A Battered Siemens Names a New Chief Peter Löscher, an executive of the American drug maker Merck, as its chief executive, to succeed Klaus Kleinfeld, who resigned after less than three years because of a bribery investigation on his watch.
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Published: May 21, 2007
MUNICH, May 20 (Bloomberg News) — Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering company, named Peter Löscher, an executive of the American drug maker Merck, as its chief executive, to succeed Klaus Kleinfeld, who resigned after less than three years because of a bribery investigation on his watch.
Mr. Löscher, president of Merck’s global human health unit, will start his new job July 1, Siemens said in a statement. He will be the first chief executive in Siemens’s 160-year history not to have previously worked at the company.
Mr. Kleinfeld said on April 25 that he would quit when his contract ran out at the end of September, after the supervisory board balked at renewing his term. On Sunday, it was announced that he would step down on June 30.
Mr. Löscher, 49, an Austrian, will have to restore a corporate reputation battered by an inquiry of fictitious consultant contracts begun on Nov. 15 after the German police searched company buildings and the homes of employees at 30 locations.
The investigation spread to countries including Italy and Luxembourg, grabbed the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United States and led to the departures of Mr. Kleinfeld and the company’s chairman, Heinrich von Pierer.
Mr. Löscher is a former head of General Electric’s health care biosciences division, and in April 2006 was named president of Merck’s global human health unit, where he has overseen 35,000 employees and been responsible for Merck’s worldwide marketing and sales.. |
