At the first ordinary General Meeting of Allianz SE, shareholders re-elected all the members of the Supervisory Board who stood for reelection, and newly appointed Peter Kossubek to the board as an employee representative. Every candidate received at least 95 percent of the votes cast by the shareholders, who either voted in person at the AGM in Munich's Olympiahalle or voted by proxy, many of them via the persons appointed by the company to vote on their behalf.
In contrast to that of Allianz AG, the 12-member Supervisory Board of Allianz SE is significantly smaller and also now includes employees’ representatives from several different European countries. The first Supervisory Board of Allianz SE was appointed when the company became a European Company (Societas Europaea or SE). Its term of office began in October 2006 and ended at today's first ordinary General Meeting on May 2, 2007.
First regular elections for Supervisory Board of Allianz SE
More information about the AGM
Shareholder representatives confirmed in office
The shareholders confirmed the following shareholder representatives in office as proposed:
- Dr. Wulf H. Bernotat, Essen, Chairman of the Board of Management of E.ON AG
- Dr. Gerhard Cromme, Essen, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ThyssenKrupp AG
- Dr. Franz B. Humer, Basle, Switzerland, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Switzerland
- Prof. Dr. Renate Köcher, Constance, Chairperson of the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach
- Igor Landau, Paris, France, Member of the Board of Directors of Sanofi-Aventis S.A., France
- Dr. Henning Schulte-Noelle, Munich, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Allianz SE, former Chairman of the Board of Management of Allianz AG
They also elected Dr. Jürgen Than, Hofheim a.Ts., lawyer, former General Counsel of Dresdner Bank AG as substitute member for the shareholder representatives.
Employees from different countries represented for the first time
In accordance with the Company's Statutes, the AGM elected the six employees’ representatives upon proposal of the employees. As stipulated in the Employee Participation Agreement concluded with the representatives of Allianz employees in September 2006, four of the six employees’ representatives on the Supervisory Board are from Germany (including one union representative), one from France and one from the UK.
- Jean-Jacques Cette, Gentilly (AGF, France)
- Claudia Eggert-Lehmann, Hagen (Dresdner Bank AG, Germany)
- Godfrey Robert Hayward, Ashford, Kent (Allianz Insurance plc, UK)
- Peter Kossubek, Bayerbach (Allianz Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft, Germany)
- Jörg Reinbrecht, Berlin (ver.di, Germany)
- Rolf Zimmermann, Frankfurt am Main (Allianz Versicherungs-Aktien-Gesellschaft, Germany)
A substitute member was also appointed for each employees' representative.
Codetermination "correct and crucial"
"We deliberately chose to continue our policy of codetermination because we believe our employees' right to participation is both correct and crucial," said CEO Michael Diekmann. "The only difference is that now more nationalities are represented."
"We are becoming less German and more European," added CFO Paul Achleitner. "And we think that is a good cultural signal. However, we made a conscious decision to maintain our headquarters in Munich. The reduction of the Supervisory Board from 20 to only 12 members also represents significant progress. Creating Supervisory Boards which are not too large to function is a particular challenge of the German system, as over-large boards lose out in terms of efficiency and confidentiality."
Allianz complies with Corporate Governance recommendations
Allianz SE has taken on board all the recommendations made by the German Government Commission for the Corporate Governance Codex. It has also complied with all the Commission's non-binding suggestions except one: rather than electing members to the Supervisory Board at different dates and for different periods of office, the company has opted for a uniform five-year period of office.
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