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Roland Auschel joined the Adidas executive board as of October 1. The former Multichannel Markets Chief Sales Officer will be responsible for the new division of Global Sales. The move will combine the Adidas and Reebok brands under a single distribution network for each  market area – wholesale, retail and e-commerce – and bring them together under a single board function.

Christoph Franz joins Roche, and from June 2014 will replace Franz Humer. In a public communiqué dated September 16, the present CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa announced his decision not to extend his contract with the airline. Franz asserts that the chairman of the airline’s supervisory board Wolfgang Mayrhuber was aware of his having been in contact “for some time” with the Swiss pharmaceutical colossus and yet the airline has yet to present a successor.

Karl-Heinz Streibich and Lars Hinrichs have joined the supervisory board of Deutsche Telekom. The group announced the Bonn tribunal’s appointment of the two men as of October 1 until the general meeting of 2014 when they will stand for election by the shareholders. They will replace Ulrich Middelmann, who died on July 2 and Lawrence H. Guffey who represented Blackstone on the supervisory board and who resigned spontaneously on the major shareholders’ withdrawal from the company.  According to Ulrich Lehner, president of the overseeing body, Streibich “who is very familiar with the reality of Telekom” will contribute his undisputed IT experience. “Hinrichs, by contrast was a pioneer in what is known today as ‘start-up scenarios’, and thus a valuable addition in terms of innovation and partnerships within the sphere of Internet” explains Lehner.

Wolfgang Reitzle will resign the helm of Linde next May and his place will be taken by Wolfgang Büchele, who, only last year moved into the top slot of the Finnish company Kemira. Up until 2007, when he changed to certain financial investors, the 54 year-old executive had had a 20-year long career with BASF.  Reitzle will celebrate his 65th birthday on 24 March 2014, the age limit for CEOs in DAX listed companies.

Ralf P. Thomas, of the Siemens’s supervisory board has been appointed the new company CFO. Up to now CFO of the industrial division, Thomas takes the place of Joe Kaeser who in turn has replaced Peter Loescher as CEO. Brigitte Ederer left the board at the end of September following a ruling by the supervisory board concerning a disagreement between the former head of human resources and the shop stewards and trade union. After the previously publicised departure of the head of purchasing, Barbara Kux, Siemens’s board of management is again an all male team. Josef Ackermann, the supervisory board vice-president, recently announced his resignation following what in his view was the scrappy haste of Loescher’s exit. His place will be taken by Jim Hagemann Snabe up to now co-chief executive of SAP.

Nemetschek: Tension high-up

Nemetschek AG,  the producer of software for architects and the building trade has a new CEO.  Tobias Wagner has been appointed to replace Tanja Tamara Dreilich who resigned in August despite the positive results of the company. According to the press, there were insurmountable differences between the CEO and the supervisory board. Dreilich is the third top manager to leave the company in two years

Nemetschek has been listed in TecDax since September.

Balda: In full control

Plastic specialist Balda AG has a new supervisory board. Major shareholder Elector won control of the monitoring body at the extraordinary meeting. (see VIPsight’s previous coverage).The new members of the board of management Thomas van Aubl, Frauke Vogler and Klaus Rueht replace in toto the former monitors. The former president resigned his post at the beginning of the meeting.

Mr. van Aubl, lawyer, obtained some 30% of Balda stock through Elector. Vogler is also a lawyer. Former Merck executive, Klaus Rueht, was appointed to the board of management by the Texas Pacifica Group hedge fund and the Indaba Capital Fund. Furthermore, Elector appointed Dieter Brenken as a new member of the board of management.

Balda and Elector had been at loggerheads for months. Elector criticised the chairman of the supervisory board Naschke for incompetence. Naschke, for his part continually rejected van Aubel’s proposal for most of the supervisory board to be occupied by candidates of his choice. Its block of a third now gives Elector a two-thirds majority on the supervisory board. In terms of compliance, the situation could become a problem. Balda AG is listed in SDax.

MT Energie: All round innovation

Specialist in biogas and issuer of a pmi bond, MT Energie made a clean sweep of its board of management in a restructuring exercise. Former manager of MAN, Markus Niedermayer, has been appointed CEP. Sören Schleider, formerly in sales in a Bosch affiliate, is the new CFO. The third is Karsten Wünsche in the post of COO. Former Managing Director and founder of the company Christoph Martens, and former CFO and partner Tobias Brunkhorst stay with MT Energie in product development and distribution.

A challenge is already awaiting CFO Schleider. Bearing in mind that the numbers are not good, the firm does not rule out a breach with the covenant of the bonds placed in April 2013. If it happened and if the quota of capital dipped below the guaranteed 20%, the investors could invoke the special right of cancellation. This could cost MT Energie some 14 million Euros.