Frank Appel was last night appointed as the new chairman and Chief Executive Officer of DeutschePost AG, replacing Klaus Zumwinkel who resigned over the tax evasion scandal. The major immediate
issues facing the new CEO include the future of DHL Express USA and Postbank, the consequences ofmail liberalisation, and integration of acquisitions.Appel, 46, was unanimously appointed by the Deutsche Post supervisory board with immediateeffect and with a contract running until October 31, 2012. The supervisory board also agreed toextend the contract of Chief Financial Officer John Allan, 59, by two years until the end of 2010.
The supervisory board also formally accepted the resignation of Zumwinkel, and thanked himfor “the successful entrepreneurial leadership in the past 18 years and for his outstandingachievements in creating the world’s leading logistics group”.
Supervisory board chairman Jürgen Weber, the former Lufthansa chairman, said the appointmentof Frank Appel would “ensure that the group is strengthened strategically and that the challengesahead will be tackled rigorously”. The new CEO was “a strong team player” who had “proven in thepast that he makes quick and successful decisions on complex issues”, he commented.
Weber added that the two-year extension of John Allan’s contract until the end of 2010 “ensures continuity for the financial sector and serves as a signal to the capital markets”.
Appel told reporters after his appointment that he planned to “seek a solution for Postbankand the US business with urgency”. The Financial Times Deutschland today reiterated that onesolution for the heavily loss-making US express business was to seal an alliance with FedEx.Meanwhile, both Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank have shown interest in buying Deutsche Post’s 50.1%holding in Postbank, the country’s largest retail bank.
Other issues facing the new CEO, according to observers, include the consequences of mailliberalisation in Germany and the controversial minimum wage regulation, forthcoming negotiationswith the main trade union, Verdi, and the continuing integration of the more than 100 express,parcels and logistics firms acquired by the group over the last decade.
Appel, a Deutsche Post board member since 2002, has been in charge of the quality programmeFirst Choice, DHL Logistics, Mail International, regulation management and had cross-divisionalresponsibility for the group’s 100 largest customers (Global Customer Solutions). Previousresponsibilities included running the Star value creation programme and managing the acquisition ofExel. After gaining a PdD in neurobiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich,Appel spent seven years at the international consultancy McKinsey before joining Deutsche Post in2000.
