The Board of ABB has unanimously appointed Ulrich Spiesshofer, the head of its Discrete Automation and Motion (DM) division, as Chief Executive Officer.
He will succeed Joe Hogan in this role on September 15, 2013. Hogan will continue with ABB for some months as Senior Advisor to the Board.
Spiesshofer joined ABB’s Executive Committee in 2005 and was named responsible for DM in 2009. He has led a doubling of the division’s revenues by organic and inorganic means, and the integration of Baldor – ABB’s largest ever acquisition.
“I am excited about the opportunity to lead ABB and serving our customers building on Joe’s success,” said Spiesshofer. “I am looking forward to keep working with all my colleagues in the Executive Committee and the entire ABB team. Together, we will continue to drive profitable growth and relentless execution for the company.”
Spiesshofer also initiated other business expansion activities in DM based on organic growth and acquisitions. These have helped DM to grow faster than the market and to expand into new business areas such as e-mobility and UPS.
Prior to taking over DM, Spiesshofer was responsible for Corporate Development, leading strategy development and implementation across the power and automation businesses, in very close collaboration with all of ABB’s teams.
Before joining ABB, Spiesshofer spent three years at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and 11 years at management consultants A.T. Kearney.
