Biz People

Mohl set to quit life insurer AMP

Andrew Mohl said he will leave AMP Ltd this year, having nursed Australia's biggest life insurer through A$6 billion ($4.9 billion) in writedowns and back to health in his five years as chief executive officer.

Mohl (right), 51, who took charge in October 2002 after Paul Batchelor was fired, reported a 32 percent gain in first-half profit yesterday that beat analysts' estimates.

"He has been the steady, conservative hand that AMP needed after the disasters before him," said Angus Gluskie, who helps manage the equivalent of about $380 million at White Funds Management in Sydney. "The business was poorly run before Mohl came on board. His achievements, while modest, are in contrast to his predecessors."

Mohl has more than tripled AMP's shares from a record low in August 2003 after he jettisoned its struggling UK units. The company is looking within its own ranks and at external executives to replace Mohl, who began his career as an economist at the Reserve Bank of Australia before moving to the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. and then to AMP.

Bertelsmann loses its COO

Bertelsmann AG Chief Operating Officer Ewald Walgenbach, once a contender for the top job at Europe's biggest media company, will leave to join UK buyout firm BC Partners Ltd.

Bertelsmann will choose a successor for Walgenbach (above right), who is also a management board member and chief executive officer of Bertelsmann's DirectGroup unit, in "due course", the Guetersloh, Germany-based company said yesterday.

Walgenbach is leaving after Bertelsmann, owner of Random House Inc and half of Sony BMG, in January named Hartmut Ostrowski as the next CEO, turning to a company veteran of two decades to cut debt and accelerate Internet expansion. Walgenbach was among the favorites to succeed current CEO Gunter Thielen on January 1 next year.

"Mr Walgenbach has informed us that he plans to leave the group and join BC Partners at the end of the year," Bertelsmann said. Walgenbach will remain head of DirectGroup, which runs book and music clubs, for the time being, the company said.

Walgenbach, 48, a former consultant for Boston Consulting Group Inc, joined Bertelsmann in 1994 as director of corporate development. He joined the media company's management board in 2002. London-based BC Partners has backed buyouts of companies ranging from German chemicals distributor Brenntag Holding GmbH & Co to Italian yellow pages publisher Seat Pagine Gialle SpA.

Pfizer signs up Alcatel's D'Amelio

Pfizer Inc hired Alcatel-Lucent executive Frank A. D'Amelio, known for cutting costs, as chief financial officer, advancing Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Kindler's plan to control expenses while adding new drugs.

D'Amelio, 49, who also becomes a senior vice-president, succeeds Alan Levin, whose resignation from Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, was announced in May, the New York-based company said yesterday. D'Amelio is the chief administrative officer at Alcatel-Lucent, the telecommunications equipment and services company based in Paris.

Levin, 45, leaves as Kindler, 52, transforms the company, trimming 10,000 workers by the end of 2008 and shaking up the team at the top. He is expected to name a new research chief this year. D'Amelio will help with expense control, an analyst said.

(China Daily 08/24/2007 page16)