Franz becomes the new Mahle boss.
(Photo: LKQ Europe)
Stuttgart The current interim boss of the Stuttgart-based automotive supplier Mahle, Michael Frick, will become the new chief financial officer of the four times larger competitor ZF Friedrichshafen. “It’s not official yet, but the change is perfect,” an insider familiar with the process told the Handelsblatt in Stuttgart. Frick has worked for Mahle since 2003, as CFO since 2014 and as interim CEO in recent months.
Arnd Franz, currently head of the spare parts dealer LKQ Europe, will become the new CEO of Mahle. The “Wirtschaftswoche” reported first on Monday about the chairs being moved at Mahle and ZF. A Mahle spokeswoman did not want to comment on the pending personal details, and ZF also did not want to comment on a request from the Handelsblatt.
Mahle has lost over a tenth of its employees in recent years and has worn out three bosses in four years. Most recently, CEO Matthias Arleth left office on Good Friday after only four months. Since then, Frick has managed the fourth-largest German automotive supplier on an interim basis for the second time.
This time, it took Supervisory Board Chairman Heinz K. Junker five months to find a new CEO. According to industry circles, however, Franz was not the first candidate mentioned for the top position. But he knows Mahle well: he had already worked for the Stuttgart-based supplier for several years and was also in charge of sales in the automotive division before becoming head of LKQ.
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Frick’s change is considered understandable in the industry. After all, as second in the industry, ZF is four times larger than Mahle and, with the billion-euro takeovers of TRW and Wabco, has positioned itself significantly better than Mahle in the future technologies of electromobility and autonomous driving. Frick’s main task will be to manage ten billion euros in debt, mainly from the company takeovers.
>> Read about this: Third defeat for chief supervisor Junker – Mahle CEO Arleth is leaving after just three months
An industry expert says: “For ZF, it is extremely important to secure the rating so that the loans do not become more expensive.” At Mahle, Frick was able to gain experience in organizing scarce financial resources. During his interludes as CEO, he was able to gain additional operational experience in the supplier business, which is said to have been the decisive factor in his planned appointment as ZF CFO. According to industry circles, ZF was also looking intensively, but apparently unsuccessfully, for women to fill the position.
ZF: Board restructuring completed
With the commitment of a successor to the CFO Konstantin Sauer (63), who is retiring due to age, ZF’s new Supervisory Board Chairman Heinrich Hiesinger has largely completed his Executive Board restructuring. Former Knorr- Bremse Commercial Vehicles Board Member Peter Laier has already been hired to take over from Wilhelm Rehm (64), who is also retiring for reasons of age.
ZF CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider triggered the conversion in March by renouncing a new contract. Scheider also joined ZF from Mahle in February 2018. His internal successor, Holger Klein, has been in place for several months.
The foundation group ZF from Lake Constance used to work a lot with the personnel consultancy Egon Zehnder when filling senior positions. This time, Nicolas von Rosty, the German head of Heidrick & Struggles, advised on all three appointments to the ZF board.
More: The exaggerated warnings of the automotive suppliers – why the wave of bankruptcies fails