Airbus names former Deutsche Telekom boss as next chair
René Obermann will chair the aerospace company from 2020, signalling a Franco-German balance at its helm
Amsterdam — Airbus nominated a new German chair on Wednesday as Frenchman Guillaume Faury prepares to become its CEO, signalling that the Franco-German balance at its helm will extend through a sweeping management overhaul. Europe’s largest aerospace company said it would propose former Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann as chair from 2020, completing the shift to what current chair Denis Ranque calls a “new generation of management”. Obermann, an MD of private equity firm Warburg Pincus, has been seen as a German favourite to succeed Ranque, who had already announced plans to retire next year. Airbus, which is facing multi-national investigations for suspected bribery, changed its rules in 2013 to become more independent of French and German governments, which each hold 11% of its shares. But senior appointments remain sensitive as it continues to carry the scars of previous power struggles, and people close to the company say the decision to announce Ranque’s successor a year earl...
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