There are enough construction sites at the automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen. Starting next year, Mathias Miedreich will be able to try his hand at the biggest one: the supervisory board appointed the 49-year-old to the ZF board on Thursday. From January 2025, Miedreich will be responsible for Division E at the automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen.
The division is the nucleus of ZF’s transformation Electromobility – and therefore at the same time one of the units at the supplier in which the problems are most serious. Insiders repeatedly report that ZF is making a loss on most of its e-projects. ZF boss Holger Klein (54) had Interview at the beginning of July
with manager magazin confirmed that the technology for electric drives is “mostly not yet profitable”.
Klein remains convinced of electromobility. Despite 11.5 billion euros in sales, Division E is facing restructuring. Klein announced in the summer that they would “review and improve the procedures, processes and structures with a particular focus,” and therefore also called for “openness to cooperation and strong partnerships.”
For Mathias Miedreich, these are not easy conditions to start with. After all, he has plenty of experience working with automotive suppliers. In the past, Miedreich worked at Continental and Faurecia, among others. Between 2021 and May 2024 he was CEO of the battery recycler Umicore.
CEO Klein is currently responsible for the electrical business at ZF after Stephan von Schuckmann (50) left the company in the summer for personal reasons. Klein had also taken on temporary responsibility for the automotive supplier’s Asian business. The CEO should continue to take on these tasks in the future so that Miedreich can concentrate fully on electromobility.
The expectations of the future board of directors are high anyway: Supervisory board chairman Heinrich Hiesinger (64) said he has “a special responsibility given the requirements that ZF is currently facing in the transition to electromobility.” Andreas Brand (60), the chairman of Zeppelin Foundation, which holds 93.8 percent of the shares in ZF, is demanding that Miedreich adapt Division E “to the requirements of the market and technological developments”.
After major acquisitions, ZF Friedrichshafen is suffering from debts of more than 10 billion euros. Since operational business is weakening, the board is planning massive job cuts. Up to 14,000 jobs in Germany are at risk. In addition to the locations in Gelsenkirchen, Damme and Eitorf, other plants could be closed. That’s why management is in favor of the works council been in a clinch for months
.