Scandal-plagued German engineering giant Siemens has begun searching for a successor to chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld, business daily Financial Times Deutschland reported on Tuesday.
BERLIN: Scandal-plagued German engineering giant Siemens has begun searching for a successor to chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld, business daily Financial Times Deutschland reported on Tuesday.
"Leading members of the supervisory board believe that replacing the chief executive is the right way to make a fresh start," the newspaper cited one source as saying, referring to an ongoing corruption affair at the company.
Deutsche Bank chief executive and the number two on Siemens' supervisory board, Josef Ackermann, is in talks with a number of "external candidates", the report said, adding that Ackermann favours the CEO of Linde, the world's leading maker of industrial gases, Wolfgang Reitzle.
However, a decision regarding Kleinfeld's future has not been made yet and the members of the supervisory board are involved in serious discussions, the newspaper said.
It added that a decision on a successor was unlikely at a supervisory board meeting to be held Wednesday and that a choice could be postponed until the next meeting in July.
The one-time head of steel and heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp, Gerhard Cromme, who is to be appointed supervisory board chairman Wednesday, is also informed about the matter, the report said, adding that Kleinfeld's contract ends September 30 and has not been extended as yet.
Siemens and Linde declined to comment on the report. Ackermann could not be reached for comment.
Heinrich von Pierer, one of Germany's most powerful businessmen, announced last week he was quitting the supervisory board post to help the company pull itself out of a growing mire of corruption allegations.
Siemens is currently engulfed in a massive slush-fund scandal, in which prosecutors allege that company managers siphoned off hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) in company money to obtain foreign contracts.
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