The troubled steel and industrial group Thyssenkrupp gets the third top management within just 15 months. Martina Merz will take over as CEO from Tuesday at the traditional Essen company. The engineer, who has worked for Bosch for a long time and has been a full-time supervisory board member for a few years, replaces Guido Kerkhoff. The Supervisory Board unanimously decided that, Thyssenkrupp said on Monday.
The decision had already been made last Friday, but has only just been announced. With Kerkhoff the supervisory board had agreed on a amicable dissolution of its contract. The manager was increasingly caught in the crossfire of investors and IG Metall. They accused him of lack of consistency and lack of success in the rehabilitation of the industrial giant. Kerkhoff is to receive a compensation in the amount of about six million euros, reported the "Handelsblatt".
Martina Merz on the personnel changes on the Management Board of thyssenkrupp AG: pic.twitter.com/g79rDHtenz
- thyssenkrupp (@thyssenkrupp) September 30, 2019The change from Kerkhoff to Merz is not commonplace, because the 56-year-old was until now the chairman of the supervisory board of ThyssenKrupp and thus the chief inspector of the chief executives. It should also be just a transitional solution at the top of the group. After a maximum of twelve months, Merz should return to the Supervisory Board and make room for the next CEO. Until then, former Siemens manager Siegfried Russwurm will head the supervisory board.
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Kerkhoff had only taken over as CEO of Thyssenkrupp in July of last year, after the longtime chief executive Heinrich Hiesinger, unnerved, left the company over cross-shoots of investors. The 51-year-old, who had previously been CFO of the Essene for seven years, was initially appointed transitional chief. After a long search Kerkhoff finally got a contract until 2023. It had been a matter of course for him, "in a particularly difficult time to take responsibility for the company," he said goodbye.
