The Dax company is 32 percent owned by the state.
(Photo: dpa)
Once upon a time there was a new federal government that had big plans, especially when it came to diversity. This new government shimmered in three bright colors for the first time, in red, in green and in yellow, but it already failed in its first two appearances because of its own claims.
On Wednesday there were three white men who presented the coalition agreement. Olaf Scholz (SPD), Robert Habeck (Greens) and Christian Lindner (FDP) raised the handle of the action at the presentation and should therefore continue to have it in hand. And secondly, on this very first day of the new government, a planned personnel leaked out that may not fit into the brave new economic and political world: Post boss Frank Appel is to become the new chairman of Deutsche Telekom’s supervisory board next year.
I’m sorry, what? Not only one or the other HR consultant may have asked himself that. Are we going back to the future now or ahead in the past?
This change would not only be absurd in view of the fact that it contradicts the recommendations of the government commission on corporate governance because Appel would be Dax CEO and Dax supervisory board chairman at the same time. It would also be unsustainable in view of the diversity that has been vehemently called for – especially by the SPD and the Greens. The SPD ministers Christine Lambrecht (justice) and Franziska Giffey (family) finally enforced the women’s quota for board members in the last active days of the old government, the grand coalition. The women’s quota for supervisory boards has been around for a long time.
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If, and if not, at Telekom, which is 32 percent owned by the state, would it now be the time and place to deliver and finally put a woman in the influential and prestigious post of top controller?
There are more than enough candidates. Margret Suckale, for example. She has been a member of the Telekom Supervisory Board for four years and has decades of experience in top management. She was a board member at BASF and Deutsche Bahn. She even knows a thing or two about state secretaries. Or Christine Bortenlänger, she is also an experienced manager (Bayerische Börse, Deutsches Aktieninstitut) and multi-supervisory board member (Siemens Energy, Covestro, MTU).
And what about Frank Appel? Perhaps he will first complete his chairmanship at Deutsche Post. And then there is certainly one or the other control post for the exception manager. So it is to be hoped that the first and the last group picture will remain without the lady of the new, colorful government.
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