Carla Kriwet will become CEO of Fresenius Medical Care [Photo courtesy of Fresenius]
Kriwet will replace Rice Powell, who will step down on Dec. 31 after hitting the company’s age limit. Powell is 66. Kriwet is 51.
“I fully identify with the vision of making the lives of the patients who have put their trust in us a little more worth living every day,” Kriwet said in a news release yesterday. “And I’m convinced that bringing ever better medicine to ever more people goes hand in hand with economic success.”
Fresenius CFO and CTO Helen Giza will assume the position of deputy CEO and enter into a new 5-year employment contract, the company said.
Kriwet served as CEO and president of BSH Hausgeräte (Home Appliances) GmbH from July 2020 until she stepped down for her new role at the end of last month. In that time, BSH — which has around 62,000 employees and 40 production plants — reported two consecutive years of record sales, topping out at €15.6 billion in 2021.
“Carla has led BSH extremely successfully through the difficult phase of the pandemic and the numerous associated challenges,” BSH Supervisory Board Chair Christian Fischer said in a news release.
Before BSH, Kriwet spent seven years with Royal Philips, ultimately leading the Connected Care division as CEO and serving on the company’s executive committee.
Powell joined Fresenius in 1997 and became CEO in 2013. Fresenius Medical Care credited him with identifying value-based care and home dialysis as emerging business trends early enough to successfully expand into them.
“I look back with a lot of gratitude and pride at what we achieved during this time,” he said in the news release. “Our products and services are more important than ever to our patients, and a fundamental part of their lives. As the world’s only provider of the full range of innovative therapies and products for people with renal diseases, we have outstanding prerequisites for our continued success. I want to thank all my colleagues … I’m very happy to know that our company will be in good hands in the future.”
Fresenius provides dialysis treatments for about 345,000 patients through 4,171 dialysis clinics around the globe. It’s one of the largest medtech companies in the world, coming in at No. 28 on the 2021 Medtech Big 100 ranking.
