People
In a surprise move, Erich Stamminger has chosen to resign from the Adidas sports group after thirty years of service. Citing personal reasons, he will leave the company on March 5 when his contract expires. According to a company communiqué dated January 8, the position of brand manager that Stamminger held for many years on the board of directors will be taken as of March 6 by his protegé Eric Liedtke. Born in North America, Liedtke has been with the Adidas group since 1994.
With a less than a year gone by, Andreas Renschler is throwing in the towel. In a communiqué of January 28, Daimler states that he is resigning by mutual agreement. What Daimler does not say is why its head of production is quitting so unexpectedly after 25 years with the company. Whatever the reasons, the car manufacturer is losing its key man at the crucial moment of a major marketing offensive with new models coming on line. CEO Dieter Zetschle has ruled out that Renschler is about to join the competition.
During an extraordinary meeting on January 26 the supervisory board of LANXESS resolved to terminate its relationship with Axel Heitmann with effect from February 28. The rumour within the DAX listed company, originally a Bayer spin-off, is that after many years of service, the chairman of the board of directors petitioned personally for the termination of his contract. He will be replaced by Matthias Zachert who will leave Merck and return to Cologne by mid May latest.
Like a bolt out of the blue, René Schuster has severed his relationship with Telefonica Deutschland holding. The chair of the board of directors walked out of the German subsidiary of Telefonica on January 31. The supervisory board approved the termination of its contract with 52-year-old Schuster at the very time it was embroiled in negotiating its takeover of E-plus. His role will be shared in future by Rachel Empey and Markus Haas who will continue to fulfil their present functions.
During the general meeting of January 17 in Bochum, the supervisory board of ThyssenKrupp appointed management-board member Donatus Kaufmann as head of the new area of Rules and Compliance. The issue of Compliance, notes Ulrich Lehner, is of the greatest importance ThyssenKrup has been repeatedly rocked in recent years by allegations of corruption and breaches of free-market regulations.
SKW Metallurgie: new overseers for the board of directors
Prime standard-listed chemical group SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Holding AG, recently carried out a major overhaul of its board of directors. As of 2014, finance will be directed by Sabine Kauper, a long-standing member of SKW’s supervisory board. Former COO Reiner Brunner voluntarily resigned from SKW at the end of 2013. In future, the board of directors will be composed of CEO Ines Kolmsee with Kauper as CFO.
To replace Kauper on her move to the board of directors, as well as supervisory board member Christoph Schlünken who resigned contemporaneously at the end of 2013, the supervisory board convened Jutta Schull and Hans Liebler. Schull, a specialist in carbon, held an higher echelon management post in SGL Carbon and has a lengthy experience in the chemical industry. Liebler’s expertise is in finance and he has a wealth of experience as member of the supervisory boards of a number of important companies.
Delticom: The founders switch posts
Rainer Binder, one of the founders of Delticom and former member of its board of directors, became chair of the supervisory board effective January 2014. His post as CoCEO of the prime standard listed online automobile tyre sales company alongside Philip von Grolman will be taken up by former chair of the supervisory board and second company founder Andreas Prüfer. Prüfer is head of finance and investor relations. The former CFO resigned voluntarily at the end of 2013 in agreement with the supervisory board.
Logwin: Successor on the starting blocks
The winds of change are also blowing for the board of directors of the Logwin Logistics AG group. The current CFO, Antonius Wagner is expected to become CEO after the general meeting, and his position will be taken by Sebastian Esser who has been with Logwin since 2003. Esser has held many financial-related high echelon management posts, latterly that of Director Finance of the Europe Middle East unit of Air & Ocean. In future, Logwin’s former CEO Berndt-Michael Winter, intends involving himself in non-operational activities, and will resign his post at the end of April.