The outgoing BASF boss could lead the supervisory board of Mercedes-Benz.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Vienna, Dusseldorf A change is imminent at the top of the Mercedes-Benz Supervisory Board. The incumbent chief controller Bernd Pischetsrieder will leave the committee next year, as the carmaker announced on Wednesday.
At the meeting of the control committee on Wednesday, the 75-year-old also proposed a successor: Martin Brudermüller, the outgoing CEO of the chemical group BASF. He will stand for election as the new Mercedes supervisory board chairman in 2024.
Brudermüller has been on the Mercedes Supervisory Board since 2021, has international experience and is crisis-tested. As the head of a Dax group for many years, Brudermüller also has enough charisma to be taken seriously by the board team around Mercedes frontman Ola Källenius.
Supervisory Board Chairman Bernd Pischetsrieder was considered an emergency solution
However, the choice of Brudermüller is also delicate. The manager has been criticized because, despite rising geopolitical tensions, BASF continues to invest heavily in China and at the same time saves in Germany. Investors also complain about the weak share price development under his leadership since 2018.
The former VW and BMW boss Pischetsrieder has headed the group’s supervisory body for more than two years. His election was considered an emergency solution after the planned appointment of longtime Mercedes boss Dieter Zetsche failed due to resistance from some shareholders. The chairman of the supervisory board at the time, Manfred Bischoff, had to rethink and then appointed Pischetsrieder as his successor.
The personnel of Brudermüller is also somewhat surprising. Externally and internally, Telekom boss Tim Höttges was traded again and again as a possible chairman of the supervisory board. Apparently the manager wasn’t available. Ex-Metro boss Olaf Koch was also considered a candidate, especially since he once worked for Mercedes himself.
Brudermüller will leave BASF at the end of April 2024
For Brudermüller, the next big task would be when he resigns as CEO of BASF at the end of April 2024. The German Stock Corporation Act prohibits a direct change to the supervisory board of the chemical giant. In any case, the incumbent chief inspector Kurt Bock signaled that he wanted to take office for another four-year term in 2024.
Brudermüller has the necessary time capacity that the job of Mercedes chief controller requires. He is currently not represented on any other supervisory board, and he will probably give up his posts in chemical associations after he resigns as CEO.
The 61-year-old knows the global automotive industry very well from a supplier’s point of view, because the manufacturers are the chemical group’s largest customer group. BASF not only sells them paints and plastics, but has announced battery chemicals as a new growth business, which are crucial for better performance of electric cars.
From 2024, Martin Brudermüller will oversee the work of the CEO.
(Photo: dpa)
BASF is expanding this business in Germany and China. Brudermüller is a proven connoisseur of China and thus one of the most important foreign markets for Mercedes. From 2003 to 2006 he was responsible for the Asia-Pacific region at the chemical company based in Hong Kong. As CEO, he has been in the country regularly for years.
However, the focus on China has recently been controversial. After taking office as CEO in 2018, Brudermüller implemented the largest investment in the company’s history: BASF is building another large Verbund site in southern China for around ten billion euros, which will supply the local consumer goods, electronics and automotive industries.
Critics accuse Brudermüller of making the group too dependent on the geopolitical risks. The manager considers the risks to be manageable and argues that in a few years the Chinese chemical market will be larger than the markets in Europe and America combined. BASF cannot ignore this.
Brudermüller is considered crisis-tested and hands-on
“As a proven China expert, Martin Brudermüller represents the Asian strategy of the Stuttgart company like no other on the Mercedes Supervisory Board,” commented Marc Tüngler, General Manager of the German Protection Association for Securities Ownership (DSW) on the planned change. From a risk perspective, however, the manager must work towards a balanced line-up. “Here he has to jump over his own shadow.”
However, Brudermüller also counters growing public criticism from employees, which is unusual in the chemical industry. Because parallel to the expansion in China, Brudermüller has prescribed a savings program including job cuts for the home location Ludwigshafen.
But he has absolute backing on the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board of BASF. He was actually supposed to be leaving at the end of April, but the inspectors asked him for a one-year extension: the experienced manager should still lead the group through the difficult year 2023.
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