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Designated Uniper boss Lewis: From the previous parent company E.on to Uniper
Photo: Tayfun Salci / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO
The new boss is changing from another company - but a lot of things should seem familiar to him: Michael Lewis is to take over as CEO of the nationalized energy company Uniper and receive a contract for a period of five years.
The group announced this after an extraordinary meeting of the Supervisory Board.
So far, Lewis has been in charge of the UK business of E.on, the former parent company of Uniper.
However, it is still unclear when the chief post will actually be filled.
According to the statement, the supervisory board decided to appoint Lewis, and the formal appointment should then “take place as soon as the starting date is set”.
E.on itself announced that it was in "constructive talks" with Uniper about a suitable change date.
Until then, Lewis will remain CEO of E.on UK.
At Uniper, the new Chief Financial Officer, Jutta Dönges, and Holger Kreetz, who is also a new member of the Management Board, will take on the management responsibilities on an interim basis.
Uniper needs a replacement at the top because the former boss Klaus-Dieter Maubach made use of a special right of termination due to the majority takeover by the federal government and left the group at the end of February.
Lewis is an engineer by training and has been in the energy industry for almost 30 years, having been with E.on since 2007, where he took over as chief executive of the UK group company in 2017.
"Uniper is facing major challenges, but above all huge opportunities when it comes to shaping the energy transition," Lewis is quoted as saying in the Uniper statement.
The initially reduced and then non-existent gas deliveries from Russia as a result of the war of aggression in Ukraine had brought Uniper to the brink of insolvency - the group had to meet the delivery obligations to its around one thousand customers and buy gas at much higher prices.
In 2022, the group accumulated losses of 19.1 billion euros.
The federal government took over Uniper on the grounds that this would serve the security of energy supply in Germany.
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