Dusseldorf, Paris Five years in plastics, now the world of aircraft construction: Thomas Toepfer, CFO of Covestro for many years, is moving to the same position at Airbus. On September 1, 2023, he will succeed Dominik Asam, who will become the new CFO of the software manufacturer SAP at the beginning of March.
The internally highly regarded Asam had already announced his departure in autumn 2022. The search for a permanent successor dragged on, also because it is an unwritten law of the European aircraft manufacturer to maintain a Franco-German balance on the board.
In addition to Frenchman Guillaume Faury, a German should again take over responsibility for finances after Asam – and Airbus first had to find a suitable top candidate with the right passport.
Airbus still has to be patient until Toepfer’s arrival. The plastics manufacturer Covestro does not want to let the successful CFO go immediately. 2023 will be a challenging year for the Dax group: high energy prices, expensive raw materials and an uncertain economic situation are affecting the chemical industry. This is where Toepfer is required internally and in communication with the capital market.
Covestro therefore underlined in the farewell statement that Toepfer would continue his work “to the fullest extent and with the same high level of commitment” until September. The group also needs the time because it has not yet been able to present a successor for the finance department – the search is on.
Nobody happy about leaving Covestro
In corporate circles it is said that at Covestro “no one is happy that the CFO is leaving”. Toepfer has developed a very good reputation, both internally and externally, which Airbus has also noticed. He only got a new five-year contract in April 2022. Xavier Tardy will temporarily manage finances at the aircraft manufacturer from March to September. He is CFO of the armaments and space subsidiary Airbus Defense & Space.
The aircraft manufacturer has found a successor for the outgoing CFO Dominik Asam.
(Photo: dapd)
In late summer, Toepfer is going from Leverkusen to the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse – and certainly more often to Hamburg, the largest German location, Hamburg, where Toepfer was born. Ambitious goals are waiting for him: Airbus profits are to be increased to six billion euros this year. In 2022, the group delivered strong results under outgoing CFO Asam. Adjusted operating profit increased by around 16 percent to 5.6 billion euros.
>> Read here: Airbus later ramps up production – sales and profits increase
As part of the management team, the new chief financial officer also has to face Airbus’ biggest challenge at the moment: ramping up aircraft production after the corona pandemic. The company recently fell short of its delivery targets due to supply chain problems.
Toepfer is familiar with imponderables and complex controls. He joined Covestro in April 2018 and had to learn that the plastics manufacturer operates in highly volatile markets. With plastic foams for furniture, car seats and insulating boards as well as with the transparent material polycarbonate, the Leverkusen-based company is a world leader. However, depending on the economic and competitive situation, sales prices sometimes shoot up to the ceiling, sometimes into the basement – and with them the profits.
“The CFO must recognize and strengthen the drivers in the company”
Just six months after joining Toepfer, he had to announce a profit warning at Covestro. It helped that he had already gained a good reputation on the capital market. The business economist, who studied at the renowned WHU in Vallendar, has expanded this standing to this day, according to analysts and investors.
The challenges for the CFO did not decrease. Covestro, with its large site in Shanghai, was particularly affected by the lockdowns in China. Then, last year, there was the threatening crisis caused by high energy prices.
Toepfer sees himself as a modern CFO, as a manager who doesn’t just have the figures under control. In his view, analytical skills are still necessary. “But the CFO also needs empathy to recognize what the drivers in the company are and how they can be strengthened,” he once said in an interview with the Handelsblatt.
How strong a CFO sees himself as a strategist depends on himself and on the entire management team. The father of four certainly had a strategic role at Covestro: The plastics manufacturer wants to ban the fossil raw materials oil and gas from its business and switch to alternative, renewable or recycled materials.
Toepfer’s management skills are just as much in demand as his expertise in risk management and supply chain analysis. When Covestro transferred all units into a new organization with two divisions in 2021, the CFO was particularly challenged. “In recent years, he and his team have continuously expanded the financial structure and positioned the CFO department very well at all levels,” said Richard Pott, Chairman of the Covestro Supervisory Board.
Toepfer was Karstadt’s chief financial officer from 2008 to 2011
Not only the recent crises have strengthened the finance manager. Toepfer was Karstadt’s chief financial officer from 2008 to 2011, exactly when the department store group was sliding into bankruptcy. In 2011 he switched to the Wiesbaden forklift truck group Kion, where he encountered better business. A little later, the Chinese industrial group Weichai Power became a major shareholder there, and the IPO followed in 2013.
So Toepfer is familiar with complex ownership structures like Airbus. A quarter of the shares are state-owned (Germany, France, Spain). The rest is traded on the stock exchange.
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