Peter Löscher
Peter Löscher (born 17 September 1957 in Villach, Austria) is an Austrian manager who was the CEO of Siemens from 2007 until 2013. As of 2017, Löscher remains as the only CEO to be hired from outside the conglomerate in the 170-year history of Siemens. Before joining Siemens, he worked as president for Global Human Health at global pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Early life and education. Löscher graduated from Gymnasium Villach/Austria in 1978 and got a master's degree at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Later he attended but did not obtain a  degree from an MBA program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and attended the six-week Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School. In 2007 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering from Michigan State University. Career. From 1988 until 2000 he worked for the German pharmaceutical company Hoechst in Spain, Japan, Great Britain and the United States. After Hoechst merged with Rhone-Poulenc he stayed at Aventis until 2002. He then joined Amersham, which was taken over by General Electric. In 2006 he became a member of the executive board of the US pharmaceutical company  Merck. Löscher became the first CEO of Siemens AG to be appointed from outside the company in 2007. He was appointed on 20 May 2007 as the successor of Klaus Kleinfeld, and was selected to take on the new position on 1 July 2007. Under Löscher, Siemens spun off its Osram lighting unit and sold its half of a joint venture with Nokia that supplied equipment for mobile telecommunication networks. In 2012, he earned 8.7 million euros. In late 2012, he initiated efforts to save 6 billion euros ($7.7 billion) over the following two years. In his capacity as  CEO, he accompanied Chancellor Angela Merkel on various state visits, including to China in 2012. Following a series of missteps under his leadership, including a late delivery of high-speed ICE trains for German national railroad Deutsche Bahn and delays in completing offshore wind turbine projects, he was replaced by Joe Kaeser (Josef Käser) as CEO and left Siemens in July 2013, four years before the end of his contract. Under the terms of his pay-off of 17 million euros from Siemens, Löscher was obliged not to work for a "significant competitor" of the company until September 2015. In  2014, he was hired by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg to serve as chief executive of Renova Management (RMAG), which oversees his international industrial holdings, including stakes in Sulzer and in Oerlikon. He left Renova in 2016, amid disagreements with Vekselberg. In Munich, Löscher shares an office with Ann-Kristin Achleitner, Paul Achleitner, Michael Diekmann and Joachim Faber. Personal life. Löscher speaks German, English, French, Spanish, and Japanese. He and his Spanish-born wife have three children. According to an interview in the "New York Times", Löscher was the captain of the volleyball team at high school and college. Peter Löscher