Peter Loescher is Siemens' new boss

MUNICH: Peter Loescher, from US pharmaceutical giant Merck, will take over as chief executive of Siemens from July 1, the troubled German engineering concern said on Sunday.   

A statement said that Loescher, 49, who has held the post of president for global human health at Merck for the past year, had been appointed at a special meeting of the Siemens supervisory board to succeed Klaus Kleinfeld.   

The announcement came a few days after the favourite, Wolfgang Reitzle, chief executive of German industrial gas giant Linde, said he preferred to stay where he was.   

Kleinfeld, 49, said last month he would leave his post by September to allow Siemens to focus on weathering a far-reaching corruption scandal, even though he has not personally been implicated.   

Siemens is suspected of trying to bribe key union officials to secure industrial peace, and of setting up a massive slush-fund to obtain foreign contracts.   

Siemens is Germany's biggest employer and has more than 450,000 workers worldwide. It builds trains, power plants and manufactures medical and telecommunications equipment.   

According to Merck's website, Austrian-born Loescher has spent much of his career as an executive in various leading pharmaceutical companies.