Harald Wilhelm
Munich Before moving to Daimler hurried in April 2019 CFO Harald Wilhelm the call of a cleaner is already ahead. Finally, the 53-year-old stopped as CFO of airbus dubious payments; In the affair about the use of middlemen in the sale of jets, he once made a voluntary declaration to the corruption agency in Great Britain. at Daimler Wilhelm is now also cleaning up – at least in terms of personnel.
How the DaxGroup announced on Wednesday that Björn Scheib, who has headed the Investor Relations division since 2009, will leave the company on April 1, “by mutual agreement”. Group circles, on the other hand, say that it is “rather the opposite”. After all, it is no secret internally that Scheib has been a close confidante for over a decade by Wilhelm’s predecessor Bodo Uebber was.
That Wilhelm is now looking for a confidante to communicate with the After several profit warnings, some investors were badly upset To improve again is only logical, it is said in corporate circles.
Scheib’s successor as Head of Investor Relations will be Steffen Hoffmann, who has been responsible for Daimler’s finances and controlling in China’s most important sales market since June 2017. Wilhelm praised Hoffmann as a “seasoned and experienced manager” who was ideally suited to “adequately represent Daimler on the capital market”.
However, the personnel carousel in Stuttgart is far from being stopped Knorr brake announced on Wednesday morning in an ad hoc announcement, Daimler top manager Frank Markus Weber will switch to the brake group. The 50-year-old will be the new CFO on August 1 Knorr brake,
Weber has several important functions at Daimler. As M&A boss, he is responsible for the group’s investments, consistently implements the restructuring of the group from a conglomerate to a holding company with three flexible units (cars, trucks, mobility services) and was most recently appointed savings commissioner.
Many in Stuttgart consider Weber’s departure to be a real loss. “I very much regret the change from Frank Markus Weber,” said Daimler CFO Wilhelm in an internal letter to the staff, which is in the Handelsblatt. At the same time, he congratulated him “on this career step”.
Wilhelm won the power struggle
Because Weber held three important functions at Daimler, his move to Knorr-Bremse resulted in “a series of structural and personnel changes,” as the employee information continues.
Accordingly, Alexander Nediger from Weber will take over the corporate development area, which also includes mergers and acquisitions, from August. Nediger reports directly to CFO Wilhelm while maintaining his previous responsibility for “Innovation Cooperation Management”.
Alexander Koesling, who has been responsible for managing the supply chain at Swabia for six years, will in the future instead of Weber take care of the execution of the multi-billion dollar savings program Move, which provides for the reduction of up to 15,000 of the 300,000 jobs worldwide.
At the same time, Koesling will become head of the Cost Controlling division at Mercedes, succeeding Karl Deppen, who will move to Brazil to control truck activities there.
Daimler CFO Wilhelm is thus completely reorganizing his portfolio. When the manager was appointed to the board in Stuttgart almost a year ago, many were surprised. In the end, three suitable internal candidates were ready to succeed Bodo Uebber as guardian of the numbers.
In particular, Frank Lindenberg, CFO of the Mercedes car division, had, according to corporate circles, high hopes of inheriting Uebber. But supervisory board chief Manfred Bischoff ultimately decided with Wilhelm for an external candidate. “Frank didn’t get over that,” says an insider.
The result: Wilhelm and Lindenberg fought a power struggle. At the end of February, Wilhelm emerged as the clear winner. In the future, he will head Daimler’s finances and that of the all-important passenger car division. Lindenberg, on the other hand, will leave the company.
The second internal opponent to Wilhelm was Frank Markus Weber, it is said in corporate circles. He is now moving to Knorr-Bremse. Only Stephan Unger remains as potentially the last prominent adversary of Wilhelm. As a board member of Daimler Mobility AG, Unger is to control the investments in the area of digital mobility services in addition to finance and controlling.
In corporate circles, however, it is doubted whether the 52-year-old has enough power. Unger has a lot of urge to apply and is therefore “overdue” to go, says an insider. Another expressed himself more conciliatory: “Many top financial people are like Wilhelm in his early 50s. But they can’t get past Wilhelm. You are therefore looking for a career opportunity outside of the group. ”A third insider suspects that Unger will stay and join the group.