People

With the retirement of Rudolf Knepper on age grounds at the year’s end, Axel Springer will enlarge the number of its directors from four to five. On 1 January 2012, Jan Bayer and Ralph Büchi will join the Board. Bayer, chairman of publishing for regional and subsription newspapers (Welt Group / Berliner Morgenpost / Hamburger Abendblatt), will head subsription newspapers and printers. Büchi, President of Axel Springer International and CEO of Axel Springer Switzerland, is appointed International board member. IT management, as well as retiring vice-chairman Knepper’s Logistics & Services, go to “Bild” and magazines chief Andreas Wiele, while Lothar Lanz takes responsibility for personnel and purchasing.

Clemens Börsig is giving up his post as Supervisory Board chairman after six years, after Josef Ackermann decided to take up the chairmanship. The outgoing CEO will resign from the Executive Board of Deutsche Bank with the end of the 2012 Annual General Meeting. Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain will then take on the dual leadership of the bank at the end of May next year. Rainer Neske will also get a new contract as co-CEO.

The appointment of Claudia Nemat and Marion Schick takes two women to the Board of Deutsche Telekom. The 42-year-old Nemat takes over the vacant Europe executive division from the beginning of October, while former Baden-Württemberg education minister Schick takes the Human Resources department in May 2012. She succeeds Thomas Sattelberger. In protest against the appointment of the former Württemberg Education Minister the employee side left the Supervisory Board meeting. On the appointment of the new board members Ulrich Lehner said: “In Ms. Schick and Ms. Nemat we have found two distinguished experts for the two departments. I am looking forward to working together.” The Compliance board member Manfred Balz is also to be replaced by a woman, but the appointment is delayed because of an existing employment relationship.

Uwe Flach was elected as the new chairman of the supervisory body of Deutsche Wohnen at the Supervisory Board meeting on 5 July. The former advisor to Oaktree Capital Group has been a member of the Supervisory Board since 2008. The current incumbent, Hermann Dambach, had already retired from office in late June. A prominent new addition to the Supervisory Board of the real-estate company is Wolfgang Clement .

Marc Brucherseifer is the new chairman of the Supervisory Board at Drillisch. As one of the founders, he was Chief Executive Officer up to 31 March 2005. Brucherseifer has been a member of the Supervisory Board since October 2007. He succeeds Hartmut Schenk, who has gone to the freenet Supervisory Board. The outgoing Supervisory Board chairman of the German mobile-service provider has been on the body since 2002 and its Chairman since 2003.

METRO is to appoint Heiko Hutmacher as Chief Human Resources Officer and Labour Director, the trade group announced on 22 July. The Supervisory Board’s Personnel Committee had proposed the appointment of the Akzo Nobel Manager as from 1 October. The Board would thus be expanded to five members. The post has been a shared responsibility of Eckhard Cordes since the departure of Zygmunt Mierdorf in early 2010.

For “personal reasons”, Thomas Richterich does not want to extend his contract with Nordex expiring on 30 June 2012, the wind-turbine manufacturer announced on 22 July. The Supervisory Board respected the decision, which enabled early transition planning. The Klatten family, majority shareholder at Nordex with nearly 24 percent, must now find a new CEO for the Hamburg company.

Wolfgang Werner has informed the Supervisory Board chairman that he is resigning, announced Praktiker on 20 July. The CEO will run the business provisionally until a successor is found. He headed the Board for almost ten years, first as spokesman and then as chairman. The troubled DIY chain had already replaced its chief financial officer last September.

Franz Koch on 25 July officially took over the post of PUMA CEO Jochen Zeitz, who becomes Chairman of the PUMA Supervisory Board. The date of the change in the management team was tied to the registration of the new legal form of European Company (SE) in the commercial register. Melody Harris-Jensbach would henceforth no longer form part of the leadership. A successor would not be appointed.

Joachim Trickl leaves QSC at the end of August in order to pursue new professional challenges. The Chief Operating Officer had come to the Cologne telecommunications providers only in February 2009, and was to facilitate the operational and sales development of the three business units Managed Services, Products and Wholesale. The heads of the business units will take on Trickl’s tasks from now until further notice.

On the Roth & Rau Supervisory Board to be newly elected on 26 August all three posts are in future to be occupied by Meyer Burger representatives, as the invitation to the Annual Meeting shows. One is Peter Maria Wagner, who if elected will take over as chairman of the committee. Other proposed members are Chief Financial Officer Michael Hirschi and attorney Andrea Sieber of law firm meyerlustenberger. The Swiss were advised on the acquisition of the Saxon solar company by, among others, the Zurich law firm. The former Supervisory Board around Chairman Eberhard Reiche, his deputy Prof. Alexander Michaelis and Daniel Schoch will retire. Meyer Burger now holds over 80 percent of Roth & Rau.

Angelika Dammann left SAP last month for personal reasons. The personnel manager had drawn the wrath of the Works Council on herself. Dammann’s job as personnel manager has been taken over for the moment by Chief Financial Officer Werner Brandt.

David Broadbent has left the Board of Software AG with immediate effect. The Chief Operating Officer was responsible for product sales in Europe (excluding the German-speaking countries), the Middle East and Africa. This task was taken over by Darren Roos, the former head of sales in Benelux and Scandinavia. This was announced by the Darmstadt firm in a press release dated 28 July.

SolarWorld has increased its board from four to five members against the backdrop of growth and the increasing internationalization of the group, and appointed the first woman to the Board. Colette Rückert-Hennen is in charge of staff and branding (Chief Human Resources and Brand Officer) from 1 July, announced the Bonn TecDax Group.