People

Richard Pott retires at the end of May after 13 years on the Bayer Board and will be replaced by Michael Koenig, who is currently a member of the Executive Committee of Bayer MaterialScience and head of the Polycarbonates Business Unit. At its meeting on 14 December 2012 the Supervisory Board appointed the 49-year-old Koenig to the board of the holding company as from 1 April.

 

The Celesio Supervisory Board  has, as expected, elected Stephan Gemkow as its new chairman. The Haniel chief succeeds Professor Jürgen Kluge, whom he had replaced in April as chief executive at the Duisburg family firm and who resigned on 18 December 2012. As the majority shareholder at the Stuttgart pharmaceutical wholesaler Haniel traditionally supplies the head of the supervisory body.

 

Hubertus Troska is Daimler's new China executive. The Supervisory Board of the carmaker appointed the 52-year-old to the office on 12 December 2012 as the eighth member of the board. Due to massive sales problems in China Daimler had created a new executive position for the biggest market of the future, and selected the Spaniard for the office. Troska has been with the car company since 1988.

 

René Obermann, head of Deutsche Telekom since the end of 2006, has surprisingly announced his retirement at the end of this year. Obermann wants in future to take on "more entrepreneurial tasks" and " move back closer to the operative business."  Timotheus Höttges is to move up to the top management post from 1 January 2014. The DAX Group had announced the change in leadership on 20 December 2012.

 

Olaf Schermeier is to become a new board member with global responsibility for the newly created research and development post at Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) from 1 March. The dialysis specialist hopes that this decision will have a positive impact on its competitiveness. The manager has many years of experience in medical technology, FMC announced on 10 December 2012.

 

With Markus Hüllmann, the Board of the GEA Group will be significantly rejuvenated as of 1 April. The 44-year-old will for a transitional period of one to two years continue to lead the GEA Mechanical Equipment segment in a personal union. Niels Graugaard (65) retires at the next Annual General Meeting on 18 April. He is responsible for three of the machinery and equipment manufacturer’s six operating units.

 

Bernd Pischetsrieder is since 1 January the new chief supervisor of the Munich Reinsurance Company. Previously Hans-Jürgen Schinzler retired from his position as of 31 December 2012 on grounds of age. He had been CFO for 13 years, CEO for eleven, and in the past eight years headed the supervisory committee.  The world's largest reinsurer announced this on 12 December.

 

After Jochen Zeitz had resigned from the Board of PUMA at the end of November, the Board of Directors around Jean-François Palus on 12 December 2012 also decided the departure of Franz Koch by mutual consent at the end of March. Who will be his successor is still open. Andy Koehler will be the new Chief Operating Officer of the sporting goods company, announced PUMA in Herzogenaurach.

 

At its meeting on 10 December 2012, the Supervisory Board of ThyssenKrupp, as expected, accepted the Personnel Committee proposal that the appointments of Olaf Berlien, Jürgen Claassen and Edwin Eichler should be ended with effect from 31 December 2012. With effect from 1 January Peer Steinbrück was replaced on the supervisory body by Ralf Nentwig . The 52-year-old engineer has from October 2000 been a Board Member of the Krupp Foundation.

 

Robert Hoffman became the third member of the board alongside Norbert Lang and Ralph Dommermuth at the turn of the year, United Internet announced on 19 December 2012. He will support CEO Dommermuth in strategic development and if necessary represent him. Hoffmann, born in 1969, is CEO of 1&1 and has worked in various board positions.

 

Tobias Ohler moved up to the Board of WACKER CHEMIE on 1 January. Wilhelm Sittenthaler resigned on 31 December 2012 for personal reasons and has retired from the chemical company, it said on 6 December 2012.  After more than 30 years with the company the board member was not available for another term of office. His contract as Personnel Director would have expired in April.

 

Wincor Nixdorf is nominating Zvezdana Seeger for election to the Supervisory Board. She is to replace the outgoing chairman Karl-Heinz Stiller at the Annual General Meeting. Seeger is the first woman to be designated as a shareholder representative. She will not however run for the Presidency of the supervisory committee. The candidate for the Supervisory Board chair is not fixed yet.