Nachrichten aus der Corporate Governance Szene
Dear readers of GermanBoardNews, even though the new year is already two weeks old: I wish you all the best for 2021 and hope you have started January well and healthy. What’s on my mind at the moment is what we have experienced in the USA. The storming of the Capitol was a painful reminder of how fragile our democracy is – and how dangerous the populism embodied by Donald …
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Dear readers of the GermanBoardNews, two weeks ago I announced at this point that I would be carrying out an updated assessment of the ThyssenKrupp case. Seiher has made the issue more explosive: The Supervisory Board was severely criticized for its decision to grant the Executive Board members special compensation. I also consider the bonuses to be very questionable in view of the situation of the Company. Admittedly, the whole …
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Dear readers of the GermanBoardNews, in the past few days, there has been even more activity in Corporate Governance Germany than we had expected. Without wanting to define priorities, we will only be able to deal with some topics in greater depth in the coming issues. I am thinking here of the new quota regulation for members of the Management Board and the Wirecard Committee of Inquiry (as well as …
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Dear readers of the GermanBoardNews, following the Wirecard scandal, everyone is (finally!) discussing corporate governance, and employee representatives have now also joined in: This week, the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union (IG BCE) called for a “readjustment of the conflict resolution in the supervisory boards”. Behind this is the idea of making controversial strategic decisions “in a mediation process with a neutral arbitrator” – and no longer through the …
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Dear readers of the GermanBoardNews, this week, the 123-page draft of a law to strengthen financial market integrity (Financial Market Integrity Strengthening Act – FISG) was published. Already the view of the objective (“… Recent events have shown that especially the balance sheet control must be strengthened and the audit of annual accounts must be further regulated…”): With this law, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Ministry of …
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Dear readers of the GermanBoardNews, while we eagerly await the initial results of the Bundestag investigative committee in the Wirecard case and the new DAX rules of Deutsche Börse, the first political reforms are beginning to emerge. However, it would certainly not have been enough if the main lesson to be learned from the Wirecard case were to strengthen BaFin. After all, it is well known that there are “bad …
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Dear readers of the GermanBoardNews, today I would like to express my sincere thanks to four long-standing comrades-in-arms: Dietmar Kuhnt, Stephan Kufferath, Wilhelm Haarmann and Carl-Dieter Wuppermann have shaped the Association of Supervisory Boards in Germany (VARD) with their commitment, expertise and humanity. Their commitment to the professionalisation of our profession and responsible corporate governance deserves the highest recognition! At the same time, I am pleased that we have been …
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Dear readers of the GermanBoardNews, the call was answered! With a little pride and fresh confidence I write this sentence. Because after the Wirecard scandal, which was made possible by a complete system failure (also at Supervisory Board level), something is finally happening in Corporate Germany – on two levels. Firstly, the Bundestag’s committee of inquiry into Wirecard will take up the governance system issue, as can be seen from …
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Dear readers of the GermanBoardNews, we are returning from a summer break that was anything but uneventful. After all, the Wirecard scandal has continued to spread. It has become clear to numerous observers: It’s not enough to highlight the failure of auditors and Bafin. We must also identify and remedy the weaknesses of our corporate governance system. After I advocated a “master plan” in the last GermanBoardNews before the holidays, …
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Dear readers of GermanBoardNews, while the German government is acquiring shares in Lufthansa and ‘delegates’ its representatives to the Supervisory Board, the other prominent shareholder, Commerzbank, has the Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, because they obviously cannot/do not want to withstand pressure from an investor (see our top vs. flop today). I would like to first of all dedicate myself again …
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Dear readers of the GermanBoardNews, what is going on in Corporate Germany? We dealt with Lufthansa on several occasions, and then Wirecard suddenly surprised us. Really? Yes. I too was inclined to see the company with rose-colored glasses. After all, Wirecard has brought reputable supervisory board members on board in the last two years (and, by the way, has a quota of women that exceeds everything else). Further Supervisory Board …
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Dear reader of GermanBoardNews, theodor Weimer is currently one of the most sought-after decision-makers. His appointment to the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank has met with a positive response far beyond the financial sector. Dissenting voices were raised only because there were fears in Deutsche Börse’s environment that he could replace Paul Achleitner as Chairman of the Supervisory Board as early as 2022 – and therefore leave as CEO. That …
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