Thus, the results of the work carried out by the committees appointed by the Executive Board are incorporated into the day-to-day operations of the Executive Management. To lead the Executive Management, the Chief Executive Officer and other members of the Executive Management are appointed by the Presidium upon the recommendation of the President and confirmed by the Executive Board. For a time—from September 1957 to May 1975—the position of Chief Executive Officer was held on an honorary basis as an Executive Member of the Presidium, and that of Deputy Chief Executive Officer was titled Chief Executive Officer.

Each of the chief executive officers, most of whom served the BDI for many years, shaped the association’s work in their own way. A look at their biographies provides an informative picture of their individual backgrounds and professional careers, their economic policy priorities, and the contemporary challenges they faced.

Background and Career
Hans-Wilhelm Beutler was born on September 5, 1897, in Düsseldorf. He studied law and political science in Cologne, Bonn, Munich, and Breslau, and received his doctorate in 1923. After working for the Cologne-based company Felten & Guilleaume Carlswerk AG, he presumably served as managing director of the Wire Rope Association in Gleiwitz from 1926 to 1945 (this is not definitively documented) and held positions in various industrial associations in Cologne and Munich. In 1945, he assumed the position of chief executive of the Economic Association of Wire Drawing and Cold Rolling Mills in Cologne.

In the BDI
Starting in 1946, he was among the founders of the BDI, the new umbrella organization for industry established in 1949, and served as its chief executive from its inception until 1957. One of Beutler’s main tasks was to establish the BDI’s executive office in Cologne. As part of a triumvirate with BDI President Fritz Berg and Deputy Chief Executive Gustav Stein, Beutler succeeded in positioning the new association at the executive level both nationally and internationally and in enhancing its reputation. His personal focus was on the European integration of the Federal Republic of Germany and its industrial policy interests. He was not only vice president of the Europaunion but also a co-founder of the Society for Foreign Policy in Bonn and a member of the German Council of the European Movement. On September 17, 1957, the BDI Presidium appointed Beutler as Executive Member of the Presidium and attorney Dr. Gustav Stein as Chief Executive Officer.

Subsequent
EventsOn July 1, 1963, Beutler left the BDI and died on September 11, 1966, in Baden-Baden.

Background and Career
Gustav Stein was born on April 19, 1903, in Duisburg. After graduating from high school, he completed a business apprenticeship and then studied law and political science in Tübingen, Münster, and Cologne. In 1934, he was admitted to the bar at the Higher Regional Court of Cologne. From 1939 to 1945, he worked as an authorized signatory at Toponwerke in Cologne-Mülheim (now MEDA Manufacturin GmbH), a pharmaceutical company. His career in trade associations began after the war. Contacts he had made during his legal practice up until 1945 led him into business circles involved in the reconstruction of industrial associations.

Initially working at the BDI
in 1946 as managing director of the Chemical Industry Association in the British occupation zone, he became managing director and general counsel of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) in 1948. He was thus involved in the reorganization of the umbrella organization from an early stage and, following its founding, served on the BDI’s executive board as Hans-Wilhelm Beutler’s deputy. In 1957, the Presidium appointed him chief executive. Together with Beutler and—when he was appointed Executive Member of the Presidium on July 1, 1963—his successor Helmuth Wagner, he held this office until his retirement on October 1, 1968. He earned recognition for his contributions to the growing sales of German industrial products, in part through his commitment to good industrial design. He taught at the Art Academy in Duisburg, which awarded him an honorary professorship (Prof. h. c.) in 1963. Stein was a passionate art collector and a staunch patron of contemporary art; in 1951, he founded the Cultural Circle of German Business within the BDI, and as a long-serving CDU member of the German Bundestag, he initiated its art collection in 1968.

Fortgang
Stein died on October 21, 1979, in Lüneburg during a conference of the Kulturkreis.

Background and Career
Hellmuth Wagner was born on August 19, 1917, in Berlin, where he earned his high school diploma in 1935. After serving in the Reich Labor Service, completing a commercial apprenticeship in the textile industry, and performing military service and seeing action in the war, Wagner studied law and political science at the University of Münster from 1945 to 1948.

At the BDI
After passing the major state law examination and earning his doctorate in 1951, he worked as the city attorney for the city of Gütersloh until 1952, before joining the Federation of German Industries (BDI) on July 1, 1952. There, he initially worked as a staff member in the Legal Department, then as head of the Department of Social Economy and Industrial Research. As Deputy Executive Director from 1959 and as Executive Director from 1963 to 1968, the focus of his work was on international affairs. He was one of the founders of UNICE (now BUSINESSEUROPE). In addition to the consolidation of the EEC, the Federal Republic’s European integration remained on the BDI’s agenda. Wagner’s contributions at directors’ conferences with European sister associations and his participation in numerous delegation trips bear witness to this. At that time, these delegation trips took place against the backdrop of the East-West conflict between political and economic systems and the decolonization of then-developing countries, which was shaped by that conflict. He earned recognition for his contributions to structural policy as the employer-side negotiator during the founding of Ruhrkohle AG in 1968. In the same year, on October 1, 1968, following Stein’s departure, he was appointed Executive Member of the BDI Presidium, even though the position of Chief Executive Officer remained vacant. With Fritz Neef’s arrival in November 1969 as deputy, Wagner’s responsibilities focused on the association’s legal, social policy, and international work (see below regarding Neef). With the division of functional responsibilities within the executive management, the BDI secretariat was reorganized in December 1969, and four main departments were established. Wagner’s tenure also saw the first change in the BDI presidency, from Fritz Berg to Hans-Günter Sohl in January 1972, and a related amendment to the bylaws regarding the president’s term of office. In May 1974, Wagner stepped down from operational management for health reasons and ultimately left the BDI on October 31, 1974.

Subsequent
CareerUntil his retirement in 1982, he continued to serve as an advisory member of the Executive Board, performing tasks such as maintaining ties with European and international business associations. Wagner died on July 28, 1997, in Munich.

Background and Career
Fritz Neef was born on January 10, 1913, in Dresden. After graduating from high school in 1931, he studied political science and economics from 1931 to 1935. Until 1939, he worked as the head of the Glass Industry Testing Office in Berlin and, drawing on his experience there, earned his doctorate in Prague in 1942. He completed his military service from 1939 to 1941. From 1942 to 1945, he served as a staff officer in the Reich Ministry of Economics. After the war, he worked in the predecessor agencies of what would later become the Federal Ministry of Economics in Minden and Frankfurt am Main. Following a successful career at the Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWi) beginning in 1949, Neef served there as a civil servant State Secretary from 1963 to 1968 and held the same position at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in 1968–1969. He had made a name for himself in the context of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), particularly during the second round of negotiations (the “Kennedy Round”).

At the BDI
Following the change in government to a social-liberal administration, the BDI Executive Board appointed Neef as Chief Executive Officer, effective November 15, 1969, upon the recommendation of Helmuth Wagner. This marked the first time in the history of the BDI that a former high-ranking government official held this office. Wagner and Neef managed the association’s affairs jointly until early 1974. Drawing on his ministerial experience, Neef was responsible for economic and European policy until he assumed sole management following Wagner’s departure (see above regarding Wagner). As early as March 18, 1974, Neef had been appointed Executive Member of the Presidium; as of May 12, 1975, he held the new title “Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Presidium.” Hans Dichgans, a former long-serving executive board member of the Economic Association of the Iron and Steel Industry, had temporarily assumed Wagner’s duties in the executive management from June 1974 to September 1975 and served as Neef’s deputy. Following the rationalization decisions of a presidential commission, the association reorganized its communications strategy under Neef’s leadership and, in 1975, gave it a more central role by appointing Kurt Steves as the Executive Board’s representative for Information and Communication. Neef’s tenure was marked by the aftermath of the 1967–68 recession and the first oil price crisis in 1973. With major extra-parliamentary movements, such as the student unrest and the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition, as well as the debate on co-determination, issues of income distribution and regulatory policy gained priority within the BDI in the early 1970s. Upon turning 65, Neef retired on June 17, 1977.

Subsequent Events
He remained an advisory member of the executive board until his death. He died on August 29, 1979, in Holz (Lindlar).

Background and Career
Siegfried Mann was born on September 21, 1926, in Stuttgart and joined the Labor Service in 1943 before completing his high school diploma. He performed his military service in the Wehrmacht and served until the end of the war. After his return from captivity as a prisoner of war, he completed his high school diploma in 1946. From 1948 to 1952, Mann studied law and political science. From 1953 to 1956, he worked as a judicial clerk in Tübingen and, at the same time, as a research assistant. Mann earned his doctorate in 1955 and passed the Second State Examination in Law in 1956. After joining the interior administration of the state of Baden-Württemberg in September 1956, he transferred to the Federal Ministry of Defense a year later and rose through the ranks of the civil service to become a senior administrative director in 1971. A year later, he became a civil servant serving as State Secretary and was primarily responsible for the defense industry and technology, as well as for the medium- and long-term planning of the Bundeswehr. He increasingly found himself at odds with the policies of the social-liberal governing coalition under Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and took early retirement.

At the BDI
, the BDI Presidium and Executive Board decided in November 1976 to appoint Siegfried Mann as co-managing director alongside Fritz Neef, effective January 1, 1977—without yet appointing him as an extraordinary member of the Presidium. After a period of orientation, he succeeded Neef following the latter’s departure, effective May 18, 1977. Mann began his tenure at the BDI while Hanns-Martin Schleyer was still president. Four additional presidents succeeded one another during his tenure as chief executive: Nikolaus Fasolt, Rolf Rodenstock, Hans-Joachim Langmann, and Tyll Necker. During these years, the first challenge was to cope with the effects of the oil price crisis (“the minor global economic crisis of the 1970s”). With Siegfried Mann at the helm, the BDI’s voice in the economic policy dialogue of those years gained in weight and persuasiveness. Under his leadership, the BDI, together with its European sister associations, advocated for the preservation of the free market economy, among other things by drawing attention to the consequences of increased protectionism. At the same time, Mann streamlined the association’s internal organization. The leadership structure he introduced in 1986—featuring a chief executive officer and other members of the executive board—has been retained by the BDI to this day.

Subsequent
CareerAfter leaving the BDI at his own request on December 31, 1989, Mann turned his attention to the political science question of the function and self-conception of associations in a pluralistic system. He earned a second doctorate in 1993 with a dissertation in political science. Siegfried Mann died on August 27, 2011, in Wachtberg.

Background and Career
Ludolf-Georg von Wartenberg was born on September 22, 1941, in Fürstenwalde/Spree and comes from a family of Prussian officers. He studied economics and history, earning his diploma in 1967, and received his doctorate in 1970. From 1967 to 1972, von Wartenberg worked as a management consultant at the Hanover Chamber of Crafts and subsequently served as managing director of a housing industry association until 1976. From 1985 to 1987, he was a director at Hannover Reinsurance AG in Hanover.

Politically active in the CDU since 1967, he was elected to the German Bundestag in 1976 via the Lower Saxony CDU state list and served as chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group on the Finance Committee from 1980 to 1987. When the government was reshuffled in March 1987, von Wartenberg became Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics. In connection with the government reshuffle in April 1989, he was originally slated to move to the Federal Ministry of Finance as State Secretary. Instead, BDI President Tyll Necker proposed von Wartenberg as the successor to Siegfried Mann.

At the BDI
,the BDI Executive Board appointed him as the new BDI Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Executive Board effective January 1, 1990. Von Wartenberg served under Presidents Tyll Necker, Heinrich Weiss, Hans-Olaf Henkel, Michael Rogowski, and Jürgen R. Thumann. In this role, he played a key role in realigning the BDI during those years. In terms of economic policy, the 1990s were marked by German reunification, a massive surge in globalization, and an export boom for the German economy. Structural changes in the economy, politics, and society, as well as an internal assessment of the BDI’s organizational structure from the perspective of its member associations, shaped the organization’s development. BDI state associations were founded in the new federal states. A study co-initiated under the leadership of Ludolf von Wartenberg recommended at the 1994 general assembly that the BDI realign its portfolio of issues, its membership base, and its cooperation with the other umbrella organizations. One outcome of the internal discussions was the resolution passed by the BDI General Assembly in 1995 to relocate the headquarters from Cologne to Berlin and to build a joint “House of German Business” together with the umbrella organizations BDA and DIHK. In November 1999, the three associations moved into their new headquarters in Berlin-Mitte. Around the same time, there was a discussion about admitting associations to the BDI that represented the interests of industry-related service providers. This led to an amendment to the bylaws in 2001. In the area of foreign trade, under von Wartenberg’s leadership, the dialogue platforms with the U.S. were expanded (the U.S.-German Round Table and the Transatlantic Business Dialogue were established, as well as the Asia-Pacific Committee (APA)). At the end of 2006, von Wartenberg intended to step down from his position as chief executive officer due to his age. He declined the offer to extend his term for another year—despite the difficulty in finding a successor. Under the presidency of Jürgen R. Thumann, discussions arose for the second time in the association’s history regarding a merger between the BDA and the BDI, a prospect to which von Wartenberg was critical. Until a successor was appointed, the previous members of the executive board, Klaus Bräunig and Carsten Kreklau, served as interim chief executive officers beginning in January 2007.

Ludolf von Wartenberg subsequently held various consulting positions and is now retired.

Background and Career
Werner Schnappauf was born on August 30, 1953, in Steinbach am Wald. After completing his military service, he studied law and political science until 1974 and earned his doctorate in Bayreuth in 1982. Professionally, he built on his academic thesis, “Assessment of Nuclear Power Plant Sites,” in various positions within public administration in the environmental and regional development sectors. As a member of the CSU, he served in the Bavarian State Parliament beginning in 1989. After chairing the Committee on Regional Development and Environmental Issues beginning in 1996, he became Minister of State for the Environment and Regional Development in 1998 and remained in that position until 2007. Schnappauf had previously gained prominence in federal politics as chairman of the Conference of Environment Ministers in 1999.

At the BDI
Drawing on his experience as an environmental policymaker, the BDI Presidium and Executive Board, upon the recommendation of President Jürgen R. Thumann, nominated Schnappauf as the new chief executive. He assumed this position on November 15, 2007. The appointment was also seen as a signal: The association had staked out its position with its BDI initiative “Business for Climate Protection,” launched in 2007, and had presented a climate study for the first time in BDI history. Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis, Schnappauf advocated for reconciling economic challenges with ambitious climate protection goals, affordable energy prices, and the preservation of competitiveness through economic and structural policy measures. Organizationally, he radically restructured the executive office, modeling it after a ministerial structure. In March 2011, Schnappauf resigned from his position as BDI Chief Executive Officer. He took this step in response to a leak of confidential information during an executive committee meeting regarding the federal government’s future nuclear energy policy following the Fukushima reactor accident in March 2011. Internal meeting notes from a committee meeting with Federal Minister of Economics Brüderle had been leaked to the public. Werner Schnappauf’s responsibilities were divided among the members of the BDI’s executive board, Dieter Schweer and Stefan Mair.

Schnappauf’s career path

He works as a lawyer and consultant for Bank of America and has served as chairman of the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE) since January 2020.

Background and Career
Markus Kerber was born on July 23, 1963, in Ulm. He studied economics and political science from 1983 to 1988 and earned his doctorate in 1993 at the University of Hohenheim.

From 1992 to 2003, Kerber was active as an entrepreneur in the financial sector and the IT industry. In 1998, he became a shareholder in GFT Technologies AG. Kerber became the company’s chief financial officer in 1998 and, amid the IT boom of those years, successfully took the company public in 1999.

In 2006, then-Federal Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) brought Kerber into his ministry and appointed him head of the Department of Policy Issues and International Analysis. When Schäuble moved to the Federal Ministry of Finance in the fall of 2009, Kerber was the only executive he brought with him to his new department. There, as department head, he was responsible for fiscal policy and macroeconomic policy issues. In 2011, Kerber also took on the additional responsibility of coordinating issues related to international financial and monetary policy. In this capacity, he was also involved in preparing for G-20 finance ministers’ meetings.

At the BDI
On July 1, 2011, the BDI Executive Committee appointed Kerber as the BDI’s Chief Executive Officer. He streamlined the organization of the executive office, thereby returning to the traditional structure with four functional divisions, each headed by a member of the executive board. Against the backdrop of current megatrends—notably digitalization, globalization, and climate change—Kerber focused on expanding European and international economic policy cooperation. Consequently, the BDI’s Brussels office moved into new premises in 2015, and in September 2016, the BDI office in Beijing was inaugurated. In the same year, with President Ulrich Grillo and Kerber at the helm, the BDI took a stance in support of the planned EU trade agreements with Canada (CETA) and the U.S. (TTIP). In addition, during Germany’s G20 presidency in 2017, the executive board, together with the BDA and the DIHK, supported the preparation of the G20’s official business dialogue, the Business 20 (B20).

In the summer of 2014, Kerber was appointed by Federal Minister of Economics Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) to a 13-member expert advisory board to develop concrete proposals for promoting investment activity in Germany. Kerber stepped down from his position as BDI Chief Executive Officer on March 31, 2017, at his own request. His successor had already been brought up to speed on the business operations as of December 2016.

Since then
,Kerber has returned to the business world and, from 2018 to 2021, served as a civil servant and State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building, and Homeland under Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. In addition, he advises Germany’s CDU on strategic issues.

Background and Career
Dr. Joachim Lang, M.E.S., was born in Wülfrath in 1967. From 1988 to 1993, he studied law and political science. After passing the First State Examination in Law, he earned his doctorate in Münster in 1994 with a dissertation on a topic in corporate law. In 1996, he passed the Second State Examination in Law and earned a master’s degree in European Studies from RWTH Aachen University. After initially serving as a department head for arms control law within the Federal Ministry of Defense in Bonn, Lang moved to the Secretariat of the Bundesrat, where, until 1999, he served as deputy committee secretary on several committees and worked in the area of policy matters and parliamentary law. He then served until 2006 as coordinator for federal-state and European affairs to the First Parliamentary Secretary of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Prior to Germany’s EU Council Presidency, he moved to the Office of the Federal Chancellor, where he led the coordination of the federal government’s European policy. At the end of 2007, he joined the DAX-listed company E.ON, where he headed its representative office until 2016.

At the BDI
, Lang became a member of the Executive Board in December 2016, was appointed Chief Executive of the BDI in April 2017, and was elected to the BDI Presidium in June 2017. Together with other business associations, Lang launched the BREXIT Task Force in early summer 2017, which addressed the challenges and consequences of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union for the German and European economies. In 2018, the BDI presented a detailed economic analysis of various approaches to emissions reduction in its widely acclaimed study “Climate Pathways for Germany.” This was followed in 2019 by the policy paper on China, which triggered a shift in perspective regarding China and, for the first time, designated the country as a “systemic competitor.” Finally, the BDI Executive Board’s office responded swiftly to the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in early 2020 with regularly published recommendations for companies under the title “COVID-19 Update—Economic Impacts.” Under Lang’s leadership, the association’s communication on social media gained in importance and reach.

Next Steps
With the approval of the Executive Board, Lang stepped down from his role as Chief Executive Officer of the BDI and as a member of the BDI Executive Board effective May 31, 2022, to pursue new opportunities outside the association. Until his successor, Tanja Gönner, took office on November 15, 2022, the other members of the Executive Board—Holger Lösch, Wolfgang Niedermark, and Iris Plöger—managed the BDI’s affairs.