MAN SE Appoints Former Daimler Manager Drees as Truck, Bus Chief

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Bloomberg / March 20, 2015

MAN SE appointed Joachim Drees to lead its truck and bus manufacturing unit, the first key personnel change since Andreas Renschler has started as head of commercial vehicles at parent company Volkswagen AG.

Drees, who like Renschler is a former manager at Daimler AG, is taking over from Anders Nielsen, who will run business development at Volkswagen’s commercial-vehicle division, Munich-based MAN said Friday in a statement.

Drees, 50, was until recently chief financial officer of German real-estate and construction consulting company Drees & Sommer AG, MAN said. He will take his new position on April 1.

Volkswagen, which took full control of Swedish truck manufacturer Scania last year and MAN in 2013, has yet to reap significant cost savings from sharing development efforts at the businesses. It hired Renschler, who took his post in February, to drive cooperation.

The Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker, the world’s second biggest, said last week that it wants to create the world’s most profitable truckmaker as it sets up a global business to rival Daimler’s heavy-vehicle division and Volvo AB.

MAN, Europe’s third-biggest truckmaker, is seeking cost savings after forecasting a second straight year of declining orders that’s leaving production plants in Europe underutilized. The company is in union negotiations to scale back operations, and talks this month broadened to include white-collar workers.