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Beiersdorf has announced the election of Danish national Jasper Andersen to its executive board, effective May 18. He will take a few months to get a first hand view of how the company works until September when he will take up the tasks of head of financial affairs. Anderson, previously with Colgate-Palmolive which he joined in 1994, will take over from Ulrich Schmidt, a native of Bevensen, Lower Saxony. Schmidt who was born in 1953 is retiring from the cosmetics company on 31 March 2016 after thirty years of service.
Hans Peter Ring has been elected to the Supervisory Board of Bilfinger. Ring, whose previous positions include CFO of EADS, will replace Wolfgang Faden, himself elected on 14 November 2014 by the AGM as a replacement for Herbert Bodner. Bodner had been delegated by the Supervisory Board to its executive board on 9 September 2014, and then, on 13 November 2014, he resigned his chairmanship of the Supervisory Board, by then inactive.
Roger A. Crock has relinquished his mandate to the executive board of Deutsche Post, citing “personal reasons”. Deutsche Post seems to have no immediate successor in mind for Crook since his position will be covered in the interim by executive board chair Fran Appel until a new executive board member is appointed. In 2011 Crook himself took the place of Hermann Ude whose resignation had come unexpectedly.
Effective June 1, Michael Sen will take on the responsibilities of CFO in E.On. Former CFO Klaus Schäfer will become head of Uniper the new company that will emerge when the power company in two on 1 January 2016. Jorgen Kildahl is resigning on mutually agreed terms to take up new challenges outwith the group, and Mike Winkel is resigning on May 31 “for personal reasons”.
Effective early April the executive board of Fielmann has five members, the most recent arrival being Bastina Körbere in charge of sales. Current head of control and IT Stefan Thies will now head human resources which up to now have been managed by executive board chair, Günther Fielmann. In 2014, Fielman, whose contract was extended for a further three years until mid 2017 will continue as head of strategy, marketing and expansion.
On April 30, Gerhard Schulze tendered his resignation from Gerresheimer in accordance with the company age limit provisions. Schultze had been chair of the pharmaceutical packaging manufacturer’s Supervisory Board since 2008. His position as chair will be taken by Axel Herberg. The new member appointed to the Supervisory Board is former Siemens executive Andrea Abt. Ms Abt currently works as a consultant and is a professional member of Supervisory Boards.
After just two years into their mandate, Michael Frenzel and Jan Martin Wicke have resigned their mandate to the Supervisory Board of HOCHTIEF. The Board expressed their thanks to Frenzel, who for many years served as CEO of TUI, and to Wicke, member of the executive board of Talanz, for their dedication in skill and fortitude. Both men contributed much to the company in a time of change, in a constructive spirit of great commitment. The Essen-based building concern then applied to the courts to have Beate Bell and Patricia Geibel-Conrad appointed to its Supervisory Board. Bell is highly qualified in auditing, compliance and risk management while Geibel-Conrad’s can contribute great financial expertise to the Supervisory Board. In a note dated April 27 HOCHTIEF confirmed that three of the eight seats on the capital bench of its Supervisory Board are occupied by women. Cristine Wolff has been a court-appointed member since October 2014.
Andreas Renschler was elected to the Supervisory Board of Hannover-based MAN during the company’s AGM on May 6. The Board then elected him to the chair. Ferdinand Piech resigned all his Supervisory Board mandates in the Volkswagen group of companies, including the MAN subsidiary, after his defeat in the power struggle at Volkswagen at the end of April. Renschler’s chairmanship expires on 30 June 2016.
Together with the changes in the top echelons at Metro, the executive board will be extended to five members. The newcomer is Pieter Boone who has been appointed CEO – Metro C&C. from July 1. The other members are Olaf Koch (chair), Mark Frese (Finance), Pieter Haas (Media-Saturn) and Heiko Hutmacher (personnel).
Tina Müller was proposed for election to the Supervisory Board of Opel at the company’s AGM in Mannheim on June 18. Müller, who has been head of branding since August 2013, will take the place of Johannes Maret who is resigning for personal reasons.. She has been on the Supervisory Board of the MLP group subsidiary MLP Finanzdienstleistungen since June 2013.
On April 30, VOLKSWAGEN announced that two women, Louise Kiesling and Julia Kuhn-Piech, had joined the company’s 20-strong Supervisory Board. The automobile manufacturer’s Executive Board had applied to the Braunschweig court for a ruling to replace outgoing members Ferdinand Piech and his wife Ursula with two of Piech’s nieces. Although critical of the selection, pointing to the lack of experience of the two women in car manufacturing, the patriarch did not formally oppose the appointments albeit his stated preference being for Wolfgang Reitzle and Brigitte Ederer. Kuhn-Piech has been on the Supervisory Board of MAN since 2014. There is still uncertainty as to who will take over the chair of the Executive Board.
In the course of Airbus group’s AGM in Amsterdam on May 27 last, Maria Amparo Morale da Martinez was appointed to replace Josep Piqué i Camps as independent member of the executive board . The Madrid government had attempted to convince Piqué to serve out his full term of office so as to prevent Amparo Morale da Martinez getting elected. During the Q & A time in the lead up to the vote, VIP remarked “anyone who can survive for that number of years in the unforgiving management of IBERDROLA has got what it takes to deliver on any kind of mandate.
Just a few hours before the commencement of its AGM, Deutsche Bank sprang a surprise move at upper-echelon staff level. Co-CEO Anshu Jaim strategically extended his area of responsibility and so head of legal affairs Christian Sewing will now also be Head of Private and Business Clients. On May 20 last, the Supervisory Board agreed to 50-year-old Neske’s request to terminate his contract by June 20, a move seen by many to indicate an agreement on terms between Neske and the various levels of the company involved. With 3/5 of votes the AGM gave its approval to Co-CEO Jain’s management.. “Today we vote against the management, nevertheless it is the last chance for Mr. Jaim …. He has one year left”, commented Ingo Speicher, spokesperson for Union Investment, in an interview recorded by Bloomberg during the event.
Forklift truck manufacturer Jungheinrich is raising the number of its executive board to five. From July 1, Oliver Lücke will take over responsibility of the area of Engineering from Klaus-Dieter Rosenbach who, in turn, is now head of the new area of logistic systems. Up till now, Lücke has been director of the production facilities in Norderstedt and Lüneburg.
Hartmut Mehdorn, who boasts a 17-year-long membership of the Supervisory Bord of SAP has tendered his resignation for reasons of health, and is taking retirement. The decision has come as a surprise . On May 20, Mehdorn announced he was standing down from all his public offices. His replacement is expected to be Prof.ssa Gesche Joost, a design researcher who teaches at the Berlin Arts University.
Nordex: unexpected departure
Jürgen Weschky tendered his resignation as chair of the board of management of wind farm specialist Nordex SE at the end of May. Citing personal reasons, his resignation from the TecDax-listed company was effective immediately. Since taking over leadership in 2012, the company has enjoyed vigorous growth, turning itself round in 2013. Keschky’s legacy is now in the hands of Lars Bondo Krogrsgaar who, up to now has been the board of management member for distribution. CFP Bernard Schäferbarthold will also remain on the board of management. Nordex has announced that the board of management will be bolstered by a so-called Executive Committee of the heads of the company’s key areas who, under the leadership of CEO Krogsgaard, will plan company strategy and other upper-echelon management matters.
Schaltbau: musical chairs for the board of management
Sdax-listed Schaltbau Holding AG, supplier of components for transportation technology is also in the throes of change. Ralf Klädtke is expected to join the board of management next month in charge of the mobile transportation technology business unit. A graduate in aerospace engineering, Klädtke has occupied top management positions in MAN,EADS and Carl Zeiss Optronics. His latest position was managing director of Airbus DS Optronics GmbH owned by the Airbus group.
Inn the meantime, Dirk Löchner, member of the management board in charge of strategic development and managing director of the subsidiary company Gebr. Bode, has applied to bring his resignation from the Schaltbau top management team forward to May. According to a company communiqué, Löchner intends to turn his attention to other matters outwith the group. In the meantime, however he is being retained by the company and the group in a consultative capacity. Management board spokesperson , Jürgen Cammann and CFO Elisabeth Prigge will continue to serve on the board of management in their present capacities.
Stabilus: new controller
Andi Klein is no longer a member of the Stabilus S.A. Supervisory Board. Klein joined the consultative commission in 2010 as representative of majority shareholder Triton, later joining the Supervisory Board when the company obtained its SDax stock exchange listing. His appointed successor on the Supervisory Board is Joachim Rauhut who sits on the board of management of Wacker Chemie AG. Management engineer Rauhut has held upper-management posts in a number of companies such as Mannesmann and Krauss-Maffei before ushering Wacker to its 2006 stock-market listing. The other Supervisory Board members are UdoStark, his second-in-command Stephan Kessel and Nizar Ghoussaini.