Icon: enlarge
Bad game:
Christina Johansson
took over the lead from
Tom Blades
Photo: Sepp Spiegl / ullstein bild
Tom Blades
(64) is not only an experienced, but also a particularly honorable manager.
Shortly before leaving the industrial service provider Bilfinger in January, he did not let confidants see what was going on in Mannheim.
He quietly withdrew with good words to the employees - probably to his domicile in Dubai.
Thus, supervisory board chairman
Eckhard Cordes
(70) was able to spread the tale of the sudden, but in the best of agreement, resignation without being contradicted.
Chief Financial Officer
Christina Johansson
(55) took over.
In fact, Blades was played badly.
Parts of the supervisory board had opposed the British.
The trigger was a change of ownership standing in the room.
Financial investor Clayton Dubilier & Rice and other private equity addresses had expressed general interest in taking over the group in the fall, which was very suitable for the major shareholders Cevian (26.8 percent) and ENA (12 percent), who were willing to sell.
Blades was also fundamentally open, consulted permanent advisor
Dietrich Becker
(57) from the investment bank Perella Weinberg.
But the expected offer never came.
Because employee representatives on the supervisory board, led by committee vice-chairman
Stephan Brückner
(55), felt compelled to intervene.
They fear that a sale of the company will result in a filleting à la Thyssenkrupp - or in a disempowerment of the employee bank as with Linde.
At her instigation, the supervisory board hired
Rainer Langel
(52), European head of the Macquarie investment bank.
In addition, Brückner & Co. hired the Stuttgart lawyer and conflict
solver Hartmut Hamann.
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