Petra Scharner-Wolff is new CEO

Petra Scharner-Wolff has been a member of the Otto Group’s Executive Board since 1 June, 2015. After graduating in business, the 53-year-old initially worked as a management consultant at the Nymphenburg Group in Munich from 1995, before moving to financial controlling at the Otto Group in Hamburg in 1999. From 2002, Scharner-Wolff assumed responsibility for the financial controlling of all Group companies worldwide as VP of Group Controlling Investments.

In 2007, she was appointed to the Management Board of the Schwab Group and was served as Chair from 1 July, 2009. Responsible for the planning and financial controlling, finance and accounting, IT merchandise and technology, and human resources divisions, she shaped the successful development of the Sheego fashion brand. In 2012, Scharner-Wolff moved back to Hamburg and took over a position on the Management Board at OTTO where she was responsible for human resources, financial controlling and IT before being appointed to the Group’s Executive Board in 2015.

Prof. Dr. Michael Otto, Chair of the Foundation and Shareholders' Council and Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Otto Group: “Petra Scharner-Wolff is an exceptionally strong leader who stands out not just because of her wealth of experience, entrepreneurial skills, sharp mind but also because of her empathetic understanding of people and culture. As CFO, she has played a key role in helping to steer the Otto Group through extremely challenging and changeable times in recent years, and I am sure Petra Scharner-Wolff has everything it takes to continue to shape the future of the Group with sustainable success.”

The new CFO of the Otto Group is 49-year-old Katy Roewer. After studying business administration and starting her career as an associate at Price Waterhouse Coopers, the former member of the OTTO Management Board joined the Otto Group's investment controlling in July 2001, before being appointed as the division’s VP in November 2007. She then moved to the OTTO Management Board in 2015 with responsibility for service, human resources and finance.

Alexander Birken has left the Otto Group’s Executive Board, which he had chaired since 2017. After more than 34 years with the Group, including various top management roles and a total of 20 years on the Executive Board, the 60-year-old succeeds Prof. Dr. Michael Otto as the new Chair of the Group's Supervisory Board.

In his role as CEO, Alexander Birken succeeded in handing over the Otto Group in a very secure condition despite global crises and enormous macroeconomic challenges – including the coronavirus pandemic, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the resulting global economic upheaval. The Group will therefore close the past financial year 2024/25 clearly up on all KPIs – despite the ongoing slump in consumption.

Under Birken’s leadership, the Otto Group’s Executive Board adopted a focused growth strategy in 2017, the core objective of which was to achieve a clear increase in revenue on a comparable basis to the previous year. This was achieved in the 2020/21 financial year, two years ahead of schedule. Being a product of Hamburg himself, he also drove forward the Group’s cultural change with courage and commitment, helping to facilitate an improvement in networking across all Group company and hierarchical boundaries, leveraging synergies, becoming more agile and adept – and ultimately becoming more competitive in the long term. The Otto Group has also benefited from the success of this change process in the groupwide, targeted use of artificial intelligence, which Alexander Birken has been instrumental in promoting over the past two years. He has played a key role in ensuring that the Otto Group is regarded as a pioneer in this field of technology in the retail industry. He will retire from the Otto Group’s Executive Board after reaching the age limit of 60 for Board members.

Prof. Dr. Michael Otto: “As CEO, Alexander Birken has steered the Otto Group through rough seas with strategic foresight, a clear vision, leadership skills and an immense sense of responsibility. He also embodies our aspiration of reconciling value-oriented action and economic success. On behalf of the shareholders, I would like to thank Alexander Birken most sincerely for his extraordinary commitment and for the successful impact he has had on the Otto Group. I am delighted that he will be contributing his extensive entrepreneurial experience to the Supervisory Board as my successor as Chair.”