Word: german
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Siemens' decision to seek financial damages from former executives is a warning to the rest of German industry that such practices are under threat. The personalities involved make up a veritable A-Team of German management: Siemens' supervisory board is chaired by Gerhard Cromme, former CEO of German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp, and includes powerful business titans such as Josef Ackermann, the CEO of Deutsche Bank, and Michael Dieckmann, CEO of financial services giant Allianz AG. They were no doubt aware that a decision to go after previous execs Kleinfeld and particularly von Pierer - a former advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel dubbed...
...This is a paradigm shift in German corporate culture. The cozy times are over," says Manuel Theisen, a management professor at Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University and a leading expert on German supervisory boards...
...takes note of the supervisory board's decision with shock and regret and will defend himself" against the allegations. Kleinfeld, who became CEO of U.S. metals group Alcoa Inc. in October 2007, issued a statement suggesting that the whole affair will blow over. "I have great faith in the German judicial system, and that is why I am not concerned about this development," he said in a statement released by Pittsburgh-based Alcoa...
...decision may be partly a reaction to a wave of public anger over executive excesses in Germany. High management salaries and job cuts have been severely criticized at a time when German companies are earning record profits; there is a widespread sense that workers most often pay the price for the mistakes of senior executives. The outcry is not limited to the unions and leftist parties; even the conservative Christian Democrats are jumping on the bandwagon. A working group of the CDU parliamentary faction has suggested setting strict limits to remunerating executives with stock options, or even banning the practice...
...demonstrates that it is taking convincing action to clean up the mess on its own. "The SEC plays a role in this decision in the sense that Siemens wants to show that it is pursuing everyone involved regardless of their past position or reputation," says Daniela Bergdolt of the German Association for the Protection of Securities Ownership. "They hope that if they show remorse, it will reduce the penalty." And while it still seems far-fetched to imagine any German business titan seen doing the perp walk like American Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom, for instance, the case could mark...