Peter Löscher (born 17 September 1957 in Villach,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

) is an Austrian manager who was the CEO of

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

from 2007 until 2013. As of 2017, Löscher remains as the only CEO to be hired from outside the conglomerate in the 170-year history of Siemens. Before joining Siemens, he worked as president for Global Human Health at global pharmaceutical company Merck & Co.

Early life and education

Löscher graduated from Gymnasium Villach/

in 1978 and got a master's degree at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Later he attended but did not obtain a degree from an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

program at the

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public university, public research university in Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong. Established in 1963 as a federation of three university college, collegesChung Chi College, New Asia Coll ...

, and attended the six-week Advanced Management Program (AMP) at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

. In 2007 he received the

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

of Doctor of Engineering from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

Career

Early career

From 1988 until 2000 he worked for the German pharmaceutical company Hoechst in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. After Hoechst merged with Rhone-Poulenc he stayed at Aventis until 2002. He then joined

Amersham Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, south-east of Aylesbury and north-east of High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter belt. There ar ...

, which was taken over by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

. In 2006 he became a member of the executive board of the US pharmaceutical company Merck.

Siemens

In 2007 Löscher became the first CEO of

Siemens AG Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the posit ...

to be appointed from outside the company. He was appointed on 20 May 2007 as the successor of Klaus Kleinfeld, and was selected to take on the new position on 1 July 2007. Under Löscher, Siemens spun off its

Osram OSRAM Licht AG is a German company that makes electric lights, headquartered in Munich and Premstätten (Austria). OSRAM positions itself as a high-tech photonics company that is increasingly focusing on sensor technology, visualization and trea ...

lighting unit and sold its half of a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

that supplied equipment for mobile telecommunication networks. In 2012, he earned 8.7 million euros. In late 2012, he initiated efforts to save 6 billion euros ($7.7 billion) over the following two years. In his capacity as CEO, Löscher accompanied

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

on various state visits, including to China in 2012. Following a series of missteps under his leadership, including a late delivery of high-speed

ICE Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...

trains for German national railroad

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

and delays in completing offshore wind turbine projects, he was replaced by Joe Kaeser (Josef Käser) as CEO and left Siemens in July 2013, four years before the end of his contract.

Later career

Under the terms of his pay-off of 17 million euros from Siemens, Löscher was obliged not to work for a "significant competitor" of the company until September 2015. In 2014, Löscher was hired by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg to serve as chief executive of Renova Management (RMAG), which oversees his international industrial holdings, including stakes in Sulzer and in Oerlikon. He left Renova in 2016, amid disagreements with Vekselberg. Also in 2014, Russian Railways (RZD) nominated Löscher as member of the company’s board of directors; however, he ultimately wasn’t considered. In Munich, Löscher shares an office with Ann-Kristin Achleitner, Paul Achleitner,

Michael Diekmann Michael Diekmann (born December 23, 1954) is a German manager who was the CEO of Allianz in from 2003 to 2015. Early life and education Diekmann knew early that the family construction business would go to his twin brother, who was more interest ...

and Joachim Faber.

Other activities

Corporate boards

CaixaBank CaixaBank, S.A. (), formerly Criteria CaixaCorp, is a Spanish multinational financial services company. CaixaBank is based in Valencia, with operative offices in Barcelona and Madrid. It is Spain's third-largest lender by market value, after Ban ...

, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2023) *

Salesforce Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and ap ...

, Member of the Advisory Board on Europe, the Middle East and Africa (since 2020) *

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2020) * Telefónica Germany, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2020) * Doha Venture Capital, Non-Executive Member of the Board of Directors *

Telefónica , S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the ...

, Independent Member of the Board of Directors (since 2016) * TBG AG, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2013) * Sulzer, Chairman of the Board of Directors (2014–2022) * OMV, Chair of the Supervisory Board (2016-2019) *

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

, Member of the European Advisory Board (2011), Member of the Supervisory Board (2012-2017) *

Munich Re Munich Re Group or Munich Reinsurance Company () is a German Multinational corporation, multinational insurance company based in Munich, Germany. It is the world's largest reinsurance, reinsurer. ERGO Insurance Group, ERGO, a subsidiary of Munich ...

, Member of the Supevisory Board (2009-2014) *

Smiths Group Smiths Group plc is a British, Multinational corporation, multinational, diversified engineering business headquartered in London, England. It operates in over 50 countries and employs 15,000 staff. Smiths Group is listed on the London Stock Ex ...

(2007–2008)

Non-profit organizations

Bocconi University Bocconi University or Università Bocconi (formally known in Italian language, Italian as ''Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi'' – Luigi Bocconi Commercial University) is a private university in Milan, Italy. The university is consistently ...

, Member of the International Advisory Council * Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business (APA), Chairman (2010-2014) * Siemens Stiftung, Chairman of the Board of Trustees (2008-2014)

Personal life

Löscher speaks German, English, French, Spanish, and Japanese. He and his Spanish-born wife have three children. According to an interview in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', Löscher was the captain of the

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

team at high school and college.