ThyssenKrupp announced that the personnel committee of the supervisory board in close cooperation with Dr Heinrich Hiesinger CEO of ThyssenKrupp AG have agreed to propose to the Supervisory Board in its meeting on December 10, 2012 to release the Executive Board Members Dr. Olaf Berlien (50), Dr. Jürgen Claassen (54) and Edwin Eichler (54) from their functions effective December 31, 2012.
Dr Jürgen Claassen has already asked the Supervisory Board on December 1, 2012 to be released from his Executive Board duties until further notice.
With this recommendation to the Supervisory Board, the Personnel Committee recognizes the comprehensive responsibility of the Executive Board for the management as well as for the leadership culture of the Group.
The Supervisory Board had mandated an efficiency audit with regard to their role in the Steel Americas projects for their meeting on November 20, 2012. This audit identified as one of the key reasons for the negative development of the projects that the former Executive Board had based their decisions on a series of assumptions and key data which were either clearly too optimistic or later proved to be incorrect.
Further to the issues with Steel Americas, ThyssenKrupp is currently confronted with the disclosure of a series of corruption and cartel cases. This also raises the question of the current leadership culture within the Group.
The Executive Board Members Dr. Berlien, Dr Claassen and Eichler have agreed to lay down their functions and by doing this support the necessary changes in the leadership system and leadership culture of ThyssenKrupp. In May 2011, Dr. Heinrich Hiesinger has already started to implement his strategic way forward for the Group as well as extensive changes with regard to the culture of the Group.
With this recommendation the Personnel Committee of the Supervisory Board is setting a clear signal both externally and internally. The Personnel Committee is in full support of the changes already initiated by the new Executive Board Members Dr Heinrich Hiesinger and Guido Kerkhoff.
