For the 83,000 employees of the Franconian automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler, she is a shining light. Maria Elisabeth Schaeffler, the 81-year-old matriarch, has been in charge of the family business in Herzogenaurach since the death of her husband in 1986. Many Schaeffler cannot imagine without the important woman on the supervisory board. But this Thursday, due to her age, she will no longer stand for re-election at the Annual General Meeting and will leave the field to her son Georg, who has been the chief supervisor for many years.
Gustave parts
Business correspondent in Stuttgart.
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Another manager, more of a kind of twilight figure, remains: The 65-year-old Austrian Siegfried Wolf is a full member of the supervisory board, and there would be nothing to say against that if he didn’t maintain close contacts with the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. As his business partner, he wants to take over the Schaeffler plant in Russia and recently sent a begging letter directly to the Russian ruler Vladimir Putin. This had given him a medal years ago.