There will be a leadership change on the E.ON AG Supervisory Board in May 2011. Supervisory Board Chairman Ulrich Hartmann (72) will end his service at the conclusion of the company’s next Annual Shareholders Meeting. There is broad agreement on the Supervisory Board to propose Werner Wenning (64) as his successor.
Hartmann has served E.ON and its predecessor entity for 38 years, the last eight as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Prior to this, he was Chairman of the Board of Management and CEO for ten years, starting in 1999 at the former VEBA AG and from 2000 to 2003 at E.ON AG. Prof. Wilhelm Simson has also announced that he intends to end his service on the E.ON Supervisory Board at the conclusion of the next Annual Shareholders Meeting. Wilhelm Simson was Chairman of the Board of Management of VIAG AG from 1998 to 2000. Under Hartmann and Simson’s leadership, VEBA AG and VIAG AG were merged to form E.ON AG in 2001.
“In Johannes Teyssen and his board colleagues, E.ON has an outstanding leadership team. And E.ON’s new strategy gives it superb prospects for the future. E.ON is in excellent hands and on the right course. That’s why now is precisely the right time to initiate a leadership change on the Supervisory Board,” Hartmann said. The move also fits with his personal life-plans. “I’m satisfied, happy, and proud to have had the opportunity to help shape this company’s development for nearly four decades,” Hartmann emphasized. In that time, EON has become one of the world’s leading energy companies. It has achieved this position primarily because it has always recognized challenges early and taken the right action in response. “That’s also true of the new strategy that Johannes Teyssen presented in November,” Hartmann added. “It’s exactly the right course and will enable E.ON to add new chapters to its success story.”
Werner Wenning was Chairman of the Bayer AG Board of Management until September 2010. He has been a member of the E.ON Supervisory Board since 2008. “Werner Wenning is an outstanding business leader, and I’m very pleased that he’s available to serve as Chairman of the E.ON Supervisory Board,” Hartmann said. The handover to Wenning will also help the Supervisory Board provide consistent advice and oversight over an extended period of time as E.ON implements its new strategy.
Werner Wenning is not the first former Bayer CEO to serve as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of E.ON and its predecessor entity. Hermann-Josef Strenger, Chairman of the Bayer AG Board of Management until 1992, was Chairman of the VEBA Supervisory Board from 1993 to 2000 and played a key role in the merger that created E.ON AG in 2000.
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Source: E.ON AG, December 14, 2010;