FRANKFURT — Former Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche is the best candidate to be the company’s next chairman despite opposition from some shareholders, the automaker’s current Chairman, Manfred Bischoff, said.
Zetsche was succeeded as CEO in May 2019 by the automaker’s research and development boss, Ola Kallenius. When the succession plans were announced, Zetsche was nominated to succeed Bischoff after the company’s annual meeting in 2021 following a two-year cooling off period recommended by German corporate practice.
The planned transition of Zetsche from CEO to chairman at first met with little opposition. His 13 years as CEO were often turbulent and potential successors such as Wolfgang Bernhard and Andreas Renschler came and went, but Zetsche’s term as CEO was largely considered a success.
Zetsche restructured the automaker, selling its Chrysler division to U.S. private equity investment firm Cerberus Capital Management. He overhauled the ailing Mercedes-Benz car brand, which won back from BMW the spot as the world’s top-selling luxury brand.
His legacy has been reexamined after Kallenius was forced to issue multiple profit warnings for 2019 and Germany’s motor industry watchdog, the KBA, said some Mercedes diesel cars were “equipped with impermissible defeat device.“
Zetsche was also criticized after the Mercedes X-Class pickup, which he championed as a game-changer for its light commercial vehicles division, was axed because of slow sales.
At Daimler’s annual meeting on July 8, which was held as a virtual event due to the coronavirus, Bischoff told shareholders he still expects Zetsche to be installed as his replacement.
Zetsche’s long experience makes him well placed to lead the supervisory board, Bischoff said. He said he considered Zetsche suitable to lead the board” prudently and cautiously.”
Bischoff was forced to repeat the answers following multiple questions from shareholders on the same topic.
In Germany, a supervisory board signs off on a company’s strategy and major decisions. Its members are not involved in operational decisions, which are carried out by a management board led by the CEO.
Zetsche is expected to be installed as chairman during the new board’s first meeting at the end of next year’s annual meeting, whose date has not yet been announced.
Bischoff, whose term will end just before the annual meeting, will have stepped down by that time, so he will no longer be a party to the outcome.