CEWE share: CEWE Board of Trustees with strong criticism of outgoing CEO Friege

It accused him of failings in the advancement of women. Despite Friege’s “quite acceptable to good work”, the Board of Trustees “has had concerns about Friege’s performance and his behavior for a long time”, the Board of Trustees of the Neumüller CEWE Color Foundation announced on Friday in Oldenburg. Two thirds of the members of the Board of Trustees are convinced that Friege no longer has the necessary unrestricted trust for a contract extension – for personal reasons as well as for reasons of content.

The listed CEWE Stiftung & Co KGaA then declared on Sunday that the company “stands for a sustainable value orientation and diversity”. Between 2017 and 2021, the number of women in management positions increased by more than 50 percent from 95 to 146. At management level, half of the positions to be filled have been filled by women. Overall, according to company information, the proportion of women in the company was 48.5 percent at the end of December. The advancement of women in

Management positions are reflected in the diversity in filling vacancies

contrary.

The board of trustees, chaired by Rolf Hollander, criticized on Friday that Friege had not pushed the need to promote diversity in the company and the process of appointing a woman as head of human resources and organizational development by the board of trustees, but rather severely obstructed it. He also did not support an initiative driven by CEWE employees to promote women within the company. Hollander is convinced that the fact that Friege “did not recognize and implement the socially and CEWE-internally important topic of women on the Management Board and other managerial functions” was an inexcusable omission.

Hollander announced on March 17 that the contract with Friege would not be extended beyond December 31, 2022 due to different views on corporate management. As a personally liable partner, the Neumüller CEWE Color Foundation manages the business of the listed CEWE Foundation & Co KGaA. In the complicated management structure of CEWE Stiftung & Co KGaA, personal details of the board of directors are a matter for the board of trustees. The decision to separate from Friege was not unanimous. It “led to a number of questions internally and externally,” according to the current statement from the Board of Trustees.

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OLDENBURG (dpa-AFX)

Image sources: CEWE