06/11/2013
At its meeting today the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank adopted changes on the Board of Managing Directors. The board complied with the request of Jochen Klösges to terminate his mandate on the Board of Managing Directors as of 31 December 2013. As of 1 April 2014 Klösges will join the management of E.R. Capital Holding, founded by the entrepreneur Erck Rickmers, as Chief Operating Officer, and assume the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as of 1 July 2014. In addition, the Supervisory Board has decided to terminate the mandate of Ulrich Sieber on the Board of Managing Directors with effect from 31 December 2013.
Thus the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank is being reduced in size from nine to seven members. The reduction of the Board of Managing Directors is a consequence of the Group Strategy adopted by the Board of Managing Directors in November 2012. Part of this strategy is a further significant reduction in the costs, and thus the associated personnel cuts. These measures concern not only employees, but also the management levels and the Board of Managing Directors.
“Jochen Klösges and Ulrich Sieber have provided great service to Commerzbank over many years. I would like to thank both of them – also on behalf of the Supervisory Board members – for their extraordinary commitment and loyalty,” said Klaus-Peter Müller, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank.
“Jochen Klösges und Ulrich Sieber have supported me personally and the Board team by means of their considerable commitment. In this respect I would like to thank them on behalf of all the Board members and express my great respect for their work. I wish Jochen Klösges and Uli Sieber all the very best and lots of success for their professional futures,” said Martin Blessing, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank.
In the wake of these personnel decisions the Board of Managing Directors of Commerzbank has decided to amend the allocation of responsibilities as follows from 16 November 2013 onwards: Responsibility for the Non-Core Assets (NCA) segment is now being divided: Michael Reuther will be responsible for the “Public Finance” area in the future, Markus Beumer will be responsible for the areas “Commercial Real Estate” and “Deutsche Schiffsbank”. A decision on responsibility for “Human Resources” on the level of the Board of Managing Directors and therefore the position of the Labour Director will be taken in agreement with the employees’ representatives in the coming weeks.
Jochen Klösges began his professional career at Dresdner Bank in 1983. After holding various positions in the Group – among other things in Credit Risk Management and in Private and Corporate Customers Sales – in 2002 he took over the area of central credit risk management at Eurohypo as the divisional board member. In 2004 Klösges became a member of the Board of Managing Directors of Eurohypo, and in 2007 he took over as Head of Group Development at Commerzbank. In this position he played a major role in the transaction for the take-over of Dresdner Bank. Following the take-over, he headed the integration project “Growing Together”. Since June 2009 he has been a member of the Board of Managing Directors – initially responsible for the business segment Asset-Based Finance and ultimately for the NCA segment.
Ulrich Sieber began his professional career at Bayerische Vereinsbank where he gathered his first experiences in human resources work. Thereafter he took over as Head of personnel development at Credit Suisse Germany, before moving to JP Morgan Germany in 1996. In 2001 Sieber moved to Dresdner Bank, where he held various senior functions, ultimately heading the Corporate Banking segment. In 2006 Sieber transferred to Commerzbank and assumed the leadership of the Group division “Human Resources”. He has been a member of the Board of Managing Directors since June 2009, responsible for the integration of Dresdner Bank (until 2011), Group Human Resources, Group Management Commerzbank Excellence, the Central & Eastern Europe business segment (until 2012) and the NCA segment (since June 2012).
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About Commerzbank
Commerzbank is a leading bank in Germany and Poland. It is also present worldwide in all markets for its customers as a partner to the business world. With the business areas Private Customers, Mittelstandsbank, Corporates & Markets and Central & Eastern Europe, it offers its private and corporate customers as well as institutional investors the banking and capital market services they need. With approximately 1,200 branches Commerzbank has one of the densest branch networks among German private banks. In total, Commerzbank boasts nearly 15 million private customers, as well as 1 million business and corporate customers. In 2012, it generated revenues of just under EUR 10 billion with approximately 56,000 employees on average.
