The Management Board

Duties and Responsibilities

The Management Board members are jointly accountable for independently managing the company in the company’s best interests while complying with the applicable laws and regulations, the Articles of Association and the rules of procedure. In doing so, they must take the interests of the shareholders, the employees and other stakeholders into account.

The Management Board is monitored and advised by the Supervisory Board. It has adopted the rules of procedure in consultation with the Supervisory Board. The Management Board has a Chairman who coordinates the work of the Management Board and represents it in dealings with the Supervisory Board. The Chairman of the Management Board has the right to veto Management Board resolutions.

The members of the Management Board are Rolf Buch (Chairman) as well as Arnd Fittkau, Helene von Roeder and Daniel Riedl. Further information can be found in chapter Management Board. The decision has been made not to establish any Management Board committees.

The Management Board informs the Supervisory Board regularly, in due time and comprehensively in line with the principles of diligent and faithful accounting in accordance with the law and the reporting duties specified by the Supervisory Board.

The Management Board develops the company’s strategy, coordinates it with the Supervisory Board and implements it. The Management Board ensures that all statutory provisions and the company’s internal policies are complied with. The Management Board also ensures appropriate risk management and risk controlling in the company.

It submits the corporate planning for the coming fiscal year to the Supervisory Board as well as the midterm and strategic planning. The Chairman of the Management Board informs the Supervisory Board Chairman without delay of important events that are essential for the assessment of the situation and the development of the company or for the management of the company as well as of any shortcomings that occur in the monitoring systems.

The Management Board requires the approval of the Supervisory Board for certain important transactions. Transactions and measures that require Supervisory Board approval are submitted in good time to the Supervisory Board, or to one of its committees where particular powers are delegated to them.

The Management Board members are obliged to disclose any conflicts of interest to the Supervisory Board without delay and to inform the other Management Board members accordingly.

The Management Board members are subject to a comprehensive non-competition obligation. Management Board members may only take up sideline activities, in particular positions on supervisory boards outside the Group, with the approval of the Supervisory Board.

Important transactions between the company, on the one hand, and the Management Board members as well as persons they are close to or companies they have a personal association with, on the other hand, require the approval of the Supervisory Board. The internal procedure put in place by the Supervisory Board to evaluate these transactions is set out in the Report of the Supervisory Board. Reference is made to such relations in the remuneration report.