Schneider Electric Replaces CEO Amid Management Divergence
Schneider Electric unexpectedly ousted its Chief Executive Peter Herweck just over a year after installing him at the helm of the French maker of energy-management equipment and software.
The company said in a statement on Monday that its board had replaced Herweck with group veteran Olivier Blum effective immediately. The board is headed by Chairman Jean-Pascal Tricoire, who transformed Schneider into one of France's biggest companies, with a market value of €137 billion ($149 billion), through a series of deals during his 17-year tenure as CEO.
Schneider is undergoing a change at the top following supply constraints from a prolonged period of high demand that impacted its sales growth in North America, particularly in the residential buildings market in the U.S. The company was also recently fined by French regulators in a price-fixing case.
Yet Schneider confirmed its full-year financial guidance last week. The shares of the company recently surged to an all-time high after the soaring demand for transformers, inverters, sensors, meters, software, and systems is driven by the AI-fueled boom for data centers and government policies to encourage businesses and households to switch fossil fuels with electricity.
Its shares dropped as much as 2% at the open in Paris on Monday but were still up 31% this year.
Blum, the new Chief Executive Officer, is a 54-year-old member since 2014 of Schneider Electric's Executive Committee. Blum had held a large set of positions within Schneider Electric to assume his current function as technology and operations leader for the largest business within Schneider Electric.
Blum has been at Schneider for more than three decades. She has served in some of the company's most important roles, including country head for India and strategy and business leader for China.
Herweck joined Schneider in 2016. She had succeeded Jean-Pascal Tricoire, who was the chairman but had also served as CEO from 2006 until 2023.
The change in the corporate suite follows just days after the group was among companies fined by French antitrust regulators over a price-fixing pact.
French regulators fined Schneider, Legrand SA and distributors Rexel SA and Sonepar a total of €470 million ($512 million) on Oct. 30. The French competition authority said that the two manufacturers colluded from 2012 to 2018 with distributors to fix prices for low-voltage electrical equipment through a special price agreement mechanism.
It sentenced Schneider to the largest sanction, €207 million, and all the companies referred in statements that they don't agree with the Competition Authority's rationale and said they may appeal.
Monday's statement announcing a new chief executive made no mention of a price-fixing case.