The ZF Supervisory Board has announced the appointment of the 55 year old business graduate Wolf-Henning Scheider, as the new CEO of ZF Friedrichshafen effective February 1, 2018.

Wolf-Henning Scheider takes over charge from the interim CEO, Dr. Konstantin Sauer, and succeeds Dr. Stefan Sommer, who led the company as the CEO for a period of five years till December, 2017.

The 55 year old business administration graduate has had management experience of several years in technology companies such as Bosch and Mahle. "As Mahle's CEO, Wolf-Henning Scheider demonstrated outstanding competence in regards to a game changing transformation process," said ZF's Chairman of the Supervisory Board Dr. Franz-Josef Paefgen.

"Scheider is an industry expert and a leader that stands for continuity – with both his technical and interpersonal skills. He will systematically continue to execute our Strategy ZF 2025," explained Paefgen. "He is also a visionary and stands for guided change. With sensitivity and in constant exchange with all parties involved, he will guide ZF through the challenging transformation process which the whole automotive industry is currently facing."

"Special thanks goes to Dr. Konstantin Sauer who assumed the role of ZF's CEO in addition to his function as CFO during the transition phase and as such, delivered stability for the company," said Paefgen. "I would also like to thank Mahle which enabled the quick and straightforward move of Wolf-Henning Scheider. The fact that the product portfolios do not have any overlaps has helped significantly in this process."

The ZF shareholders, the Zeppelin Foundation as well as the Ulderup Foundation have welcomed Wolf-Henning Scheider's designation: "Wolf-Henning Scheider has both excellent managerial skills and personality and comes with all the experience, leadership competence and strategic thinking required. He has outstanding connections and knows the tasks and challenges of the automotive and supplier industry very well," say Andreas Brand, representative of the Zeppelin Foundation, and Dr. Joachim Meinecke, representative of the Ulderup Foundation. "We are very much looking forward to working with him."

Wolf-Henning Scheider has studied business administration at the University of Saarbrucken, Germany, and the RWTH Aachen University, Germany. He started as a trainee program at Robert Bosch. From 1989 to 2010, he worked in different positions at Bosch such as vice president - Power Tools in France, chief executive officer of the Car Multimedia division in Hildesheim, Germany, and as chief executive officer of the Gasoline Systems division in Schwieberdingen, Germany.

From 2010 to 2015, he was a member of the Board of Management of Robert Bosch where he also became the spokesman of the Automotive Technology business sector in July 2013. Wolf-Henning Scheider became part of the Mahle Group's executive management in April 2015 and assumed the role of chairman and CEO in July 2015.