Deutsche Beteiligungs AG: Generation change on the Board of Management

Frank­furt am Main — The Spokes­man of the Board of Manage­ment of Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), Tors­ten Grede, intends to resign as a member and Spokes­man of the Board of Manage­ment at the end of Febru­ary 2023 in the best possi­ble agree­ment with the Super­vi­sory Board. This was announ­ced today by Tors­ten Grede and the Super­vi­sory Board of DBAG. The new spokes­man for the Execu­tive Board from March 1, 2023 is to be Execu­tive Board member Tom Alzin. Mela­nie Wiese (photo) will join the DBAG Manage­ment Board as the new Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer on Janu­ary 1, 2023, taking over respon­si­bi­lity for Finance from Tors­ten Grede.

“My decis­ion to ask the Super­vi­sory Board to prema­tu­rely termi­nate my service on the Manage­ment Board after 32 years of service to DBAG marks the comple­tion of the long-plan­­ned gene­ra­tio­nal change on the Manage­ment Board,” Grede said today. And: “I am parti­cu­larly plea­sed that it will be my long-time colle­agues who, toge­ther with Mela­nie Wiese, will steer DBAG’s fortu­nes in the future, and that the Super­vi­sory Board will entrust my colle­ague Tom Alzin with the office of Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board.”

The Manage­ment Board of DBAG curr­ently has three members. In addi­tion to Mr. Grede and Mr. Alzin, this is Jannick Hune­cke. Tors­ten Grede has been a member of the Execu­tive Board since 2001 and has been Spokes­man of the Execu­tive Board since 2013.

“The Super­vi­sory Board would like to express its sincere thanks to Tors­ten Grede for the many years of successful coope­ra­tion,” said Dr. Hendrik Otto, Chair­man of DBAG’s Super­vi­sory Board today. And: “He has played a key role in shaping DBAG’s stra­te­gic deve­lo­p­ment and growth and has played a major role in estab­li­shing DBAG as one of the leading German private equity firms with assets under manage­ment or advi­sory of 2.5 billion euros.”

Tom Alzin will become the new Spokes­man of the Manage­ment Board of DBAG as of March 1, 2023. He joined DBAG in 2004 and has been a member of the Manage­ment Board since 2021. “I am very plea­sed about the confi­dence of the Super­vi­sory Board. I am convin­ced that DBAG is follo­wing the right path with its strong posi­tio­ning as one of Germany’s most renow­ned private equity firms and our new stra­te­gic initia­ti­ves. These include the expan­sion of our acti­vi­ties in the Italian market, the exten­sion of our range of equity solu­ti­ons for medium-sized and prima­rily family-mana­­ged compa­nies, and the focus on sectors that bene­fit from struc­tu­ral growth. I will do ever­y­thing in my power to further advance the dyna­mic deve­lo­p­ment of the company,” said Tom Alzin.

Mela­nie Wiese worked for the energy compa­nies E.ON SE, Innogy SE, Essen, and Bayern­werk AG, Regens­burg, between 2017 and 2022 — most recently as a member of the boards of Innogy SE and Bayern­werk AG, respon­si­ble for finance (CFO, Bayern­werk AG). Previously, as Head of Accoun­ting & Report­ing at Innogy SE and Head of Group Accoun­ting at E.ON SE, she was invol­ved in a wide range of topics, inclu­ding group accoun­ting, M&A tran­sac­tions, taxes, control­ling and finan­cing. Previously, she headed the inter­na­tio­nal shared service orga­niza­tion of the tech­no­logy group ZF Fried­richs­ha­fen (2014 to 2017) and before that worked as a manage­ment consul­tant at Accen­ture Manage­ment Consul­ting and The Hackett Group.

“We are very plea­sed that in Mela­nie Wiese we have been able to attract a proven finan­cial expert with many years of manage­ment expe­ri­ence from German indus­try,” Super­vi­sory Board Chair­man Dr. Hendrik Otto said today. And: “Conti­nuity and a long-term orien­ta­tion are the corner­sto­nes of the private equity busi­ness; this is also reflec­ted in the smooth gene­ra­tio­nal change on the Manage­ment Board, and this is what DBAG’s Manage­ment Board also stands for in its new composition.”

Wiese expects nume­rous chal­lenges at her new employer. In the shadow of the nega­tive capi­tal market deve­lo­p­ment, DBAG had to absorb a loss of 98 million euros in the past fiscal year (until the end of Septem­ber 2022).

About DBAG

Deut­sche Betei­li­gungs AG (DBAG), listed on the stock exch­ange since 1985, is one of Germany’s most renow­ned private equity compa­nies. As an inves­tor and fund advi­sor, DBAG’s invest­ment focus has tradi­tio­nally been on medium-sized compa­nies with a focus on well-posi­­tio­­ned compa­nies with deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial, prima­rily in the DACH region. The indus­try focus is on manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies, indus­trial service provi­ders and Indus­try­Tech compa­nies — i.e. compa­nies whose products enable auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and digi­tiza­tion — as well as compa­nies from the broad­band tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons, IT services, soft­ware and health­care sectors. Since 2020, DBAG has also been repre­sen­ted in Italy with its own office in Milan. Assets mana­ged or advi­sed by the DBAG Group amount to appro­xi­m­ately 2.5 billion euros.