Stefan Sommer News

ZF Friedrichshafen AG chief executive officer Dr. Stefan Sommer has left the company after five years at the head. Finance Board Member and CEO Deputy Representative, Dr. Konstantin Sauer, will fill in as CEO on an interim basis. The news follows the company's recent appointment of Dr.-Ing. Franz-Josef Paefgen as its new chairman.

Following the go-ahead from antitrust authorities, on December 1, 2015 ZF has officially taken over the industrial gears and wind turbine gearbox business from Bosch Rexroth AG. With this, some 1,200 employees altogether at the Witten, Beijing and Lake Zurich (USA) locations will thus join the technology company. The purchase price has not been disclosed. For ZF, the acquisition is an entry into the business with large industrial gears that are used in oil rigs, mine vehicles, tunnel drilling machines, or cableways, for instance.

Zahnradfabrik GmbH was founded in 1915, and through a 100-year history has developed into a leading technology company in driveline and chassis technology with a global network of 71,600 employees at 122 locations worldwide. ZF developed from its roots as a supplier specialized on the aviation industry to a global mobility technology company. Its founding at Lake Constance 100 years ago had its origins in Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, which was headquartered there at the time and which was also a shareholding partner of Zahnradfabrik: The task of the newly founded company was to develop…