Thyssenkrupp lines up Steel supervisory board chairman successor
Following the departure of several members of the executive and management boards of thyssenkrupp Steel last week, the next chairperson of the supervisory board could be Ilse Henne, chief executive of thyssenkrupp Materials Services.
Although an appointment has not yet taken place, parent thyssenkrupp AG says its executive board has proposed Henne, the company tells Kallanish upon request. Henne became ceo of the distribution division after the departure of Martin Stillger. She has been with the division for a while. As head of a unit in the Benelux, she improved the coordination of local companies in Belgium and the Netherlands to achieve synergy.
Stillger took his leave due to a disagreement with tk AG ceo Miguel López, insiders say. They also believe that Henne has a much better standing with López, as she not only became a divisional ceo, but earlier also a member of parent AG’s board. Her potential new appointment would support that assumption.
Her earlier appointment at tk Materials was one of two decisions that were preceded by a standoff in the supervisory board at the AG, between the representatives of shareholders and of employees. The decision came about on the basis of chairman Siegfried Russwurm executing his double vote. The same move served to release the sale of a 20% stake in tk Steel to Czech energy firm EPCG.
Both decisions were followed by harsh criticism from union and employer representatives, who called it a violation of the corporate culture of fair co-determination. The ongoing dispute between tk AG’s management and employer factions came to a head with last week’s mass exodus from tk Steel’s board.
In a statement this week, union IG Metall reiterated that the confidence between employees and ceo López was shattered. It asked López and Russwurm to return to a sensible dialogue with employees, rather than push through decisions against the other faction. The union mentions a campaign branded “López is not our ceo”, which has been signed online by several thousand members.
Christian Koehl Germany
