Ewald Woste new Chairman of the STEAG GmbH Supervisory Board

Essen. STEAG GmbH’s Supervisory Board has a new Chairman: Ewald Woste, an experienced and accomplished industry expert who has worked in the energy sector for 30 years, was unanimously elected today by the 20 members of the board.

The 62-year-old business graduate will take up the post in a landmark phase for the Essen-based energy company: Following the division of the STEAG Group into a coal business and a green growth business, which is to be completed by the end of 2022, the process of selling the company as a whole will be launched at the beginning of 2023.

“The coming year will be marked not only by the further transformation of STEAG, but also and especially by the sale process. The top priority must be to achieve the best possible outcome for the company and its various stakeholders. The aim is to strike a fair balance between the interests of STEAG’s approximately 5,500 employees in Germany and abroad and the interests of the present owners,” says Ewald Woste.

“We know that the overall package, the Black and Green divisions managed under the common umbrella of STEAG GmbH, is attractive to different investors. Both these units make a valuable contribution – in very different ways – to the success of the energy transition and to security of supply in Germany,” Ewald Woste continues.

Good personnel lineup
In electing Ewald Woste, the Supervisory Board followed a proposal from Dortmund. “Ewald Woste is a proven expert in the energy sector, he has a large network and will not need any time to prepare himself for his role as Chairman of STEAG’s Supervisory Board,” says Guntram Pehlke, Chairman of the Management Board of DSW21, the largest indirect shareholder in STEAG GmbH with 36 percent. The sole owner of STEAG GmbH is Kommunale Beteiligungsgesellschaft KSBG. Its shareholders are six Ruhr district municipal utilities. “The interests of the local authorities behind the municipal utilities are in the best of hands for the upcoming sale process with Mr. Woste,” Pehlke adds.

At today’s meeting, the Supervisory Board also extended the appointment of Ralf Schmitz as Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) and member of the Management Board of STEAG GmbH by one year. In addition to transformation, Ralf Schmitz is also responsible for the operational management of the sale process at STEAG.

“We are entering 2023, a crucial year for STEAG, with a good lineup of personnel,” emphasizes Dietmar Spohn, CEO of Stadtwerke Bochum, on behalf of the municipal shareholders. “The agreement now reached was also possible because all those involved were prepared to put aside their personal interests and keep the big picture in view. We will now systematically press ahead with the sale of STEAG.”

Biographical note: Ewald Woste
Ewald Woste, born in Werne, Westphalia, on January 13, 1960, has worked in the energy industry since 1992. After holding various management positions at several municipal utilities, he was Chairman of the Board of Management of the Thüga AG municipal utility association in Munich from 2007 to 2014 and also President of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) from 2010 to 2014. Ewald Woste currently holds several supervisory and advisory board mandates, for example at E.ON SE in Essen and GASAG AG in Berlin.

He succeeds Gerhard Jochum, who has resigned as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of STEAG GmbH.