Susanne Wiegand appointed to Executive Board of Rheinmetall Defence

Effective 1 March 2018, Susanne Wiegand, 45, has been appointed to the Executive board of Rheinmetall Defence with special responsibility for the Electronics Solutions division. She has simultaneously been named Chair of the Board of Management of Rheinmetall Electronics GmbH in Bremen. In both posts she succeeds Gordon Hargreave. As a member of the Rheinmetall Defence Executive board Mr Hargreave is now tasked with expanding the company’s international operations in Asia and establishing a new hub in the region.
From April 2007 to December 2017, Susanne Wiegand served as managing director of the German Naval Yards (GNY) shipyards group. In this capacity, she successfully welded three longstanding shipyards – German Naval Yards Kiel (the former HDW-Gaarden), Nobiskrug and Lindenau – into a single shipbuilding group. In addition to this, Ms Wiegand was responsible for GNY’s defence operations as well as serving as group CFO. Prior to taking the helm at GNY, Ms Wiegand – a business administration graduate – worked in management consulting, at T-Systems and at Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems (TKMS).
In her new post at Rheinmetall, she will be responsible for the Electronic Solutions division, which encompasses Rheinmetall Defence’s electronic components and systems solutions as well as its air defence operations and simulation and training activities. Last year, the division’s 3,000 employees generated sales of approximately €700 million. Besides Bremen, the Electronic Solutions division has major locations and subsidiaries in Zürich and Rome as well as in the U.S., Scandinavia, Australia and Asia. Among other things, the division supplies the German Bundeswehr with the Future Soldier System as well as vital electronic components for vehicles and complete simulation systems. Furthermore, the division is responsible for operating the German Army’s Combat Training Centre in the Altmark district of Saxony-Anhalt.