Photo: Courtesy of Carl Zeiss
The Carl Zeiss AG Supervisory Board has elected Dr. Dieter Kurz as the new Chairman of the Supervisory Board, effective immediately. “With Dr. Kurz, we are gaining a Chairman of the Supervisory Board who is very familiar with the company and the challenges of our portfolio through his many years of successful work as a Member of the Executive Board and President and CEO of Carl Zeiss AG,” said Dr. Michael Kaschke, President and CEO of Carl Zeiss AG. “We at Carl Zeiss are looking forward to working with him.” Kurz was already appointed as Chairman of the Shareholder Council of the Carl Zeiss Foundation in March. According to the Foundation’s constitution, this means that he is a Member of the Supervisory Boards of the two Foundation enterprises SCHOTT AG and Carl Zeiss AG and is to be elected as Chairman by the two Supervisory Boards.
Born in 1948, Dr. Dieter Kurz studied physics at the University of Tübingen, from which he also received his doctorate. He joined Carl Zeiss in 1979. After holding several positions in research and development, marketing, and sales, including a two-year stay in North America, he headed the Semiconductor Optics division and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology business group. In 1999 he became a Member of the Executive Board and was appointed President and CEO in 2001. After the two Foundation enterprises had been transformed into stock corporations (AG) and the appropriate amendments to the Foundation’s constitution had come into effect, he was President and CEO of Carl Zeiss AG from 2004 to the end of 2010.
Kurz is also Chairman of the Shareholder Council of the Carl Zeiss Foundation, Heidenheim and Jena, which is the sole shareholder of Carl Zeiss AG. He succeeds Dr. Theo Spettmann, who held these offices from February 2010 and who stepped down for health reasons at the beginning of March 2012. “On behalf of the Executive Board I would like to thank Dr. Spettmann once again for his commitment and excellent work as Chairman of the Supervisory Board,” said Kaschke.
