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At the midpoint of the year, Brenntag’s executive board had gained three new members, bringing its complement to five. When William Fidler resigned at the expiry of his contract on June 30 the company presented three newcomers for election. On June 1, Supervisory Board chair Stefan Zuschke announced that the additional members were expected to provide the support needed to sustain group growth and development, enabling it to focus more on strategic development. Karsten Beckmann, Markus Klähn and Henri Nejade will serve alongside CEO Steven Holland and CFO Georg Müller shouldering regional responsibilities within the executive board.

Beckman, who has been with the company since 2002 served in its distribution sector and in managerial capacities. Latterly he was CEO of the company’s EMEA business (European and, Middle East Areas) and has been appointed executive board director for its EMEA business. Klähn joined the MDax-listed concern in 1994, and will now be executive board head for Brenntag North America, Nejade has been on board since 2008 and is CEO responsible for the Asia Pacific market.

Furthermore, the AGM of one of the world’s leading chemical distribution companies appointed Stefanie Berlinger a new member of the Supervisory Board. Berlinger is a partner in the Lilja & Co consultancy company specialised in IPOs and she will replace Stephen R. Clark who resigned from the board on AGM day. During his term as CEO , Clark ushered the company to stock exchange listing in 2010, and in 2011 moved directly to the Supervisory Board.

John Cryan moved from the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank to the position of its Operations Director, effective July. Up to May 2016, he will share the tasks with Jürgen Fitschen which will smooth the process. Anshu Jain resigned on June 30. After Fitschen leaves, Cryan as sole chairman will have the task of leading Deutsche Bank The decision was reached at an extraordinary meeting of the Supervisory Board on June 7 last.

Both Rufolf Humer and Christian Humer resigned from the Supervisory Board of Jenoptik effective June 30. The chair of the Supervisory Board and his son announced they had tendered their resignation after selling a large part of their shares to Jenoptik. The two Austrians represented the ECE group that has its headquarters in Vienna. The process of sourcing candidates for the two vacancies is under way.

The Supervisory Board of KUKA reflects the new shareholding quota. The manufacturer of automation technology for industrial robots held its AGM on June 10, when Herbert Lienhard, executive board chair of Voith was appointed to the Supervisory Board. The Württemberg-based plant manufacturer has owned approximately a quarter of the shares since 2014. Friedhelm Loh and Hans Ziegler were also elected to the Supervisory Board. With its 10% stake Loh’s Swoctem holding company is KUKA’s second biggest shareholder. Ziegler was on the executive board of Swisslog, a company that KUKA took over in 2014. Walter Bickel, Micael Alber Proeller and Guy P. Wyser-Pratte resigned from the Supervisory Board for reasons of age. Up till 2003, Wyser-Pratte possessed a 6.5 percent stake in IWKA, the company that became KUKA, and was in strong disaccord with the shift in strategy that he countered by concentrating on industrial robots. At that point, the American investor was instrumental in the fall of a number of members of the executive and Supervisory Boards. In May 2013 his stake fell below 3 percent and since then he has sold off even more shares.

On September 16 Markus Riess will join the executive board of Münchener Rückversicherungs Gesellschaft where he will be responsible for the direct insurance and third party insurance of asset manager Meag. The appointment was announced by Munich Re in May pending approval by the Supervisory Board.

In the management shakedown in Volkswagen, one of the best known protagonists, Christian Klingler, could lose his job. His sales area looks like coming under the decision by which the regional distributors round the world will have greater independence in deciding model policies Klingler blames the slump of the Volkswagen core brand on discord and market differences, and also on the upshot of the two fewer production days in May, which had a knock-on effect on sales.

Effective end June, Patrick Wohlhauser, resigned as COO of Evonik Industrie, a position he had held since 2014. Ralph Sven Kaufmann joined the executive board on July 1. Managing partner of Düsseldorf-based Scopein Management Consultants since 2001 Kaufmann worked for the chemical group in a consultancy capacity during the optimisation process.

In a note, Wacker Chemie has announced that with effect from November, its finances will be managed by Tobias Ohler. The present CFO Joachim Rauhut will leave the company on October 31, the natural expiry date of his contract. The company will also propose Christian Hartel as a new member of the executive board.. Currently, Hartel is in charge of Wacker Silicone under a three-year contract.

Heidelberger Druck: former bank executive becomes head controller

Siegfried Jaschinski has been appointed chair of SDax-listed Heidelberger Druck AG Supervisory Board with effect from June 2015. Former executive board chair of the Baden-Wuerttemberg Landesbank (LBBW) he succeeds Robert J. Koehler who passed away last May.

Jaschinski is a partner of Augur Capital AG and sits on its executive board. He has served on Heidelberg’s Supervisory Board since 2007. He has been a partner with Main First Bank AG. Jaschinski chaired the LBBW executive board from 2006 to 2009 but his resignation became inevitable; after incurring a series of losses totalling 2 thousand million Euros in the recent financial crunch, the bank was only saved by an injection of capital by the banks’ proprietors, namely the Land of Baden-Württemberg, the city of Stuttgart, and local savings banks.

Energiekontor: second in charge

Wind power specialist Energiekontor, has augmented its executive board. Günter Eschen is now second in command to the chair of the executive board Peter Szabo in deciding the fortunes of the General Standard-listed company. Eschen joined the company in 2011 and has guided its projects in Germany.

Energiekontor has been listed on the stock-exchange since 2000 and has produced almost 760 megawatts with 550 generating plants in 95 wind-farms.

Zooplus: executive board cutback

With effect from July, online retailer of household pet products, Zooplus, is cutting back on the number of its executive board members. COO Jürgen Vedie has resigned from the SDax-listed concern citing personal reasons. Since April 2014, Vedie had been in charge of purchases, logistics and supply chain management. He had been with Zooplus for 3 years. From July onwards logistics and supply chain management will be headed by CFO Cornelius Patt who will also be in charge of purchases.

Manz: semiconductors broaden the product range

TecDax-listed Manz AG, has strengthened its standing in the semiconductor market by teaming up with KLEO Halbleiter technik GmbH in June. Hi-tech product specialist Manz acquiered KLEO from the Zeiss group together with its patents and the right to safeguard its intellectual property in LDI (laser direct imaging) developed by KLEO. According to Manz this technology brings a saving of up to 75 percent of the image transfer process costs. No details about the value of the transaction have been disclosed but Manz AG did announce that the transaction was funded by an increase in share capital concluded last April. KLEO’s German premises and its staff of 20 have been incorporated seamlessly. Forecasts suggest that the benefits of the deal will begin to emerge as early as the current financial year2015.

Adesso: strong in Switzerland

IT provider Adesso AG acquired Swiss IT specialist BornInformatik AG in a transaction that was finalized in June but back-dated in validity to 1 January 2015. No details on the price of the transaction have been disclosed. General Standard-listed Adesso intends to fund the acquisition with five-, seven- and ten-year loans. The takeover was managed by the group’s Swiss company which will soon be absorbed by BornInformatik. With its staff of 124, Born has a track record of expertise in software development and system integration, which will enhance Adesso’s market status, particularly in the areas of Switzerland that neighbour on Germany. Born’s yearly turnover according to Adesso is some 28 million Swiss francs (approximately 27 million Euros). Company founder and current chair of the executive board André Born will join the executive board of Adesso Schweiz AG. From now on, Born’s COO and co-owner, Daniel Urzyler’s duties will include the operative business of Adesso Schweiz.

Tomorrow Focus: premium on-line agency put up for sale

Tomorrow Focus AG is selling its online marriage bureau portal Elitepartner to investment company Oakley Capital Private Equity. Prime Standard-listed EliteMedinetGmbH, parent company of Elitepartner is hoping for a revenue in excess of 23 million Euros with the sale – as soon as the transaction becomes official a first instalment of 14.8 million Euros will be paid. The remaining 22 million Euros will be given to the investment company in the form of a two-year loan. When 7.2 million Euros of this are duly repaid, 1.3 million Euros will added to the remainder in the form of interest. The transaction is still awaiting approval by the monopolies commission.

Tomorrow Focus is increasingly oriented towards its core digital business, shifting it towards the travel agency field. Elitepartner is one of German-speaking Europe’s most important marriage bureaus. Tomorrow Focus states that EliteMedianet with its staff of 80 generated 28 million Euros turnover in 2014 without incurring indebtedness.