Since 2019 she has been Senior Vice President Human Resources of the Gütersloh household appliance group.
(Photo: obs)
Dusseldorf The previous HR manager of the family company Miele, Rebecca Steinhage, is promoted to the management board. Miele announced this on Wednesday. As of July 1, she will take over the newly created “Human Resources & Corporate Affairs” department.
She is the first woman on the board of directors. So far, this has been led by the two members of the founding families, the managing partners Markus Miele and Reinhard Zinkann.
Steinhage has been in charge of global HR work with more than 22,300 employees in 50 countries, including 11,200 in Germany, for three years. She will do the same in her new role, but will also be responsible for communication and sustainability.
Just about a month ago, the Allbright Foundation analyzed the diversity at the top of family businesses. The result: Diversity is particularly low in companies that are completely family-owned. Miele is also one of the companies that are 100 percent controlled by the corporate family.
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The household appliance manufacturer explained in May that its five-member board of directors would be filled with men as follows: Two members came from the owning family, the other three managing directors had come at a time when there was still a “long-term plan to win at least one woman for management”. have not given. The company said: “All five were selected without regard to gender. In all cases, of course, a woman would have been just as welcome as a man.”
>> Read here: HariboAldi, Vorwerk: 68 of the 100 largest family businesses have no women on the board
In the Allbright survey, however, Miele admitted that it no longer found the all-male cast to be up-to-date. Today, the advancement of women in management positions has a high priority. This also applies to the future composition of the management board. With the rise of Rebecca Steinhage, Miele has delivered. The group had a turnover of more than 4.8 billion euros in 2021.
More: “Family companies are the brake pad of the German economy in terms of the proportion of women”