Zurich (awp) – ABB boss Björn Rosengren will leave his post on August 1, more than four years after his arrival and after carrying out a major refocusing of the group’s activities. The Swede will be replaced internally by Morten Wierod, who already sits on the general management.
Björn Rosengren has led the Zurich group since March 2020. Aged 65, he will take definitive leave from the automation and electrification specialist at the end of the year after a transition phase, the multinational said on Friday, without specifying the reasons for leaving.
Quoted in the press release, Chairman of the Board of Directors Peter Voser highlights Mr. Rosengren’s role in restructuring ABB’s business portfolio and improving the group’s financial performance. The resigning boss will pass on an “effective, more profitable and faster-growing ABB”, he says.
This transformation will remain as the defining element of the Rosengren era. A few months after his arrival at the helm, the Scandinavian leader launched a vast strategic reorientation of the Zurich giant, at the cost of several sales. Three divisions have left ABB since the announcement.
The Mechanical Power Transmission unit, known under the Dodge brand, and Power Conversion were thus sold, respectively to the American RBC Bearings in 2021 and to the Taiwanese Acbel Polytech in 2023. The cumulative amount of the two operations was around 3.5 billion dollars (3.08 billion Swiss francs at today’s rate). The division dedicated to turbochargers (Turbocharging) was outsourced and renamed Accelleron, before being listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange in October 2022.
Tens of thousands of fewer jobs
To this must be added the sale of the electrical networks division (Power Grids) to the Japanese Hitachi, already approved in March 2020 but finalized under the leadership of Björn Rosengren.
This restructuring had a strong impact on employment. At the start of 2021, Björn Rosengren claimed that transfers and job cuts had reduced ABB’s total workforce by 40,000 jobs. At the end of 2023, the group employed 107,900 people worldwide.
Björn Rosengren’s successor, Morten Wierod, has worked for ABB since 1998. This 52-year-old Norwegian citizen has been a member of the general management of the Zurich group since 2019, in charge of electrification activities. Before leading this activity, he headed the Motion unit. The future general manager holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering obtained in Norway.
The Zurich Cantonal Bank (ZKB) believes that the multinational resolved the question of the succession of its CEO quickly and “smoothly”. The future boss of ABB is experienced, already known and highly appreciated on the capital markets. Investors hardly seemed to share this opinion.
On the Swiss Stock Exchange, ABB shares ended down 0.6% at 40.37 Swiss francs, limiting their losses after a session in the red and going against the trend of a flagship SMI index up 0, 97%.
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