Paul Achleitner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank, has rejected old traditions.
"The times are over when the CEO moved to the top of the supervisory board as a matter of course," said Achtleitner in his speech at the supervisory board day in Frankfurt.
Inken Schönauer
Editor in business, responsible for the financial market.
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For a long time, it was almost a matter of course for the DAX board members in particular that the former chairman of the board moved to the top of the supervisory body.
Later on, at least a “cooling-off phase” of several years had to be observed for this change.
The planned move from former Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche to the head of the automotive company's supervisory board was recently overturned.
The plan had met with displeasure from shareholders.
“Ultimately, I decided that I didn't want that, that I would do without it,” Zetsche told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in autumn 2020.
"No candidate will be able to fully meet all criteria"
Deutsche Bank itself is currently looking for a successor for Achleitner, who will not stand for re-election at the 2022 Annual General Meeting. The chairman of the board, Christian Sewing, shouldn't have any ambitions for this post. The former PwC Germany boss Norbert Winkeljohann and the CEO of Deutsche Börse, Theodor Weimer, are considered possible candidates. Both are already on the board of directors of Deutsche Bank. The former Bundesbank President and current UBS Board of Directors chairman Axel Weber is always considered an external candidate. Weber has been mentioned again and again for years when it comes to filling the chief controller at Deutsche Bank.
Regarding the search for the chairman of the supervisory board, Achleitner said that the process is not over “if you have the feeling that you have found the right candidate - and who has already indicated that he wants to take on this task”. He can assure: “No candidate will be able to fully meet all the criteria. It is therefore important to find the person who comes as close as possible to the target image. "
At Deutsche Bank, the former investment banker Mayree Clark is officially responsible as chairwoman of the nomination committee for the search for a successor for Achleitner. It should also be supported by external consultants and headhunters. That is also part of an orderly search process, said Achleitner. Achleitner did not want to have any connections between his statements on the appointment of supervisory boards and the specific search process at Deutsche Bank. "Any parallels to real companies or people are of course purely coincidental."