Siemens appoints Roland Busch to succeed Joe Kaeser

MIn the historically largest restructuring of the Siemens group, CEO Joe Kaeser is disempowered earlier than expected.

In an extraordinary supervisory board meeting it was decided now and not only in summer that Kaeser’s deputy Roland Busch would succeed him. The 55-year-old will be the new CEO at the latest on February 3, 2021, Siemens said.

In addition, it was surprisingly announced that Michael Sen will not now head the energy division Siemens Energy, which is about to be split off, with around 88,000 employees and 27 billion euros in sales.

Rather, the head of the plant division of the world’s largest gas company Linde, Christian Bruch (50), should control the energy division from May. Kaeser is to become the head of the supervisory board there and can then let his international contacts play there.

The decisions of the Siemens inspectors are significant in several ways. It is said officially that Kaeser, who has been with Siemens for 40 years, has informed the supervisory board that he is not striving to renew his contract, which expires in spring 2021.

Another personel is a real bang

The 62-year-old, who has been at the top of the group since autumn 2013, has repeatedly brought another term into play – although this is a decision of the supervisory board. Recently, however, his chances of an extension were assessed less and less. Now there is a generation change at Germany’s leading technology group.

The 55-year-old technician Busch, who was appointed Kaeser representative in autumn 2019, will take over all relevant areas of responsibility on the board on October 1, Siemens announced. As early as next month, he will be responsible for controlling Siemens AG, which will be smaller in the future after the spin-off of the energy division, with the core areas of transport technology, digital industry and intelligent infrastructure, it says.

The second big bang is the departure of CEO Michael Sen as CEO and Klaus Patzak as CFO of Siemens Energy, which is about to be spun off. Siemens announced that the separation plans and the schedule as well as the IPO for Siemens Energy at the end of September will remain unchanged.

A deep rift

This is surprising in that general meetings are currently being canceled due to the corona virus. However, a special shareholder meeting is necessary for the spin-off of the Siemens energy division, which is planned for July 9. In addition, against the background of the Corona crisis, it is completely open how the further economy will develop.

The resignation of the CEO and CFO at Siemens Energy indicates a deep rift as to what the future roles and tasks between Siemens AG and the split off Siemens Energy should look like.

So far, Siemens had only announced that it would give up the majority of Energy in the future and keep at least 25 percent. It is controversial how radical the separation should be and what further help is given.

Obviously, the conflict between Kaeser-Busch and Sen-Patzak has been looming a little longer, otherwise a succession plan could be presented. The world of energy suppliers is not completely alien to the new Siemens Energy chief Bruch. Before Linde, he worked for the energy supplier RWE.

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