ESSEN (dpa-AFX) – The industrial group Thyssenkrupp has found a successor for its outgoing Chief Financial Officer Klaus Keysberg. The Supervisory Board has appointed Jens Schulte as the new Chief Financial Officer, the company announced in Essen on Wednesday. Schulte currently holds the position at Schott AG. The change is expected to take place in the second half of the financial year, it said. Keysberg had already announced in September that he would not be renewing his contract.
In addition, thyssenkrupp is expanding its Executive Board, which currently consists of three members. Volkmar Dinstuhl, most recently head of the now dissolved Multi Tracks segment and responsible for sourcing and sales projects, will also be appointed to the Executive Board as of January 1, as will Ilse Henne. The manager is currently on the Management Board of the Trading division. All new contracts run for three years.
The appointment is intended to focus the Management Board more strongly on operational performance and the further development of the portfolio. Previously, the Board had covered the three cross-divisional functions of strategy, human resources and finance. The realignment also means that the divisions of thyssenkrupp will be assigned to individual Executive Board members in future. The new CEO Miguel López will be responsible for the steel business and the new Decarbon Technologies division, Dinstuhl for Automotive Technology, Henne for the trading business and Oliver Burkhard for Marine Systems.
Former CEO Martina Merz had organized Thyssenkrupp as a “Group of Companies” in which the divisions operated independently and Thyssenkrupp functioned more as a holding company. However, the Group has made rather slow progress with the further development of its businesses in recent years and has attracted attention primarily through sales, such as the elevator division. As the “Handelsblatt” reported on Wednesday, citing informed circles, López hopes to gain better access to the business through more centralized management of the segments. The aim is to significantly reduce costs through the cost-cutting programs that have been introduced.
Thyssenkrupp slipped deep into the red in the last financial year 2022/23 (as at the end of September) and had to write down billions on the currently weakening steel business. Thyssenkrupp is preparing a partial sale of the volatile division, which is suffering from the difficult economic environment. Thyssenkrupp recently made talks with the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky public. The latter is said to have put on the brakes recently, the Handelsblatt reported. He had made it clear that he saw no time pressure, the report said, citing company circles.
In addition, Thyssenkrupp has further restructuring measures in mind: For example, the Group is aiming to spin off Marine Systems. It has also been looking for partners or new owners for parts of the plant engineering and automotive supply business for some time./nas/he