Peter Löscher, 2007

Peter Löscher assumed the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens AG onJuly 1, 2007. more

Klaus Kleinfeld, 2007

From January 27, 2005 to June 30, 2007 Klaus Kleinfeld held the post of Chief Executive Officer of Siemens AG. Under his leadership, the companywide program “Fit4More” was launched in April 2005. As a result of this program, all Groups for the first time reached or exceeded their set target margins in the spring of 2007. Furthermore, during his tenure important strategic expansions of Siemens’ business activities were achieved and the Information and Communications (I&C) business area was realigned. Since the beginning of 2005, the value of the company increased more than fifty percent from roughly €60 billion to about €95 billion. Klaus Kleinfeld worked at Siemens for about 20 years and transformed, among other things, Siemens Management Consulting into an effective partner for the global businesses. Furthermore, he was a member of the Group Executive Management of the Medical Solutions Group. As CEO of Siemens’ regional business in the U.S., he contributed significantly to the profitable turnaround of the business there within two years. Kleinfeld started his business career in a consulting firm in Germany. Prior to joining Siemens, he was a strategic product manager at the CIBA-GEIGY Pharmaceuticals Division in Basel, Switzerland. He earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration/Economics from the University of Göttingen (Germany) in 1982, followed by a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the University of Würzburg (Germany) in 1992.

Heinrich v. Pierer, 2005

Heinrich v. Pierer was born on January 26, 1941, and studied law and economics at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. He joined Siemens in 1969 and began his career working in the company’s legal department. In 1977, he moved to the company’s power generation subsidiary Kraftwerk Union AG (KWU), where he was involved with major power plant projects throughout the world. Pierer took over as head of business administration at KWU in 1988 and was appointed to the board. The following year, he was named President of KWU and, at the same time, a member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG. He was appointed to the Corporate Executive Committee in 1990, and the next year was named Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board of Siemens AG. Pierer served as President and Chief Executive Officer from October 1, 1992 to January 27, 2005. During his era as CEO, Siemens was transformed from a company largely oriented to public-sector customers in regulated markets into an enterprise fit to prevail in global competition and increasingly able to satisfy shareholder expectations. Under his leadership, the company developed and instituted sweeping programs to achieve this fundamental makeover. These efforts culminated in the Siemens Management System with its key strategic trusts: innovation, customer focus and global competitiveness. The system provides a broad spectrum of management tools whose use is binding company-wide. Pierer also ensured that the company’s business portfolio is continually reviewed. All businesses are to take leading market positions; if a unit doesn’t perform as expected, the company can exercise one of five options: fix, buy, cooperate, sell or close. Pierer was elected to the Supervisory Board at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting on January 27, 2005, and subsequently held the post of Chairman until April 25, 2007.

Karlheinz Kaske, ca. 1984

Karlheinz Kaske studied physics in Danzig and Aachen. He joined Siemens in 1950 as a design engineer, working at first in the Werner Plant for Measurement Technology in Karlsruhe. He left the company in 1953 to serve as a lecturer at the School of Mines in Aachen until 1960. He then returned to Siemens as a sales engineer in the Power Engineering Group. In 1967 he was sent to Tokyo as a delegate to Siemens partner Fuji Denki. In 1968, he became a member of the Munich-based planning department that was established to prepare the merger of the Siemens companies to form Siemens AG. From 1969 to early 1981, Kaske took on increasing responsibilities within the Power Engineering Group, and was appointed president in 1977. He had been named a member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG in 1975, becoming deputy chairman at the beginning of 1980 and chairman on January 28, 1981, a position he held until September 30, 1992. Kaske is credited with spearheading the company’s technology shift from traditional electrical engineering to electronics, further expanding Siemens’ international business and, toward the end of his time in office, launching a future-oriented reorganization of the entire company. The new organization gave the operational units far more individual responsibility and laid the foundation Siemens would need to hold its own as competition intensified in the 1990s. Karlheinz Kaske died on September 27, 1998.

Bernhard Plettner, ca. 1981

After earning his secondary school diploma in Bad Kreuznach, Bernhard Plettner studied electrical engineering at what is now the Technical University of Darmstadt. In order to supplement his theoretical learning with some real-world experience, he interrupted his studies for a semester in 1937 to work as an intern at Siemens-Schuckert-Werke (SSW) in Berlin and Mülheim/Ruhr. Upon completing his degree, he returned in 1940 to the SSW industrial unit in Berlin. There he first worked as a project engineer, designing and marketing industrial and power systems in Germany and abroad. After the war, he was able to put this experience to good use in helping rebuild the company's export business. Six years later, this successful Siemens executive took over as head of the planning department for the basic industry segment. This department was responsible for, among other things, the construction of the Rourkela steel mill in India – the first major export project in post-war Germany. In 1959 Bernhard Plettner was appointed to the Managing Board of Siemens-Schuckert-Werke AG; in 1961 he became deputy chairman and in 1962 chairman. After the formation of Siemens AG he was first a member of the new joint presidency, then Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board. In 1971 he was named President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens AG. Plettner became, in 1981, the first person from outside the Siemens family to be named Chairman of the Supervisory Board. He held that position until 1988.

Gerd Tacke, 1970

Gerd Tacke began his career at Siemens in 1932 after completing an apprenticeship as a book printer and bookseller as well as his university studies in political economy. In the post-war period, Tacke, who had been among Ernst von Siemens' closest colleagues in Berlin, took over responsibility for the foreign and domestic sales organization, the Central Advertising Department (HWA) and the Central Personnel Department (ZP). In May 1951 he was appointed as a deputy member of the Managing Board of both parent companies. As head of International Operations, Gerd Tacke, whose colleagues on the Managing Board liked to refer to him as “Siemens' Foreign Minister,” played a key role in helping Ernst von Siemens revive the company's international business. In October 1967, he became the Spokesman for the Presidency of the Managing Board of Siemens AG. One year later, he became the company's first Chairman of the Managing Board. After his departure from the Managing Board, the Annual Shareholders' Meeting elected Tacke to the Supervisory Board in 1972, where he remained a member until 1978. Tacke played a major role in reorganizing the original Siemens companies – Siemens & Halske AG, Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG and Siemens-Reiniger-Werke AG – to form Siemens AG at the end of the 1960s.