Siemens names CEO, president

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 5/21/2007

Scandal-tainted Munich, Germany-based electronics maven Siemens AG has appointed Peter Löscher as its new president and CEO. Löscher currently serves as president of global human health at Merck and Co. Inc. and will take his post at Siemens on July 1.

The supervisory board of Siemens approved the proposal of its chairman's committee to appoint Löscher a full member of the managing board of Siemens and Siemens' president and CEO at a meeting in Munich on May 20.

Löscher will replace Klaus Kleinfeld, who abruptly announced last month his intent to step down from the president and CEO posts, and just hours before disclosing that the United States' Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DoJ) had each launched official probes of the company on various criminal violations of U.S. law. Since evidence came to light in late 2006 of Siemens' alleged involvement in a multi-million dollar bribery network, federal investigations of the company have been launched in the U.S., Japan, Greece, Switzerland, and the company's native Germany.

With Löscher at its helm, Siemens seems intent on cleaning up its sullied public image. "In Peter Löscher, we have found an exceptional individual for the office of president and CEO of Siemens AG," Gerhard Cromme, chairman of Siemens' supervisory board, said in a statement. "I am convinced that Mr. Löscher has what it takes to steer Siemens through its current difficulties and into a better future."

Löscher studied economics in Vienna, Hong Kong and at Harvard Business School in the United States. He began his professional career in 1985 at the German management consultants Kienbaum and Partner. From 1988 to 2002, he held a variety of posts at Hoechst AG, and, following its merger with Rhone Poulenc Rohrer, at Aventis Pharma Ltd.   He was subsequently appointed chairman, president and CEO of Aventis.

In 2002, he moved to the UK life sciences company Amersham and, following its acquisition by General Electric, joined the GE corporate executive council. He has worked at Merck since 2006.

In addition, the supervisory board approved the proposal of the chairman's committee to appoint Heinrich Hiesinger to the managing board, effective June 1. Hiesinger is currently group president of Siemens Building Technologies.