CEWE board doesn’t renew the contract of CEO, Yvonne Rostock

The day after CEWE Group reported a solid preliminary financial report, the Board of Trustees of the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Foundation decided in its meeting to not renew the contract of the chairwoman of the Board of Management, Yvonne Rostock. According to the company, Rostock will hand over her position as Chairwoman of the Board of Management to Board member Thomas Mehls on May 1, 2025. As a personally liable partner, the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Foundation manages the business of the listed CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA.

At the same time, the Board of Trustees of the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Foundation will appoint Board member Patrick Berkhouwer as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Foundation. With the restructuring of the Board of Trustees, the body will be reduced from six to five people. The Board of Trustees also announced Sirka Hintze will join the Board of Directors on June 1, 2025 – initially without a portfolio, then as Chief Financial Officer from Au. 15, to replace CFO Dr. Olaf Holzkämper in this role, as planned and already announced.

Rostock was appointed as the chairwoman of the Management Board (CEO) in September 2022, formally taking over the duties of the CEO function and overall responsibility for sales in the CEWE group in the year by April 1, 2023. She succeeded Dr. Christian Friege, who departed the company under contentious circumstances, in April 2022. At that time, the board of trustees claimed Friege “massively obstructed” diversity and the appointment of a woman as a board member, which led to his contract not being renewed. Friege was later vindicated, leading to the departure of Dr. Rolf Hollander, who, as the then-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Neumüller CEWE COLOR Stiftung, led the dispute that brought about Friege’s departure.