People

At Allianz, four of the future eleven divisions are to see new appointments. Helga Jung and Gary Bhojwani join the board on 1 January 2012. With Jung, the insurance group takes the first woman onto the board in its 121-year history. Bhojwani, currently CEO of Allianz Life USA, will take over the U.S. insurance division. In addition, Dieter Wemmer takes charge of insurance activities in Western Europe from January. Maximilian Zimmerer takes office only as from 1 June 2012.  currently head of Allianz Life Insurance, he will succeed CFO Paul Achleitner.

Wayne T. Smith joins the Executive Board of BASF at the AGM on 27 April 2012. The American takes over the Chemicals board spot from Andreas Kreimeyer,  who remains spokesman for research and will take over responsibility for crop protection, paints, South America and plant biotechnology from Stefan Marcinowski, who is retiring after the shareholder meeting.

After the Beiersdorf AGM next year, Stefan F. Heidenreich is to succeed Thomas B. Quaas, who is moving to the Supervisory Board. Heidenreich is already moving from the Hero Group to the Beiersdorf Board in early 2012. James C. Wei leaves the company at the turn of the year. The Asia director of the cosmetics group has to go after three-digit million write-offs in his department. Until further notice, Thomas B. Quaas will focus primarily on business in China.

Stephan Engels is expected to  become Financial Manager of Commerzbank on 1 April 2012. The 49-year-old has since 2007 been Head of Finance & Controlling at Mercedes-Benz and Head of Group Controlling and Reporting at Daimler. On 2 December, the bank presented the Daimler manager as successor to Eric Strutz, who declared in early August he would let his contract expire at the end of March 2012.

Angela Titzrath, the first woman on the board of Deutsche Post, will in future be responsible for Human Resources. The former Daimler manager will replace Personnel Director and Labour Director Walter Scheurle on the management committee in 2012, as soon as the senior manager on the board retires at his own request after twelve years. The exact date of the change is not fixed yet.

Because of “differences in opinion over strategic direction, particularly in the intermodal segment”, Sebastian Jürgens is leaving the board of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik by consensus at the end of the year, according to a release from the €1.5 billion MDAX company. The responsibilities of Logistics Director will be assumed until further notice by Klaus-Dieter Peters.

Lothar Steinebach goes into retirement at the end of June 2012. Henkel has, however, already presented its future CFO, on 13 December. As the largest German consumer-goods producer announced, the 42-year-old Carsten Knobel should officially take up his post on 1 July 2012.  Steinebach’s successor is 21 years younger and comes from the house, thus following the group’s tradition of building up top managers themselves.

Rüdiger Andreas Günther is to become the new CFO at JENOPTIK. The financial expert will as from April 2012 replace Frank Einhellinger, whose contract is at his own request not being extended, the laser and measurement technology specialists announced on 15 December after a board meeting. Günther was previously CFO of the now insolvent Arcandor Group. He will have a three-year contract.

Jan Peter Nonnenkamp is surprisingly leaving K + S at the year’s end.  The Finance Director and the Board of the Kassel fertilizer group agreed this by consensus. Originally, the manager’s contract ran until 31 May 2012. His duties will be taken until further notice by CEO Norbert Steiner. Nonnenkamp came to K + S only in 2009. Reasons for the premature departure were not disclosed.

With the appointment of Mark Frese as the new CFO of METRO, the Supervisory Board has completed the board again. The 47-year-old has been working for the retail group for 17 years and before his time with Cash & Carry was Head of Controlling for the Düsseldorfers. The post is free because Olaf Koch moved at the turn of the year to the chair of the Supervisory Board.

With effect from 1 January 2012 Ain Papperger moves up to the Board of Rheinmetall. The previous area board member in the defence sector will in future head the arms division, until now run by Klaus Eberhardt, simultaneously responsible as CEO for directing the Group as a whole. With the expansion Rheinmetall means inter alia to take account of the company’s growth.

Uwe Hertel is resigning from SMA Solar Technology at the year’s end for health reasons. The Chief Operating Officer will in future as Senior Vice President accompany the strategic development of the business operations of the TECDAX company, it was announced on 6 December. The tasks the 51-year-old manager was responsible for will be taken in future by the other members of the leadership.

At the year’s end Professor Ekkehard Schulz is leaving the Supervisory Board of ThyssenKrupp. The now 70-year-old thus takes responsibility for the disaster that ThyssenKrupp is currently experiencing in the mangrove swamps of Brazil. Billions in write-downs are driving the company into crisis, and have raised the question of responsibility. The honorary chairman of the Supervisory Board, Professor Berthold Beitz, apparently asked Schulz a few days earlier to rethink his role so as to stop the press campaign.