Heinrich Hiesinger has announced his resignation as CEO of German steel group ThyssenKrupp, less than a week after the final agreement was reached on the creation of the joint venture between ThyssenKrupp and Indian producer Tata Steel. His was accepted by the supervisory board of the German group. The rest of the board, composed of Guido Kerkhoff, Oliver Burkhard and Donatus Kaufmann, will lead the group until the arrival of a new CEO.
Hiesinger, CEO of ThyssenKrupp since 2011, stated, "The strong support of our shareholders and the supervisory board was the basis for success, and the understanding among the executive board, the supervisory board and the shareholders was a fundamental requirement for me to drive ThyssenKrupp successfully. ThyssenKrupp today is a completely different company for culture, values and performance, and all of you, all of us, can be proud of this."
He went on to say, "We have sold companies with a total turnover of over €10 billion and we put an end to our adventure in Brazil, which cost the company more than €8 billion, and we achieved a six-fold increase in our EBIT in the last few years. The joint venture of our steel operations with Tata is the next significant step to transform ThyssenKrupp into a strong industrial company."