The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) have recommended withdrawing their trust in their CEO, Eva Kreienkamp. On Wednesday, the supervisory board of the state-owned company proposed dismissing the 60-year-old and releasing her from her position with immediate effect. This step still has to be approved by the so-called Board of Guarantors. It is expected to meet on Thursday, the approval is more of a formality. “I deeply regret this decision”, commented Kreienkamp on the process. The mood between Kreienkamp and their inspectors has been tense for a long time.
The manager had previously worked for the Mainzer Stadtwerke, and she took up the post in Berlin in October 2020. Two years later, a new board of directors decided not to extend her contract beyond this September. A successor has already been found: Henrik Falk is currently head of Hamburger Hochbahn and is scheduled to take over BVG on January 1, 2024. With almost 16,000 employees and a turnover of 1.3 billion euros, BVG is Germany’s largest local transport company. They maintain over 160 bus lines, 22 tram lines and nine subway lines.
The numbers are good, but the argument is about something completely different
This Wednesday’s meeting was the last opportunity for the still incumbent supervisory board to recommend an immediate replacement for Kreienkamp, since a new Senate will be elected in Berlin on Thursday. This also changes the composition of the supervisory body. The Supervisory Board has not publicly announced any reasons for its decision. In the previous months, however, doubts about Kreienkamp’s leadership skills had repeatedly been cast, but these could not be substantiated to date.
“The balance sheet figures for 2022 speak for themselves,” writes Kreienkamp in a statement on the Linkedin portal. “Despite all the adversities, the BVG achieved a positive annual result. A necessary compensation of 96 million euros was forecast as a result of the pandemic. In fact, we didn’t need a single cent to compensate for the pandemic!”
According to information within the BVG and according to the assessment of several media, Kreienkamp is said to have been in dispute with the supervisory board because of her advocacy for queer people. Kreienkamp is openly homosexual himself. Specifically, an article in this newspaper from last March is said to have caused additional trouble in the control committee. In it, Kreienkamp was quoted as saying that she was surprised when she took office. “that a company in diverse Berlin still has a long way to go when it comes to diversity.” The BVG is in the middle of the transformation, “but it’s taking longer than expected”.
Externally, the BVG regularly advertises the company’s tolerance; The head of the supervisory board, Stephan Schwarz, commented on the allegations at the time: The committee condemned “any form of homophobia, biphobia, interphobia and transphobia”. However, research into the article revealed that employees who were visibly homosexual were publicly exposed in the company chat, among other things. Several former employees said they left the company because of this sentiment.