MUNICH: German engineering conglomerate Siemens named insider Ralf Thomas as its new finance chief in a management reshuffle on Wednesday, replacing Joe Kaeser who was promoted to the chief executive’s post last month following a fierce boardroom battle, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
Kaeser and his new CFO now face the challenge of whipping into shape a lumbering conglomerate with ¤78bn ($104bn) of annual sales and products ranging from gas turbines to high-speed trains and ultrasound machines.
Thomas, 52, has been finance chief of Siemens’ industrial products business for five years, overseeing a series of successful acquisitions of industrial software companies, and takes over as group CFO immediately, Siemens said.
The company also announced that Jim Hagemann Snabe, the 47-year-old outgoing co-chief executive of business software maker SAP is to join the supervisory board, taking the seat vacated by former Deutsche Bank chief executive, Josef Ackermann, who resigned earlier this month.
Management at Siemens, Germany’s second-biggest company by market value, has been in turmoil since former CEO, Peter Loescher, was ousted following a series of profit warnings and a fierce boardroom battle which resulted in Kaeser replacing Loescher and also led to the departure of Ackermann.
Siemens also said on Wednesday that management board member Brigitte Ederer, 57, who oversees personnel issues, was resigning from her post by mutual agreement.