Siemens - Wolfgang Reitzle New CEO ?

Implications:
WSJ reported on Apr-27, page A11 that Siemens faces more upheavals after US authorities (SEC) increased their scrutiny of Siemens business units.  After the present Siemens CEO Klaus Kleinfeld declined extension of his contract, Siemens is desperately looking for a replacement.  Wolfgang Reitzle, the CEO of Linde AG remains a favorite choice among some influential board members. Of course, an official Linde spokesman declared "that Mr. Reitzle plans to remain with his current company".

 

Analysis:
Looking in the past of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Reitzle (Reitzle) it becomes clear he has a clean shot at the CEO position of the largest German and European Engineering and Industrial Equipment Manufacturer, the European "GE":

1. Siemens is headquartered in Munich

2. Reitzle studied in Munich and received all his degrees including a Professorship from the Technical University Munich (TUM)

3. After the TUM study he joined BMW and moved rapidly to the number two position.

4. A former Linde CEO was at that time board member at BMW and tried to convince him to move on to Linde CEO

5. However, after BMW by-passed him for the BMW CEO, he moved on to Ford as President of the London based luxury car line including Austin Martin, Jaguar, etc.

6. When Ford moved responsibility of the luxury line back to Detroit, Reitzle accepted the Linde offer for CEO, being on the table for a long time

7. Reitzle transformed the sleepy Linde AG to the number one industrial gas company by the elegant, efficient and focused takeover of BOC, forming the Linde Group

8. Turning around Linde to a global number one industrial gas company earned him the "Business Man of the Year" recognition

9. Reitzle excels -contrary to Kleinfeld - in building genuine consensus of all managers of his team and does superbly understand the global business and technical climates for success of the company he is working for with complete dedication

10. In case Siemens can not get Jack Welch to wake them up, Reitzle is the best solution

Of course, Reitzle is of unlimited ambitions and will not stay longer than five years with Siemens . Thereafter, the presidency of TUM is in his dreams and of course later a political mandate of significant international responsibility and statue. Linde will be the loser and has to scramble to find a leader. Ironically, it will be most likely a seasoned BOC executive with global vision and/or a former Messer executive now working for L'Air Liquide.