The proposal to vote Martin Goetzeler as Osram CEO Wolf-Dieter Bopst's successor will be put to the supervisory board of Osram GmbH at its meeting on 29 April 2005. This change of management is to go ahead on 1 May 2005. Bopst, who has been with Osram for over 37 years, propelled the company into a leading international position in his 14 years at the helm. Today, Osram is one of the world's two leading lighting manufacturers. Goetzeler, who joined Osram in 1999, can look back on an international professional development within the company. The 42-year-old business administration graduate (born in Munich on 11 May 1962) is currently the chief financial officer of the US-based Osram Sylvania, which generates over 40 percent of Osram's worldwide sales. Goetzeler formerly acted for the company in Italy and as the managing director of Osram in the UK and Ireland.
During his leadership since 1991, Bopst (65) has been able to double Osram's market share to some 20 percent, and he has almost tripled sales to EUR 4.2 billion and the profit margin most recently to 11.1 percent (Q1). Bopst has turned a lamp manufacturer with some 16,000 employees into an innovative group in the lighting sector with a worldwide presence and a workforce of almost 39,000. Apart from the internationalisation of the group, Bopst's name is also associated with the boosting of Osram's innovative power including portfolio expansions, in particular, the group's entry into the opto-semiconductor market.
