The Hamburg Commercial and Service Group Otto Group has appointed Petra Scharner-Wolff as the new CEO.
The previous group manager finance, controlling and staff took over the overall management as CEO with effect from March 1, the Otto Group announced on Monday. She takes over for Alexander Birken, who moves to the group’s supervisory board after eight years in this role and takes over the chair for Michael Otto there.
Otto veteranin takes over the overall management
Scharner-Wolff has been a member of the board since June 2015. In 1999 she first came to the Hamburg group as part of the controlling team after the graduate clerk at the Munich management consultancy Nymphenburg started her career. In 2002 Scharner-Wolff, as director of Group Controlling, took part in the controlling of all companies in the group.
In 2007 she moved to the Schwab management and was responsible for planning and controlling, finance and accounting, IT, goods management and technology as well as personnel. At the Hanau mail order company, she also set up the Plus-Size brand Sheego, which has been part of the clothing provider Witt Group since October.
In 2012 we went back to Hamburg for Scharner-Wolff, where she took responsibility for personnel, control and IT as an Otto area board. Three years later, she rose to the group board.
“Petra Scharner-Wolff is a very strong leader and is characterized by her great experience, entrepreneurial skill, her sharp mind and her empathetic understanding of people and culture,” said Michael Otto. “As a CFO, she has helped to control the Otto Group in a crucial place in recent years through extremely challenging and changeable times. Petra Scharner-Wolff brings all the prerequisites to continue to successfully successfully organize the future of the group. ”
New CFO comes from her own ranks
Katy Roewer succeeds Scharner-Wolff as Chief Financial Officer. The 49-year-old was most recently active as a department for service, staff and finance at Otto. In July 2001 she became part of Otto Group’s participation controlling after her career as an association began at the British auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2007 she took over the management for the participation controlling of the Hamburg group.