By ZHOU Xiaoyang
A new CEO will take over German industrial conglomerate Siemens in April.
Current deputy chief executive and chief technology officer Roland Busch will become the new CEO of Siemens AG on five-year contract. The appointment will officially take effect after a shareholders’ meeting in February next year.
Roland Busch, 55, will replace CEO Joe Kaeser, 62, taking over a slimmed down conglomerate that is now focused on the digitalization business.
Kaeser, who became CEO in 2013, saw Siemens through two rounds of restructuring and reorganization, transforming the previously sprawling conglomerate into a today’s streamlined version.
In October 2014, the former 16 business divisions were downsized to nine. In August 2018, they were further streamlined into three “operating companies” and three relatively independent “strategic companies.” The operating companies consisted of gas and power, smart infrastructure for homes and cities, and digital industries, handling industrial digitalization and automation. And strategic companies include Siemens Healthineers, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Siemens Mobility.
In another round of restructuring in May 2019, Siemens spun off its power and gas unit, which, together with other energy-related business, was incorporated into Siemens Energy, an independent entity will eventually be listed on the stock market. The two other operating companies, smart infrastructure and digital industries, remained with the group.
In September 2019, Michael Sen was named CEO of Siemens Energy, whose listing on the stock market was scheduled for September 2020.
Around that time, Roland Busch became deputy CEO of Siemens and has been chief of human resources since December. He has been on the managing board since 2013, and has served as chief technology officer since 2016. Busch is also in charge of “Siemens – Vision 2020,, a series of plans in the “growth fields” of electrification, automation and digitalization.
Material personnel changes also took place recently at the executive level at the soon-to-be-listed Siemens Energy.
Michael Sen, who had been lined up to become its CEO, will officially leave the company in the spring of 2021. Kaeser will serve as chairman of Siemens Energy after he steps down.
Replacing Sen, the company has appointed Christian Bruch, an executive at Linde (an industrial gas company), to be the new CEO designate of the energy business, effective May 1.
Siemens once operated a wide range of businesses including steam and gas turbines, lighting, and transportation. Its CEO often accompanied German leaders on state visits and to economic and political summits.
According to its financial disclosure for the 2019 fiscal year (covering the period from October 1 2018 to September 30 2019), Siemens’ revenue reached EUR 89.8 billion (US$ 9.62 billion), up 5 percent year-on- year. Adjusted earnings before interest and tax were EUR 8.99 billion, a minor 1 percent increase. Orders reached 98 billion, a 7-percent increase on the previous year.