The Otto Group has restructured the management of its HR department.
From the beginning of September, Sebastian Strache will have sole responsibility for the area as Vice President HR, the Hamburg retail group announced on Friday. Sandra Widmaier-Gebauer, who shares the area with Strache, “would like to privatize at her own request”.
Widmaier-Gebauer was active in the group’s human resources department for more than two decades and then handed over part of her responsibility to Strache in May 2022 – in the form of a co-leadership model. She joined the mail order company Otto in 2000 as Director of Human Resources International and after five years took over the management of the entire group’s HR department. In addition to her management position, she is also chairwoman and chief negotiator of the collective bargaining committee of the Hamburg Retail Association and a member of the board of the collective bargaining committee of the employers’ association. She will retain this function for the Otto Group until the end of the 2023/24 financial year.
“Sandra has shaped a whole generation of managers of the Otto Group with energy and vision, has led the group of companies through a number of restructurings and has always represented us consistently, approachably and fairly in negotiations with the works councils and trade unions,” said CEO Petra Scharner- Wolff, “that’s why we say goodbye to you with respect and thanks for this great achievement”.
Strache joined the Otto Group in 2010 from the Düsseldorf fashion retailer Peek & Cloppenburg and took over the management of Human Resources and Legal Affairs at the clothing retailer Witt Group. In 2018 he switched to the shipping service provider Hermes Germany, which also belongs to the Otto Group, and took on the role of Division Manager Culture Change. A year later he changed again within the group and became part of the management of Hanseatic Versicherungsdienst, where he has been the sole managing director since March 2020. He will hand over this position to Oliver Goede in September.