Dusseldorf The headhunter search for a CEO for Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) was, so to speak, perfectly tailored to Carla Kriwet. The experienced manager wants to shape and lead. Gladly also a Dax group, as can be heard from previous companions.
And she knows medical technology and the healthcare industry, especially in the USA. The 51-year-old is now starting her job at the dialysis subsidiary of the Fresenius health care group on October 1 – three months earlier than initially announced.
This is not entirely surprising, since it had been indicated for some time that her predecessor Rice Powell, who had held the role of CEO since January 2013, would not leave an orderly house behind. However, the fact that it is so uncomfortable, as the profit warning announced late Wednesday evening shows, came as a shock to the markets. Fresenius Medical Care shares temporarily fell 16 percent on Thursday – to their lowest level in more than a decade.
After a disastrous year in 2021 with a profit slump of around a quarter, Fresenius Medical Care now expects another profit slump in the high teens percentage range, contrary to previous forecasts – i.e. by up to almost 20 percent. The important business with healthcare services in North America’s dialysis clinics is expected to stop growing this year.
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Now the experienced manager Kriwet not only has to put things in order at Fresenius Medical Care’s dialysis subsidiary, but also has to convince investors that FMC is a good investment.
Job cuts and a leaner operating model
After all: Carla Kriwet has already been relieved of part of the clean-up work. The medium-term growth targets for the company up to 2025 issued by Rice Powell in autumn 2020 were canceled on Wednesday at the same time as the profit forecast for this year.
And Helen Giza, chief financial officer and current executive vice president, tuned analysts into the many disruptions and uncertainties to be expected: from staff shortages to wage increases, inflation, supply shortages to Covid-19.
So Kriwet can then, albeit from another bad year 2022, but ideally take off towards more growth and profitability from 2023. But many things are still in flux: FMC is in the middle of the largest restructuring in its 25-year history. The operating model, previously based on four world regions, has been streamlined and divided into a global service business and a product business.
>> Read here: FMC is not burdened by the US court decision on dialysis reimbursement
5,000 jobs are to be cut worldwide, of which between 500 and 750 are in Germany. With the new structure, the company should become faster, more powerful and also more digital. And Kriwet is taking over a group that is still struggling with the effects of the corona pandemic for some time.
Because an above-average number of dialysis patients died as a result of the infection, FMC has fewer patients to care for in the long term. The company must adapt its structures to this. In addition, more and more patients want to be cared for at home if possible.
Commitment to better medical care through networking and technology
Carla Kriwet has experience with this topic. Because in her more than seven years as a manager at the Dutch medical technology group Philips, she was also responsible for digital innovations and patient monitoring.
She headed the Connected Care division for three years until 2020. Improving medical care through networking and technology is very important to her. She made that clear in an interview with the Handelsblatt at the time.
In February 2022, after less than two years, Kriwet left the top post of Europe’s largest household appliance manufacturer BSH for FMC “for personal reasons”. Alongside Merck boss Belén Garijo, she will be the second woman to currently run a Dax group. And together with Chief Financial Officer Helen Giza, she will form the first female CEO/CFO double in the Dax.
All in all, there have been a number of professional changes in the professional career of the doctor of business administration. The daughter of the former Thyssen boss Heinz Kriwet has already worked at ABB, Daimler Transportation, Boston Consulting, Linde and Drägerwerk.
From her time at Philips, she is well acquainted with the Waltham site near Boston, where Fresenius Medical Care has its US headquarters. She lived there for a few years with her husband and their three children. As a German, however, she is likely to develop a closer connection than her American predecessors to the roots of the company with the important production sites in Germany.
More: Lack of staff and inflation – Fresenius and subsidiary FMC lower the forecast