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After 46 years of service at the company, Manfred Schneider is leaving his top post on Bayer’s supervisory body to Werner Wenning in late September. The former CEO of the DAX firm is returning to his former stamping ground in early October after two years of absence. By law, a waiting period of two years is provided for a former CEO before he can join the Supervisory Board.

Ümit Subasi is leaving Beiersdorf “on the best of terms” at the end of July, “to take on new activities.” The area of emerging markets will in future be handled by Stefan De Loecker and Patrick Kaminski, who will split the regions and act as Corporate Senior Vice Presidents. The Board will have only four members after his departure.

Stephan Gemkow is leaving Deutsche Lufthansa on 30 June to become the new CEO of Haniel. The airline is now doing something for its women’s quota by placing finance in the hands of Simone Menne. The 51-year old was most recently Chief Financial Officer at BMI. Among other things, Jürgen Weber had spoken for her internally. She succeeds Gemkow on 1 July. In addition, the leading European airline has found a successor for Thomas Endres, who retired at the end of March: Christoph Kollatz has since early May been Chief Information and Process Officer and thus responsible for Group IT management. Previously, the 52-year-old was CEO of Siemens Business Services and CEO of Siemens division IT Solutions and Services (SIS).

Helmut Lerchner retired on age grounds from the Supervisory Board of ElringKlinger following the expiration of the shareholders’ meeting on 16 May. Professor Hans-Ulrich Sachs was elected to it as a new member. Walter Lechler was then elected Supervisory Board Chairman, stated the automotive supplier. He was Vice-chairman of the Supervisory Board in 2000-10.

Hartmut Schenk was elected as the new Chairman of the Supervisory Board of freenet at the inaugural meeting following its election. The decisive factor was the support of the workers' representatives. Drillisch managed to prevail in the crucial vote. As the majority shareholder, holding nearly 25 percent of freenet, announced, in addition to Hartmut Schenk the AGM newly elected Thorsten Kraemer, Helmut Thoma, Marc Tüngler and Robert Weidinger to the Supervisory Board for the shareholder side. Drillisch’s announcement of a year ago that with Kraemer and Thoma it wanted at least two seats on the supervisory board of the service provider has now been more than surpassed by the telecommunications provider. With Schenk, who was nine years on the supervisory body at Drillisch, and Weidinger, the company provides a third of the twelve shareholder representatives. In addition, there are the Chairman’s double voting rights. Maarten Henderson had proposed six candidates for the term commencing immediately after the general meeting. Besides himself, the former Board Chairman put forward current members Achim Weiss and Arnold Bahlmann, as well as Maximilian Ardelt, Boris Maurer and Axel Rückert. These six candidates have in common that they have no connections to the major shareholder Drillisch. In its counter-motion Drillisch had also also proposed Bernhard Jorek, who did not make it. To determine the six shareholder representatives, three rounds of voting were necessary, a first in German AGM history.

Peter Bauer has surprisingly announced his resignation for the end of September. The CEO of Infineon Technologies will leave the Board of the company for health reasons by the end of the current fiscal year, at his own request, the DAX Group stated. The 52-year-old has been suffering from osteoporosis for years. Reinhard Ploss becomes the semiconductor manufacturer‘s CEO from 1 October.

The Supervisory Board of K+S appointed Mark Roberts as a member of the Executive Board of the Kassel firm with effect from 1 October. The 48-year-old will then be responsible for the salt division, till now in the hands of Norbert Steiner, the DAX Group announced. Roberts is currently CEO of Morton Salt. He has 20 years’ experience in the group’s fertilizer and salt business.

KUKA has found a successor for Stephen Schulak, retiring at latest by the end of September. With effect from 1 August, Peter G. Mohnen will succeed him and take charge of Finance and Controlling on the board of the robotics group. The new CFO has gone through several management positions in Controlling and Accounting in the E.ON Group and is currently CFO of E.ON Hungaria.

At the beginning of 2013, Armin Papperger will succeed Klaus Eberhardt, Rheinmetall CEO for more than twelve years. The 64-year-old will then retire. Also leaving the Board of the arms company at his own request is Herbert Müller . The new CFO is Helmut P. Merch, responsible since 2001 for the finances of the munitions division.

Lutz Guderjahn is moving to the Board of Südzucker. The Supervisory Board appointed Guderjahn as a full member of the board from the end of the Annual General Meeting of CropEnergies on 17 July for a period of five years. He will succeed Professor Markwart Kunz, responsible for technology and research and development at the biofuel maker’s parent company since 2003,. In addition, Guderjahn is moving to the Supervisory Board of CropEnergies with no coolingoff period, at the request of major shareholder Südzucker, as is clear from the invitation to the AGM. Marten Keil will succeed Guderjahn, so that the CropEnergies board will again have the statutory two members.

Thomas Vollmoeller was appointed to the Executive Board of XING on 8 May with effect from 15 August and will take office as CEO no later than 15 January 2013. The current CEO of the Swiss company Valora Holding is to take over from Stefan Gross-Selbeck, who is leaving the business network for an unknown destination, in order to pursue new professional challenges.