Siemens’ Management Shakeup. Siemens has announced its first major shakeup since Klaus Kleinfeld took over as chief executive of the German electronics giant last year, replacing its chief financial officer, chief technology officer, and president of the company’s communications group.
Siemens’ Management Shakeup.
German electronics giant appoints new CFO, CTO, and other executives.
March 23, 2006
Siemens has announced its first major shakeup since Klaus Kleinfeld took over as chief executive of the German electronics giant last year, replacing its chief financial officer, chief technology officer, and president of the company’s communications group.
The Munich-based company, which also has engineering and mobile phone businesses, said Wednesday it also planned to propose the new board members at a meeting of its supervisory board on April 26. At the meeting, the board plans to also approve the executive changes.
Starting May 1, Joe Kaeser will succeed Heinz-Joachim Neub?rger, 53, as CFO. Mr. Neub?rger had been with Siemens since 1989 and took over as CFO in 1998. His contract expires on September 30, and won’t be extended.
At his suggestion, his successor, Mr. Kaeser, will be appointed earlier, since the company needs to make various financial decisions, such as converting its accounting system to the international IFRS standard.
Mr. Neuberger plans to make himself available as a financial advisor, especially to help with the company’s pension plans.
Mr. Kaeser, 48, is currently chief strategy officer with Siemens and has been with Siemens since 1980. He took over the chief strategy officer job in October 2004 after starting out in business administration. He will be succeeded by Horst J. Kayser, 45, chief executive of Siemens in South Korea.
The management changes are the first major shakeup since Mr. Kleinfeld, 48, took over as CEO last year. He has set high profit margin targets for the company’s 11 divisions to reach by next April and plans to change the company’s technology and communications units.
However, some analysts don’t think the CFO shakeup will produce changes soon enough.
A research note by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein quoted by The Wall Street Journal, said, “We’d have preferred to see an external appointment to help stimulate change at Siemens. What we’ll probably see is more of the same within Siemens, with change likely to remain slow.”
Shares of Siemens fell $1.25 to $90.40 in recent trading.
Tech and Strategy Changes Possible
As chief technology officer, Siemens is naming Hermann Requardt, 51, to succeed Claus Weyrich, 62. Mr. Weyrich’s contract was also set to expire on September, and like Mr. Neub?rger, he said he did not wish the contract to be extended.
Mr. Weyrich has been with Siemens since 1969 and helped drive the internationalization of the company’s R&D network, setting up facilities in Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, India, and Russia.
His successor, Mr. Requardt, joined Siemens in 1984 after a stint at the German Aerospace Research Institute. He headed R&D on various medical-imaging projects for the company.
His successor as member of the group board of medical solutions will be Siegfried Russwurm, 42, who now runs the motion controls division at Siemens Automation and Drives.
Another new appointee to the medical group board is Thomas Miller, 48, who is now president of the health services division of Siemens Medical Solutions USA.
As group president of communications, Siemens appointed Eduardo Montes Pérez, who joined the company in Spain in 1975 and has managed the company’s group in Spain since 1999. He is succeeding Thomas Ganswindt, who had been appointed for an interim period.
In other Siemens news, on Thursday, two former employees of the company’s power generation branch were charged with offering $7.3 million in bribes to procure contracts from Italian gas companies. |
