Second-largest supplier in crisis: This manager is supposed to get ZF back on track

Mathias Miedreich is described as direct and decisive. The former head of ZF's driveline division is moving to the top of the company. The 50-year-old brings experience from other countries and industries. Will this help him meet the major challenges?

He's tasked with pulling Germany's second-largest automotive supplier out of its crisis: Mathias Miedreich will take over leadership of ZF in Friedrichshafen on October 1, replacing Holger Klein. The 50-year-old is no stranger to the workforce; he's been on the board of directors as head of the drivetrain division since January. What makes the future boss tick?

Miedreich is a manager with international experience. After studying business administration in Erlangen-Nuremberg, he held various positions for Siemens, Continental, and Faurecia in Europe and Asia. In 2021, he took over as CEO of Brussels-based Umicore, a global market leader in materials technology and the circular economy. He held the position until May 2024.

Since January, he has been responsible for the Electrified Drive Technologies division at ZF, which includes electric and hybrid drives as well as combustion engines. After his move to the executive office, he will continue to lead this division on an interim basis until a successor is found.

"Don't take colleagues for fools"

Before his appointment, the future ZF CEO told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) at the IAA Mobility auto show that transparency is especially important when dealing with employees. "It's hard to pretend to be someone you're not, and you shouldn't take the people you work with for fools. At the end of the day, if you don't speak the truth clearly, you'll lose people."

The Supervisory Board describes Miedreich as a ZF Board Member with a combination of decisiveness and communication skills. According to Supervisory Board Chairman Rolf Breidenbach, he has already made significant progress in the restructuring of Division E.

ZF is heavily indebted, with more than ten billion euros in debt, and is suffering from the delayed launch of e-mobility. Up to 14,000 jobs are to be eliminated in Germany by the end of 2028. The driveline division is currently at the center of restructuring.

Terminations not excluded

Four topics are at the top of his agenda: cutting costs, streamlining the portfolio, reviewing production sites, and reducing staff, as Miedreich recently told "Wirtschaftswoche." He calls these steps "difficult, but necessary." "There's no scenario in which a white knight will come riding on a horse and rescue us." He wants to avoid layoffs, but he can't rule them out.

The employees he met during site visits know how difficult the road is, he says in the interview. "We have so many things to resolve, we should all pull together to help Division E and ZF return to their former strength," he emphasizes.