Daimler names Bernd Pischetsrieder to supervisory board

Mon, 14 Apr 2014

Some executives in the automotive industry stay with one company for their entire careers, while others bounce from one to the other, often leaving their indelible mark on each automaker at which they serve. Bob Lutz is certainly an example of the latter. So is Lee Iacocca, having presided over Ford and later charing the Chrysler board. Carlos Tavares was chief operating officer of Renault before being nominated as chief executive at PSA Peugeot Citroën. But as far as the Germans go, nobody's jumped from the leadership of one automaker to the next quite like Bernd Pischetsrieder – especially now that he's been named to the supervisory board of Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler.

An engineer by training, Pischetsrieder started his career at BMW in 1973, eventually rising to the office of CEO after twenty years. There he remained until 1999, only to be dismissed after orchestrating BMW's takeover of the Rover Group (of which only the Mini brand remains in the company's portfolio, the other brands having been sold off after his dismissal).

The next year he was named chairman of Volkswagen's Seat brand, and rose to the chairmanship of the entire Volkswagen Group two years later. Despite a largely successful four-year tenure (that gave birth, incidentally, to the Bugatti Veyron), disagreements with supervisory board chairman Ferdinand Piëch saw him leave the helm at VW AG, focusing his attention on the Scania truck division. He's since been touted as a potential chief executive for Opel and for Continental, but neither potential was apparently realized.

Pischetsrieder's appointment to the Daimler board was approved just days ago at the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Berlin. Alongside him, former Bosch chief Bernd Bohr and current Siemens CEO Joseph Kaeser were also elected, all of them serving for a period of five years.

Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Daimler AG approves dividend of €2.25

Berlin, Apr 09, 2014

At the Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Daimler AG held in Berlin on Wednesday, the shareholders approved the distribution of a dividend for the year 2013 of €2.25 per share (prior year: €2.20). The total dividend payout amounts to €2,407 million.

Furthermore, the Annual Shareholders' Meeting elected Dr Bernd Bohr, Mr. Joe Kaeser and Dr. Bernd Pischetsrieder as members of the Supervisory Board representing the shareholders for a period of five years. Their period of office as members of the Supervisory Board of Daimler AG began at the end of the 2014 Annual Shareholders' Meeting.

The actions of the members of the Board of Management were ratified by 98.56% of the votes cast and the actions of the members of the Supervisory Board were ratified by 98.53% of the votes cast.
Effective as of January 1, 2014, the remuneration system for the members of the company's Board of Management was adjusted with consideration of the amended German Corporate Governance Code. The Annual Shareholders' Meeting approved the remuneration system with 96.82% of the votes cast. The adjustment in the remuneration of the Supervisory Board was approved by 97.86% of the votes cast.
The Annual Shareholders' Meeting was held at the Berlin Trade Fair Center (Berliner Messe) and was attended by approximately 5,500 shareholders and shareholder representatives (prior year: 5,000). 39.25% of the share capital was represented.

The dividend will be paid out on April 10, 2014 to all shareholders who held Daimler shares on April 9, 2014.

By Noah Joseph