ZF CEO Scheider to step down early next year

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Wolf-Henning Scheider's age.

ZF Friedrichshafen CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider, who took the helm of the supplier amid a boardroom clash over strategy, will step down at the start of 2023.

Scheider, 59, had asked that his contract not be renewed, the company said in a news release on Thursday.

He joined ZF in 2018 from Mahle, where he was CEO; before that Scheider spent nearly three decades at Robert Bosch in various management positions.

ZF did not say who might succeed Scheider.

"After more than three decades in the automotive industry and reaching the age of 60, he had decided to end his active time in the industry at the end of the year, to pursue other challenges," the supplier said. 

Scheider succeeded Stefan Sommer at ZF, an unlisted company that is controlled by the Zeppelin Foundation, which holds 94 percent of shares and is administered by the city of Friedrichshafen, in southern Germany. 

Sommer left ZF at the end of 2017 amid boardroom disagreements over the supplier's expansion strategy.

Sommer had been the architect of a multiyear repositioning of ZF, seeking to convert the company from a supplier of transmissions, gears, axles and steering systems to a leader in future autonomous vehicle technologies. That strategy had entailed billions in acquisitions, most prominently the $12.4 billion purchase of U.S. electronics supplier TRW Automotive in 2015.

The TRW deal led to the creation of the second-largest global automotive supplier.

ZF’s main businesses are electronics and ADAS, chassis control, components for electrification, active and passive safety, and commercial vehicle systems. It ranks third on the Automotive News Europe list of top 100 global suppliers, with sales to automakers of $33.4 billion in 2020.

Under Scheider, ZF continued to expand, most notably with the 2019 acquisition of Wabco for $7 billion to bolster its expertise in trucks and driver-assistance systems.

Scheider also faced an array of industry crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the global semiconductor shortage, and now the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Andreas Brand of the Zeppelin Foundation praised Scheider in a statement, saying, "The fact that ZF is back on track, after the past two years of crisis, is also due to Wolf-Henning Scheider’s work. We regret his personal decision, but also respect it."

On Thursday, Scheider said he was proud that ZF had achieved profitable growth as a team during his tenure, and was able to offer automakers complete systems rather than only individual components. 

"We've developed into a one-stop shop from a component supplier," he told journalists at ZF’s annual news and results conference. "The OEMs know they can get overall solutions from us." 

ZF said it recorded 2021 sales of 38.2 billion euros ($42.2 billion) in 2021, a 18 percent increase over 2020.

Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were 1.91 billion euros compared with 1.05 billion in 2020. Adjusted EBIT margin was 5 percent, compared with 3.2 percent in 2020.