews (COO) are expiring in mid 2011. These founding executives will then complete the generational turnover after 30 years on the board, and are candidates for the Supervisory Board. To guarantee a friction-free transition, the Supervisory Board decided on 23 February to expand the board from April this year until the departure from five to seven members. Uwe Hertel has been newly appointed to the board for the operative business sector. Jürgen Dolle will be in charge of personnel. In recent years employee numbers at the TECDAX heavyweight have risen to over 4000 (including temporary workers). The number of Supervisory Board members has accordingly been raised to twelve.

Jan Marsalek was appointed director for sales and marketing at Wirecard as from 1 February. He has worked in the Wirecard group since 2000 and put his mark on the company’s successful development from the start. Rüdiger Trautmann, board member since autumn 2005, left the company for personal reasons on 31 January. His contract had been renewed in mid 2008 until 2010.