Claus Bauer succeeds Dr. Klaus Patzak (56), who left the company at his own request on July 31, 2021. Bauer joined the Schaeffler Group in 1998, where he has held the position of Chief Financial Officer Americas since 2016. He works at Schaeffler's American headquarters in Fort Mill, South Carolina, where he initially served as Chief Financial Officer North America since 2002. Prior to that, he was head of the tax department and group accounting at INA Werk Schaeffler in Herzogenaurach, the legal predecessor of Schaeffler AG. Between 1991 and 1997, the business graduate and tax consultant spent his first professional years at Rödl & Partner in Nuremberg.

Also effective September 1, the Executive Board of Schaeffler has appointed Sascha Zaps as Regional CEO Europe. Zaps will thus also be a member of the Executive Board of Schaeffler AG, which is made up of the eight members of the Executive Board and the four regional CEOs. In his new function, Sascha Zaps succeeds Jürgen Ziegler (62), who has retired.

Zaps joined Schaeffler in 2019 as CFO Industrial and Head of Business Development for the Industrial division. Previously, he held various management positions at different companies. Mr. Zaps holds an MBA and BA and is a trained industrial clerk. He began his professional career in 1995 in the finance department of Siemens Automotive. This was followed by further finance and accounting functions at Siemens VDO, Siemens Enterprise and Telefonica O2, including in Belgium and the USA.

"I am very pleased that Claus Bauer has accepted our request to take over the important position of Chief Financial Officer in a timely manner and to move his center of life from the USA back to Germany for a certain period of time. Mr. Bauer is a financial expert through and through, with extensive international management experience and a deep knowledge of our company," says Georg Schaeffler, family shareholder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Schaeffler. "At the same time, I warmly welcome Sascha Zaps as a member of the Executive Board. My special thanks go to Mr. Jürgen Ziegler, who has rendered great services in his function as Regional CEO of our largest region in recent years and has improved the footprint of our plant network in Europe with drive and great diligence. I wish him all the best for his personal future."

Klaus Rosenfeld, CEO of Schaeffler, adds: "Together with my colleagues on the Executive Board, I am looking forward to working with Claus Bauer and Sascha Zaps, whom I have come to know and appreciate over the past few years. In a market environment that remains challenging, we have a wealth of important tasks ahead of us that we will successfully shape together as a management team. The continued consistent implementation of Roadmap 2025 remains particularly important and is progressing well."