Volkswagen CEOs have the highest media impact in 2022

When it comes to the German CEOs of the DAX 40 with the strongest media impact in 2022, there is no way around Volkswagen. In every quarter of the current year so far, the winner of the CEO ranking has come from the Wolfsburg-based automotive group - first Herbert Diess and since September Oliver Blume. For the ranking, which was published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, UNICEPTA has analyzed the media impact of all DAX top executives in the current year 2022, from January to mid-November. In the case of CEO changes, the values of the respective terms of office were added together. The analysts of the media, marketing and corporate intelligence company used a reach-based index score for this, which is based on the weighting factors of reception probability, focus and tonality of media coverage.

Change of power in Wolfsburg attracts worldwide attention

Former Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess is regarded as a vibrant leader. The Austrian did not shy away from high-profile statements of opinion, for instance, ranking economic consequences of the Ukraine war, and was quoted by international opinion-leading media such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. His consistent implementation of the e-mobility strategy earned him respect. Even competitor Tesla's CEO Elon Musk was quick to praise him on social media. But Diess' support within the group began to crumble, and on July 22 he announced his resignation.

Successor Oliver Blume is no stranger to the Porsche-Piëch corporation. He has headed VW subsidiary Porsche AG since 2015 and retained the post even after his appointment as VW CEO. As recently as October, he reiterated in an interview with Die Zeit that this dual role was not a temporary solution - even after Porsche AG's successful IPO. This caused Blume's impact ratings to soar shortly after he took the reins in Wolfsburg, as the Porsche IPO was the biggest since Deutsche Telekom's in 1996. The event was discussed intensively in leading international media and on Twitter.

Positive and negative themes for Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing

Christian Sewing, CEO of Deutsche Bank, takes second place in the ranking. He is considered an important contact for media outlets assessing the impact of the Ukraine war on the German economy. He attributed price increases to the sanctions against Russia as well as an impending recession in Germany. Away from the major world crises, Sewing scored points with the best first-quarter results for Deutsche Bank in ten years. For the first time since 2014, profits exceeded EUR 1 billion. It was not until October that Sewing was able to report the next success: In the third quarter, the bank quintupled its net profit from the prior-year period. The manager was concerned about a possible class action lawsuit by shareholders in the U.S. and the fact that Deutsche Bank once took on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a client. It is also less than pleasant when, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, "investigators from the public prosecutor's office drive up in front of Deutsche Bank's headquarters with a high public profile" to invoke the ghosts of the past - for example, involvement in cum-ex transactions.

Källenius turns Mercedes-Benz into a luxury group, Brudermüller invests in China

Third place goes to the CEO of another auto giant: Ola Källenius of Mercedes-Benz. With the renaming of the former Daimler AG to Mercedes-Benz Group AG at the beginning of February, the Swede made his mark. The manager's declared goal is to make the Group number one in the luxury segment. According to the Wall Street Journal, Källenius is focusing on market value matters. His consistent focus is reflected in the figures: It was above all highly profitable top-of-the-line models that sold particularly well in the first quarter.

Martin Brudermüller, who heads up BASF, was particularly visible in the context of the growing energy crisis, one of the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He takes fourth place in the annual ranking. Having initially issued high-profile warnings of the impact a gas embargo on Russia would have in the media, he has since become more confident. At this point, and unlike at the beginning of the crisis, the BASF CEO is even a little less concerned about the prospect of the German government possibly moving to the third step of its gas emergency plan. In recent times, he has in any case gained attention with his statements such as his being tired of “China-bashing," as covered by Süddeutsche Zeitung. Stern covered his four-billion-euro investment in a new Chinese site. The authoritarian country remains an attractive growth market, Brudermüller tells Handelsblatt, without which Europe’s growth prospects are at risk.

Executive carousel catapults Adidas and Puma chiefs to the top

The two CEOs of those two global companies from Herzogenaurach, Adidas and Puma, saw considerable boosts up the ranking to respective fifth and seventh places. The two sporting goods companies once founded by brothers garnered international attention in early November 2022 with a surprise executive reshuffle. The short of it is that current Puma CEO Bjørn Gulden is taking over at the helm of Adidas next year. Arne Freundt will succeed him at Puma. Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted did not, as initially planned, remain in office until the end of year, but stepped down early instead. Towards the end, criticism of him had been growing. According to Welt am Sonntag, he had been blamed for lacking innovation and poor brand projection. The controversies over scandal-prone rapper Kanye West, once an important flagship for Adidas, also prompted global public irritation. Critics say the company was too slow in cutting ties with West. Until the turn of the year, CFO Harm Ohlmeyer will be interim CEO at Adidas.

The remaining places in the annual impact ranking Top 10 are occupied by Oliver Zipse (BMW, sixth), Guillaume Faury (Airbus, eight), Markus Krebber (RWE, nine), and Roland Busch (Siemens, ten).

For its latest CEO Impact Ranking, UNICEPTA analyzed around 57,000 articles from German and international print and online media outlets, as well as Twitter, published between January and mid-November 2022. The ranking is based on results from the UNICEPTA “DAX-Benchmark”. With this tool, the media, marketing and corporate intelligence provider charts the media presence of all DAX-listed companies and their CEOs on an ongoing basis, alongside reception probability, focus and tonality of media coverage