08-APR-2020
- Reduction of the Executive Board from seven to six members
- Former finance department to be divided
- Jörg Beißel, Wilken Bormann and William Willms will in future manage the finance functions within existing Executive Board departments
The Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG decided today in a telephone conference meeting on a new allocation of responsibilities for the company’s Executive Board. The change became necessary after Ulrik Svensson had to resign from his position due to health reasons on Monday of this week.
Karl-Ludwig Kley, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, said: “Ulrik Svensson has done outstanding work for the Lufthansa Group over the past three years. He has carried out his duties as Chief Financial Officer with great expertise and professionalism. His work has been aimed at increasing the Lufthansa Group’s competitiveness and securing the Group’s long-term future. His untiring commitment continues to have an impact throughout the Group – especially now, in overcoming a serious crisis. We very much regret the departure of Ulrik Svensson and wish him a quick recovery. And we thank him for his successful work for our Lufthansa.”
“In the Supervisory Board we today came to the conclusion that this is not the right moment to appoint a new Chief Financial Officer. We are therefore focusing on an internal team solution for the near future, using the expertise and experience of the current members of the Executive Board and the knowledge of our Leadership. We are convinced that this team solution is the right structure to set the necessary course to overcome the crisis.”
The Executive Board is to be reduced from seven to six members with effect from April 15. The responsibility for the financial areas will be assigned to the existing Management Board departments. The allocation of responsibilities of the Executive Board was adjusted accordingly.
The “IT, Digital and Innovation” department headed by Thorsten Dirks will be expanded to include significant parts of the Finance department and renamed “Digital and Finance”. Within the department, Wilken Bormann, responsible for the Lufthansa hub in Munich, will also assume responsibility for accounting and balance sheets, taxes as well as corporate finance. Controlling and risk management, headed by Jörg Beißel, will also be assigned to the new Finance and IT department.
The “Human Resources and Legal Affairs” department headed by Michael Niggemann will be expanded to include the “M & A” department (mergers and acquisitions) and renamed “Human Resources, Legal Affairs and M & A”. William Willms will head the “M & A” division in the expanded department and will report to Michael Niggemann in this function.
The responsibility for purchasing will be transferred to the “Customer & Corporate Responsibility” department headed by Christina Foerster. In addition, Christina Foerster will take over responsibility for the areas of “HR Management & People Development”, thus relieving the burden on the HR department, which has been severely challenged by the crisis.
Detlef Kayser, whose “Airline Resources & Operations Standards” department will otherwise remain unchanged, will in future assume responsibility for structural crisis management, which is essential in view of the ongoing corona crisis.
In addition, The Investor Relations department will be transferred to the department of the Chairman of the Executive Board.
Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, said: “In these difficult times of an unprecedented crisis, operational and structural crisis management determines our Executive Board work more than anything else. Our daily, close cooperation in the Executive Board team suggests that responsibility for finance, which is currently more important than ever before, should be distributed within our existing departments under the leadership of three proven and experienced experts from our company. We are thus tackling the additional task as a team. In this structure, we will overcome the crisis despite all the challenges.
