People

Marija Korsch is – on condition of being appointed at the general meeting (AGM) in May – to  become the new Supervisory Board chairman of Aareal Bank. Hans W. Reich will then resign from the body early. The longtime head of KfW, who was elected as a Supervisory Board member until the 2015 General Meeting, has been a member since July 2002 and its Chairman since June 2004.

 

At Bayerische Motoren Werke Frank-Peter Arndt resigned from office for health reasons on 1 April. Harald Krüger is Arndt's successor in the production department.  Krüger’s existing tasks will in future be handled by Peter Schwarzenbauer, who most recently worked on the Board of AUDI. As part of a restructuring in the top management of Volkswagen he lost this post in 2012.

Professor Klaus Rüdiger Trützschler, a member of the supervisory body of Bilfinger since 2001, and Thomas Pleines, member since 1998, are leaving their posts on 30 June and 18 April respectively. Proposed as new candidates for election at the forthcoming annual general meeting were Herbert Bodner and Jens Tischendorf. After the two-year cooling-off period, the former CEO Bodner could be a member from 1 July 2013. It is expected that after another “cooling off period” the 65-year-old will take over from supervisory board chairman Bernhard Walter at the head of the supervisory body. Tischendorf is CEO of Cevian Capital in Pfäffikon, Switzerland. The company owns approximately 17.7 per cent of the voting rights at the engineering and services company and is Bilfinger’s largest shareholder.

 

Peter Feld is leaving Beiersdorf in friendly agreement at his own request on 31 July, the company announced on 26 March.  Several weeks ago it leaked out that Stefan Heidenreich was unhappy with the performance of the two regions overseen by Feld. The CEO is taking over Feld’s duties until a successor is found.

As shareholder representatives, the Supervisory Board will propose to shareholders at the early Commerzbank meeting on 19 April the chief executive of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Markus Kerber, the co-owner of the Krombacher brewery, Petra Schadeberg-Herrmann, and the former Germany boss of the consulting company Accenture, Karl-Heinz Flöther, for election to the Supervisory Board, the bank announced on 18 March in the invitation. The three replace Edgar Meister, Otto Happel and Burckhard Bergmann. The proposal for the election of Kerber, who would succeed 72-year-old Meister, retiring for reasons of age, goes back to the suggestion of the Special Fund for Financial Market Stabilization (SoFFin), which has since the financial crisis held a blocking stake of 25 per cent in the bank and may nominate two candidates for the Supervisory Board. SoFFin will dilute its stake by mid-May in a capital increase, probably to less than 20 percent. It is however still due two seats as long as it holds more than ten per cent in Commerzbank. The bank had to be supported in the crisis with government aid worth around 18 billion euros.

 

As shareholder representatives, the Supervisory Board will propose to shareholders at the early Commerzbank meeting on 19 April the chief executive of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Markus Kerber, the co-owner of the Krombacher brewery, Petra Schadeberg-Herrmann, and the former Germany boss of the consulting company Accenture, Karl-Heinz Flöther, for election to the Supervisory Board, the bank announced on 18 March in the invitation. The three replace Edgar Meister, Otto Happel and Burckhard Bergmann. The proposal for the election of Kerber, who would succeed 72-year-old Meister, retiring for reasons of age, goes back to the suggestion of the Special Fund for Financial Market Stabilization (SoFFin), which has since the financial crisis held a blocking stake of 25 per cent in the bank and may nominate two candidates for the Supervisory Board. SoFFin will dilute its stake by mid-May in a capital increase, probably to less than 20 percent. It is however still due two seats as long as it holds more than ten per cent in Commerzbank. The bank had to be supported in the crisis with government aid worth around 18 billion euros.

For Frank Bsirske, Christine Behle will join the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa. At a delegate election on 9 March in Frankfurt, trade-union Verdi's federal executive member was elected to the Supervisory Board in place of union boss Bsirske, Verdi announced. The service union has only four out of ten representatives on the employee side of the airline.

Bernhard Reutersberg is to be replaced at E.ON in late 2014 by Klaus Schäfer. In 2015, the now 59-year-old will be 61; also, by then the austerity programme “E.ON 2.0”, for which Reutersberg is responsible, should have been implemented. Schäfer had taken over the lead in Ruhrgas from Reutersberg in 2010. As part of the transformation into an SE, all Board contracts except for the Chief Financial Officer’s were limited to 2013.

 

After five months of absence due to illness Werner Lanthaler has resumed his position as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Evotec with immediate effect, the Nasdaq-listed company announced on 18 March. They would “continue to focus on promoting the company’s growth in line with the Action Plan 2016,” said Evotec. Lanthaler has been CEO since 2009.

GAGFAH is surprisingly facing a change of leadership: Thomas Zinnöcker is as soon as possible to replace Stephen Charlton, who had taken over as chief executive only about a year ago, but is ready to make his post available once a “succession arrangement beneficial for the Company” has been found. Currently, intensive discussions are under way with the aim of bringing the current CEO of GSW, Berlin, to GAGFAH.

GSW Immobilien had announced that Thomas Zinnöcker wanted to leave the company early, by 15 April, and had asked for termination of his contract. The manager wanted to pursue new professional challenges. The Supervisory Board on 18 March approved a consensual contract termination and appointed Bernd Kottmann as his successor. The new CEO takes over on 16 April.

Soon, for the first time in the history of K + S two women could be sitting on the Supervisory Board. As the North Hessian salt and fertilizer producer announced on 13 March, the Supervisory Board will propose Annette Messemer for election at the General Meeting on 14 May. The experienced investment banker should complement the body as an independent financial expert. Wesley Clark should also move onto the new 16-member board. The former CEO of K + S subsidiary Morton Salt is a salt expert. They are intended to replace Rainer Grohe and Karl Heidenreich, no longer eligible on grounds of age. The decision follows the aims of ensuring that the Supervisory Board continues to have two female members and taking account of the increasingly international nature of K + S, the company said.

Peter Bauer has joined the Supervisory Board of Kontron. He has been a member of the Infineon Management Board since the Infineon Technologies IPO in 1999, and in 2008 became chairman of the company. Bauer was also previously responsible for the Infineon microcontroller and microcomputer chip sets sectors. The beleaguered small-computer specialist gave a surprise profit warning in mid-February.

Wolfgang Reitzle is to quit after eleven years in the board chair at Linde, as his contract provides. The 63-year-old ruled out an immediate move to the Supervisory Board. Manfred Schneider has now identified a successor for May 2014. Franz Fehrenbach will stand for election to the Board, and is to replace Matthew Miau from Taiwan. Fehrenbach has been Supervisory Board chairman at Robert Bosch since July 2012.

By mutual agreement, Frans Muller retired from the METRO Board at the end of March following the merger of the two leadership positions, the trading group announced on 18 March. Olaf Koch takes over the operational management of METRO wholesale trade with businesses (Cash & Carry), making it, the most important subsidiary, a top priority. METRO recorded a significant drop in profits in 2012.

As Munich Re announced, the Supervisory Board has decided not to extend Wolfgang Strassl’s contract, expiring at the end of the year. The world's largest reinsurer did not give reasons. From October, CEO Bomhard will take care of the U.S. business and Joachim Wenning will share responsibility for personnel tasks.

 

Barbara Stolz is to become CFO at QSC on 1 June.  In the 44-year-old, the IT and telecommunications service provider from Cologne has the successor for Jürgen Hermann, who on 30 May moves up to become CEO of the TecDax company, an internal arrangement. Stolz has been with QSC since 2005. Since September 2009 she has led the entire finance department, and following the acquisition of IP Partners was already CFO at the subsidiary.

As successor to Max Dietrich Kley’s vacant seat as Supervisory Board member representing the shareholders, Christine Bortenlänger will be proposed at the Annual General Meeting on 30 April, SGL Carbon announced. Together with the upcoming changes in the Supervisory Board the MDAX company also announced a change in the Board. Thus, at its meeting on 13 March the Supervisory Board appointed Jürgen Köhler as a full member of the Board with effect from 1 June. The PhD process engineer has been at the company since 2002 and was previously responsible for, among other things, the graphite electrodes and cathodes business. Köhler is from 1 June to take over responsibility for the Group’s big hope, the business area of Carbon Fibres & Composites, from Theodore H. Breyer, retiring from the board on 31 October after 14 years.

As the invitation to the Annual General Meeting of Sky Deutschland on 18 April in Munich shows, James Murdoch is to replace Thomas Mockridge on the supervisory body. Since the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. holds a nearly 55 per cent stake in the pay-TV channel, the election is considered a formality. Sky Deutschland wants to benefit from the controversial media expert’s know-how in the field of new technologies and international markets.

After more than 27 years Gerhard Cromme has relinquished his offices at ThyssenKrupp. The Supervisory Board chairman surprisingly left the Chair in late March and exited the body. Professor Ulrich Lehner is to become the Essen-based industrial group’s new Supervisory Board chairman. The 66-year-old was to be elected at a special meeting of the Supervisory Board on 19 March, stated ThyssenKrupp in Essen.

 

As expected, Ulrich Lehner was elected on 19 March as new Supervisory Board Chairman of ThyssenKrupp, and thus successor to Gerhard Cromme. The former Henkel CEO has been a member of the industrial group’s Supervisory Board since 2008. He will take up his new post on 1 April. A week earlier Cromme surprisingly announced his full withdrawal from the company.

Neil Sunderland has announced he will resign his mandate at XING at the end of this year’s Annual General Meeting on 24 May. The longtime chairman wants to pursue new projects. The Supervisory Board will shortly propose to shareholders a successor for election to the body. It is clear that Burda Digital, significantly involved in the career network at 60.5 per cent, will determine the successor.

 

Xing: Chairman Sunderland goes

The long-serving Supervisory Board chief of Xing AG, Neil Sunderland, is leaving the TecDax company, in which the Burda Media Group holds 60 per cent, on 24 May. According to the Börsen-Zeitung, he left the business-network provider at his own request in order to pursue new projects. The Supervisory Board will meet shortly to clarify Sunderland’s succession. As the majority shareholder, Burda will determine the successor to be proposed to the Annual General Meeting for election.

Sunderland had been an advisory-board member of Xing before the IPO in 2006. As Chairman, he managed the affairs of the company, at the time under the name Open BC. During his tenure, the company’s revenues increased sevenfold, and the number of members of the social network went from less than one million to around 13 million.

In German-speaking countries alone, more than 6 million people use the online platform for their business contacts. Xing is the number one business network and the biggest competitor of U.S. counterpart LinkedIn there. With the purchase of the German employer-review portal kununu.com at the beginning of the year, the company has strengthened its position in the market.

QSC: major moves in the boardroom

At TecDax-listed QSC AG there will be two personnel changes in June. Barbara Stolz will be the new CFO, following in the footsteps of Jürgen Hermann. The current CFO will chair the board of the Cologne-based company. Stolz joined QSC AG as head of the accounting department in 2005, after having worked at, among others, IVG Immobilien AG and Metro AG. Jürrgen Hermann has worked for QSC since the company’s founding in 1997. As CFO he helped to create the ICT and cloud-service provider’s initial public offering in 1999.

Kontron: New faces on the Board and Supervisory Board

Peter Bauer is a new Supervisory Board member of Kontron AG, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of embedded computers. The TecDax company relies on the manager’s extensive experience. From 2008 to 2012 he served as CEO of Infineon Technologies AG. He reorganized the company from scratch, and improved its market position considerably.

 

There was another change recently, of CEO. The new CEO since January this year is Rolf Schwirz. He has previously worked for multinational companies such as SAP and Siemens, and was most recently CEO at Fujitsu Technology Solutions. He replaced Ulrich Gehrmann, who worked for Kontron for 22 years and is now moving to DIY group Praktiker AG as Chief Financial Officer.