FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Germany — Willi Berchtold will take over the position of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of ZF Friedrichshafen AG from Paul Ballmeier, who plans to retire in 2005.
Currently, Ballmeier is CFO and executive vice president for finance and IT. He has been member of the board of management for the worldwide leading automotive supplier since January 1996.
Berchtold is currently a member of the supervisory board of ZF Friedrichshafen AG. Since 1998, he has been chairman of management board of Giesecke & Devrient GmbH in Munich, a safe exchange technology specialist, providing printing machines and currency processing for bank notes and securities, as well as smart-cards and electronic payments.
Berchtold began his career in 1978 at IBM. Until 1998 he held various management positions in Germany and abroad, including managing director of IBM Germany and general manager for the entire service business of IBM Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Eastern European countries.
In 2003, he became president of the German Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunication and New Media, called BITKOM, an association that formed in 1999. In addition, he is a chairman of the economy advisory board of the scientific institute for communication-technology and is a member of the supervisory boards of the German Fair AG and LH Systems GmbH.
Ballmeier shaped the development of ZF during the past few years and has given the company a solid financial foundation. He, along with Max Mugler, played a major role in the integration of Lemfoerder — now the passenger car chassis technology division of ZF.
For more information about ZF, go to: www.zf-group.com.
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