Motorway company Stephan Krenz receives termination agreement

The supervisory board is working “at full speed” on a seamless transition, Luksic continued. But the highway company is threatened with a long phase of leadershiplessness. This circumstance is considered to be particularly problematic, since the company is to renovate a number of bridges and expand and build new routes in no time at all.

A turbulent special meeting of the supervisory board had already taken place beforehand. The trigger was the way in which the Federal Ministry of Transport communicated the resignation of Managing Director Krenz at the beginning of April and at the same time presented two new Managing Directors: At the request of Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), the former State Chairman of the FDP Lower Saxony, Stefan Birkner, should become the new Managing Director .

At the same time, in addition to the other managing director positions for human resources and finance, one for the area of ​​technology is to be created. For this, Wissing had provided the technical director of the federal-state project management company Deges, Dirk Brandenburger. The supervisory board found out about all of this at very short notice, while the workforce found out about the personal details from the media on the same day.

From July, the Autobahn company will be without leadership

In a meeting, the supervisory board then insisted on its right to appoint and supplement the management independently and also to agree to the resignation of the managing director. Accordingly, the councilors rejected Wissing’s plans and called for “a proper appointment procedure”, as it was said.

In the special session on Thursday, the ministry named three possible personnel consultancies. One of them is now to find other potential candidates and submit them to the Supervisory Board. With them there should be a selection so that the Supervisory Board can make its own decisions.

However, the succession is delayed with the orderly process. As it was said, there will probably be no decision by the end of June. Wissing’s favorite Birkner works as a partner at the auditing company EY. It was unclear whether he would wait that long, it said. The ministry said that the boss of the Autobahn had to have “a close relationship with the minister”.

“It’s always about politics,” they say. That is why it is also important to fill the position of managing director with a person who has experience in politics. Representatives of the federal states and municipalities would constantly need to talk about individual projects, or constituency deputies would express wishes for new routes. “The head of the motorway company must conduct all these talks in close coordination with the Federal Minister.”

In addition, the company is still dependent on cooperation with the federal states, since the central administration, which has been working since 2021, cannot yet stand on its own two feet, from IT to training plans.

He also has to deal with the fact that the officials of the Federal Ministry, for example, want to influence the administration as in the past and do not accept that since 2021 not 16 countries but a GmbH will be responsible, as the house says self-critically. The supervisory board also often gets bogged down in the “detailed control,” it said.

High political pressure on the Autobahn boss

The trained industrial engineer Krenz, who previously worked at Bombardier and Abellio Germany, among others, seemed bothered by this influence for a long time. That’s why he explained to Minister Wissing that he no longer wanted to be available for the office – even though his contract had only been extended by a further three years last year. He now wants to go on a trip around the world and then turn to a new task.

In view of the political pressure from a motorway boss, Minister Wissing is promoting the additional position of technical director. He should relieve the spokesman for the managing directors and take care of complicated large-scale projects such as new bridge construction. 4,000 bridges alone are in urgent need of renovation. As it was said, the supervisory board is ready to supplement the management.

However, it is unclear whether the Deges engineer Brandenburger will also fill the position. As it was said, things are no longer going smoothly with large projects, even at Deges. There are disputes with construction companies and even walkouts on construction sites.

The autobahn manages around 13,000 kilometers of federal trunk roads. It has a budget of around eight billion euros at its disposal.

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