It came as quite a surprise when Carla Kriwet, 51, announced last week that she was leaving Europe’s largest home appliance manufacturer BSH, very suddenly, at the end of April. Kriwet only became head of the company in the summer of 2020 – in the middle of the pandemic – which makes global sales of almost 16 billion euros with washing machines, refrigerators, stoves and kitchen appliances from Bosch, Siemens, Gaggenau and Neff. Kriwet had just announced record numbers for BSH, but also said in view of the many crises: “I’ve learned one thing in recent years. It makes no sense to predict what’s coming next.”
What comes next for you personally is at least clear now. Kriwet is to become the new CEO of the listed medical company Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) by early 2023 at the latest. as the company announced on Wednesday night. The Dax company is the world’s leading provider of dialysis products and services. Kriwet, who was born in Essen and studied business administration, will replace Rice Powell, 66, at the top of the FMC. The American has been on the board of FMC since 2004, CEO since 2013 and is now retiring. Helen Giza, Chief Financial Officer of the Board, will also become Executive Vice President; she has British and American citizenship. A women’s duo will lead the company in the future.
Ukraine war and pandemic lead to a collapse in profits
Kriwet comes at a difficult time. Because FMC reported a slump in profits for the first quarter of 2021 and is struggling with the consequences of the corona pandemic. Among other things, the Omikron wave led to increased personnel costs. Increased material and logistics costs and the war in Ukraine also had a negative impact. Group profit fell by 37 percent to 157 million euros. Sales rose eight percent to 4.5 billion.
In 2021, FMC had an annual turnover of almost 18 billion euros with 123,000 employees. Around 345,000 dialysis patients are cared for worldwide, i.e. people who have to have their blood cleaned regularly because of kidney disease and who are particularly at risk from corona. The major shareholder of FMC is the Dax group Fresenius. He recently announced for the first time that one could imagine parting with the FMC stake of a good 30 percent. If there was a “really attractive offer”, it was his duty to check it out, Fresenius CEO Stephan Sturm said in February. Fresenius itself also expects “more pronounced burdens” from cost inflation and supply chain bottlenecks for 2022. At Fresenius, Chief Financial Officer Rachel Empey, 45, will leave the company of her own volition, and will be succeeded by former investment banker Sara Hennicken, 41.
Rachel Empey once came to Fresenius from Telefónica Deutschland as CFO, now she is leaving “at her own request”.
(Photo: Telefonica Germany)
The move to the top of FMC is definitely another career step for Kriwet, who is also moving into the board of the major shareholder Fresenius: she will be one of only two female CEOs in the Dax-40 in the future – alongside Belén Garijo, who has been the CEO since May 2021 Pharmaceutical company Merck leads. Women are still rare at the top of a company. Kriwet has been campaigning for this to change for a long time. Last year she told the SZ that she had long been a real opponent of a women’s quota and never wanted to be a quota woman. “Unfortunately, my hopes from back then were not fulfilled. In the meantime, disillusionment has set in. It can’t go on like this,” she added. That’s why she changed her mind. Incidentally, there are already two other women on the FMC board.
Kriwet has already worked for Drägerwerk and Philips
After studying business administration, Carla Kriwet started at a management consultancy and then worked at Linde, Drägerwerk and Philips. At Philips, before moving to BSH, she was a member of the Group Executive Board based in Boston, where she was in charge of the patient monitoring division, among other things. Kriwet is very familiar with medical technology, so the change is a return to her old business, so to speak.
Stephan Sturm, CEO of Fresenius, can imagine selling the stake in Fresenius Medical Care.
(Photo: Jens Braune/dpa)
Kriwet’s father was once CEO of the Düsseldorf steel company Thyssen. She once said that business strategies were not discussed over supper in her parents’ house. Kriwet, who has three children herself, grew up with four siblings. At home there was always a “hard but warm” culture of discussion. However, she was not exactly born with excessive respect for important managers.
Kriwet’s handling style is considered friendly and cooperative. She has no personality cult, she says. After taking office at BSH, she regularly organized so-called hangout meetings without a specific agenda, where virtually everyone could join in and ask questions. That’s how she got into conversations with many colleagues, not just with managers, reported Kriwet. No wonder that at BSH, a 100 percent subsidiary of the Bosch Group, they regret that Kriwet is leaving again after such a short time. There she was also seen as a beacon of hope.