People

The Annual General Meeting of Aareal Bank elected Richard Peters to the Supervisory Board. Marija Korsch is the new chairman and thus first female chief overseer of a listed bank in Germany. She is now also the second female supervisory-board chair of a MDAX-listed company. She succeeds Hans W. Reich, who had announced his retirement in March.

The Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa appointed two new members, Bettina Volkens and Harry Hohmeister, to the Group Executive Board at its meeting on 1 July. They replace Stefan H. Lauer, leaving the airline at the end of June after thirteen years as Labour Director and board member. Thus, the management expands from four to five people. From Lauer's portfolio as Labour Director Volkens takes over the Human Resources and Legal departments. The 49-year-old is only a year at Lufthansa. After CFO Simone Menne she is the second woman in the narrower Lufthansa leadership. Having first headed the Corporate Executives department, she is currently responsible for the entire Group's human resources. Hohmeister is assigned responsibility for partner airlines and logistics.

Deutsche Telekom has announced that Thomas Dannenfeldt is to lead the finance department of the Group from 1 January 2014. The Supervisory Board so decided on 15 May. The Director of Finance and Controlling of Telekom's Germany business is the successor of Timothy Höttges, when he takes over as CEO from René Obermann. Höttges had strongly advocated Dannenfeldt as candidate.

Thomas Sparrvik, who as deputy chief executive at crisis-ridden Kontron is also heading the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions, will leave the small-computer manufacturer at the end of June to take on new business challenges, the company announced on 21 May. The Supervisory Board expressed its appreciation to him for his contribution to the success of the Kontron Group.

At the Annual General Meeting (AGM) next year Professor Detlev H. Riesner wants to leave his post at QIAGEN. He is a member of the Supervisory Board since 1996 and its Chairman since 1999. A joint meeting also discussed the proposal to nominate Werner Brandt successor to the co-founder as chair of the Supervisory Board in 2014, when he retires from his current position as a member of the SAP Executive Board. At the AGM this year on 26 June Lawrence A. Rosen is also to move onto the Supervisory Board. Stéphane Bancel has also been proposed for election to the Supervisory Board. Erik Homnaess and Heino von Prondzynski, retiring from the Supervisory Board of the biotech heavyweight after 15 and 6 years respectively, will no longer run.

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn is leaving the Supervisory Board of Salzgitter. He has not offered himself for re-election, after 15 years. As a reason chairman Rainer Thieme indicated the manager's many obligations. In addition, Arno Morenz, CEO of Aachener Rückversicherung, Hartmut Möllring, former Finance Minister of Lower Saxony, and Rudolf Rupprecht, Chairman of the Executive Board of MAN, resigned from the Supervisory Board. Four new shareholder representatives were elected at the Annual General Meeting on 23 May on the proposal of the Supervisory Board. Newcomers to the Supervisory Board include Peter-Jürgen Schneider (SPD). The company's former personnel director and current Finance Minister of Lower Saxony had left the Group for politics on 19 February. He was proposed for election by Hannoversche Beteiligungsgesellschaft, the investment company that holds more than 25 percent of the voting rights in Salzgitter in which the State of Lower Saxony holds all shares. The three other new shareholder representatives are Ulrike Brouzi, board member of the NORD/LB Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, Thea Dückert, Visiting Scientist at the Carl-von-Ossietzky University, and Roland Flach, Chairman of the Management Board of Klöckner-Werke. On the employee representatives' side Hannelore Elze and Helmut Weber resigned. Two other employee representatives were elected employee delegates as early as 14 May. Konrad Ackermann and Annelie Buntenbach are the new members. Altogether, the Supervisory Board of the second-largest steel producer comprises 21 people, including three women. According to CEO Hans Jörg Fuhrmann, Salzgitter does not plan to increase the proportion of women by quota.

Lars Dalgaard, responsible for business with software that is rented via the Internet (cloud computing) for nearly a year, is leaving SAP. Luisa Deplazes Delgado is also leaving the software giant officially at the end of June, the DAX company said on 24 May. Vishal Sikka will take on Dalgaard's additional tasks and from June direct all areas of innovation.

Jürgen Dolle ended his work at SMA Solar Technology on 15 May for health reasons. He was appointed to the Board In April 2010. The staff and operations tasks he was previously responsible for are being handled by Lydia Sommer. Sommer has been with the world market leader for photovoltaic inverters since November 2012. The operational business will be taken by Pierre-Pascal Urbon.

Susanne Klatten was chosen as the successor of Max Dietrich Kley in the chair of the Supervisory Board of SGL Carbon. Robert Koehler's rise to the position is thus blocked. The chemical company will also in future ward off too strong influence of its major shareholders with a Control Committee of the Supervisory Board. The MDAX-listed company thus agreed to a proposal by Christian Strenger.

Matthias Wiedenfels has been appointed to the Board of STADA Arzneimittel with immediate effect, and will be in charge there of Corporate Development & Central Services, including human resources, legal, IT/patents, compliance, risk management and export control, said the pharmaceutical company from Bad Vilbel near Frankfurt. The former general counsel received a contract until the end of 2016.

SHW: The cards are shuffled

SHW AG gets a new CEO in August. Thomas Buchholz replaces Andreas Rydzewski, currently still acting CEO of the automotive supplier listed since 2011. Buchholz was most recently CEO of TI Automotive. Previously, he worked for 17 years for the automotive supplier Mahle.

Only recently there was much movement on the board of the company, listed in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange: former CEO Wolfgang Krause left all of a sudden, and shortly after, the contract of CFO Oliver Albrecht was not renewed. Both were officially “by mutual agreement”. In early May Sascha Rosengart, former CFO of Hengst Automotive, became the new CFO.

R. Stahl: SDax is the goal

With Bernd Marx as its new CFO, the explosion-protection specialist R. Stahl AG wants to be better known in the capital market. Marx is to professionalize communication with investors and thus pave the way into the SDax. Marx has worked for R. Stahl for nine years already, most recently as Head of Finance. As CFO of Indian and Brazilian subsidiaries of the company he provided for their turnaround.

Leifheit: Sudden departure

Leifheit AG in late May surprisingly separated from its CEO Georg Thaller. The manufacturer of household items does not yet have a successor. Consequently, CFO Claus-Otto Zacharias will lead the company on an interim basis as the sole director. The reason for the sudden separation was "different views on the future strategic direction" of the group. Sales discussions for the shares of the majority shareholders begun in December 2012 failed according to the company because of differing ideas (see M & A).

Thaller came to Leifheit as CEO in 2009. In his time calm and continuity again reigned and the group managed significant price increases. For the Supervisory Board, however, the restructuring - according to sources close to the body - did not go fast enough.