ZF to reduce size of board

FRANKFURT -- German supplier ZF Friedrichshafen plans to streamline its leadership this year by reducing its management board to six members from eight, giving the remaining executives wider responsibilities.

Board members Reinhard Buhl, 60, and Gerhard Wagner, 59, will not be replaced when they retire in May. Buhl is responsible for the company's chassis technology division and Wagner heads the powertrain technology division.

Reinhard Buhl will retire from the board in May.

Both these divisions will be led by Michael Hankel, 55, who joins the board from ZF Lenksysteme GmbH, a joint venture between ZF and supplier Robert Bosch, where he was CEO.

Gerhard Wagner will also retire.

Hankel will also take charge of the corporate production engineering function and the electronic systems business unit.

Peter Ottenbruch will leave the board for ZF Lenksysteme.

Hankel has been succeeded as ZF Lenksysteme CEO by Peter Ottenbruch. The 55-year-old executive was previously ZF's board member for corporate operations and technology.

Michael Hankel will join ZF's board from ZF Lenksysteme.

Ottenbruch's responsibilities in his new job include r&d, quality and production.

In further changes:

• ZF CEO Stefan Sommer, 50, will add responsibility for the supplier's r&d while retaining control of corporate market issues and ZF services and giving up control of corporate materials management

• Wilhelm Rehm, 54, will take over Sommer's corporate materials management role and remain ZF's head of industrial technology

• ZF human resources boss Juergen Holeska, 47, will add responsibility for the Asia Pacific region

• Rolf Lutz, 60, who heads ZF's commercial vehicle technology division and the South America region, takes over the corporate quality role.

Only Konstantin Sauer's duties remain unchanged. The 53-year-old executive continues to be ZF's chief financial officer as well as its head for North America.