- Frick succeeds Dr. Konstantin Sauer, who will leave ZF at the end of 2022
- Economist Frick is a veteran of the domestic and international automotive industry
Friedrichshafen, Germany. The supervisory board of ZF Friedrichshafen AG has appointed Michael Frick as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The 56-year-old economist will join ZF from Stuttgart-based automotive supplier Mahle, where he serves as Chief Financial Officer and interim Chairman of the Management Board. Frick succeeds Dr. Konstantin Sauer, 63, who will leave ZF at the end of 2022.
“With Michael Frick we have attracted a highly competent successor to Dr. Konstantin Sauer. He is intimately familiar with the supplier industry and can, therefore, seamlessly continue the transition initiatives to master current challenges while also setting his priorities,” says ZF Supervisory Board Chairman Dr. Heinrich Hiesinger. “I am particularly grateful to Dr. Sauer for all his contributions over the past years which enabled ZF’s positive development. This includes the solid and long-term oriented financing concepts tied to the two major acquisitions of TRW and Wabco.” Sauer joined ZF in 1990; he has served as CFO of the company since 2010.
Michael Frick holds a master of business administration degree from the University of Bamberg, Germany, and worked for consulting and industrial companies in Germany and abroad. In 2003, he joined Mahle Group as head of corporate controlling. After various senior management roles in the company’s finance, controlling and purchasing organizations, including in China and Great Britain, Frick was appointed commercial director of Mahle-Behr in 2011. Since 2014 he has been a member of the Mahle Board of Management responsible for finance. He started leading the company on an interim basis in May 2022. Frick will join the ZF Board of Management on December 1, 2022, and become Chief Financial Officer at the beginning of 2023, taking over from Dr. Konstantin Sauer.
“Michael Frick is a proven expert in the global supplier industry and intimately familiar with related financing issues. With him as a member of the leadership team we will continue on our path of transformation. ZF’s financial stability and independence remain our key strategic goals and top priority,” says Andreas Brand as a representative of the Zeppelin Foundation of the City of Friedrichshafen, which holds 93.8 percent of all ZF shares. Representing the Dr. Jürgen and Irmgard Ulderup Foundation, which holds a 6.2 percent stake in ZF, Dr. Joachim Meinecke emphasizes: “Substantial investments in future technologies remain crucial for ZF. Thereby, the company will continue to offer its customers an attractive product portfolio and lay the foundation for the creation of new business models. Michael Frick will devise a smart and reliable finance strategy to ensure that ZF will have the funds needed for the successful transformation of the company.”
