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Markus Pinger’s successor at Beiersdorf is Ralph Gusko, most recently managing director for Northern Europe. The 50-year-old took over Pinger’s brands post at the Hamburg cosmetics group on 1 July. The current brands chief had asked the Supervisory Board to release him early from his contractual obligations, after completing the first phase of realignment initiated by him.

 

The new CEO at Celesio is to be Markus Pinger. On 23 June the Supervisory Board agreed to the appointment of the Beiersdorf brands head. Pinger is a “dream candidate” and “the ideal person at the top.” He will begin his new job in Stuttgart on 15 August. As Fritz Oesterle had resigned in late June, Wolfgang Maehr is acting head for two weeks.

 

In the “best of mutual agreement”, on 31 July Hans-Joachim Nikolin is leaving the board of Continental, the Hanover-based automotive supplier said on 8 June. The head of truck tires was actually still appointed until May 2014. With effect from 1 August the divisions for car and truck tires would be consolidated. Nikolai Setzer would take over as head.

 

Hermann T. Dambach, CEO of Oaktree GmbH, resigned his Supervisory Board post at Deutsche Wohnen at the end of June. He announced this on 31 May at the AGM. Through the sale of all its shares, Oaktree ended its commitment to the real-estate company on 31January. By mid-year a successor is to be determined and a new member appointed to the Supervisory Board.

 

Maarten Henderson was elected as new Supervisory Board chairman at freenet. The former Permira manager took office immediately, replacing Thorsten Kraemer, the wireless provider announced on 1 July. An election was necessary as the former chairman resigned this position following the AGM on 30 June. Henderson has been on the Supervisory Board since 2009.

 

Dieter Ammer has resigned as a member of the Supervisory Board of GEA Group “for personal reasons” with effect from 7 July. The former Tchibo CEO and Conergy Supervisory Board member had belonged to the Supervisory Board since 3 June 2003. The Supervisory Board of the machine and plant engineering company noted the decision “with respect and regret,” and thanked the 60-year-old for his years of work.

 

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen will elect the CEO of SGL Carbon, Robert J. Koehler, as its new Supervisory Board chairman immediately after the AGM on 28 July, as the successor to the 72-year-old Mark Woessner. The current chairman will then resign, and retire from the Supervisory Board due to age as planned. Werner Brandt, a board member at SAP, will also resign his seat on the Supervisory Board of the printing-machine manufacturer, at his own request. As a press release published on 9 June further explained, the nomination committee at its meeting proposed Lone Fønss Schrøder and Herbert Meyer to the next AGM as candidates for election to the Supervisory Board.

 

Peter Noé left Hochtief for personal reasons in the best of mutual agreement at the end of June, and not as planned on 10 September. Board member Martin Rohr took over responsibility for the company Hochtief AirPort. Noé had made use of his special right of termination in connection with the acquisition of the construction group by ACS.

 

Paul Thomason will not renew his management contract when it expires on 31 March 2012, for personal reasons, Kabel Deutschland Holding announced on 7 June in Munich after a Supervisory Board meeting. The CFO wants to take on new challenges in his native United States, the report said. The cable-network operator has started the search for a suitable candidate.

 

Krones has proposed Christoph Klenk (47) as successor to CFO Hans-Jürgen Thaus, retiring having reached the agreed age limit (62). The head of the research and development department should become the new CFO at the end of the year, the Neutraubling bottling-plant builder said on 14 June. Klenk's task on the board is to be taken over as from 2012 by 43-year-old Thomas Ricker. The former president of the University of Regensburg, Prof. Erich Kohnhäuser, retired from the Supervisory Board following the AGM on 15 June. At the shareholder meeting Petra Schadeberg-Herrmann, the first woman on the executive committee in its history, was also elected as managing partner of Krombacher Finance.

 

Ferdinand Piëch told shareholders at the owners’ meeting on 27 June that the three representatives he originally planned, Martin Winterkorn, Hans Dieter Pötsch and Jochem Heizmann, cannot take their posts on the MAN Supervisory Board until after merger approval, the EU Commission had indicated. All three also sit on the Supervisory Board of Scania, where the Wolfsburg firm holds 72 percent. Also, shareholder associations SdK, DSW and ISS had strongly criticized the plans in advance. VW had therefore proposed three new candidates in the short term. As replacements Ulf Berkenhagen and Matthias Bruse were called on. Thomas Kremer had already as elected representative taken the place of Heiner Hasford, who according to company information on 16 June had surprisingly resigned his Supervisory Board post the day before, just two weeks before the AGM, without giving any reasons. Piëch's plans to create a new purchasing department on the MAN board, for which according to a 30 May report in Financial Times Deutschland Audi board member Ulf Berkenhagen was intended, are also off the table for now.

 

Roland Lacher left the Supervisory Board of Singulus Technologies at the AGM on 31 May. The new chairman is Wolfhard Leichnitz. Rolf Blessing was also elected as third member. The new deputy chairman is Günter Bachmann.