The Board of Directors of global health-tech company Ottobock today has decided that current interim CEO Oliver Jakobi will continue to lead the company as CEO. Following the change in Ottobock’s management team, Jakobi – in addition to his function as Chief Sales Officer (CSO) – had already served as the company’s interim CEO since May 2022.

"After more than three decades of working at Ottobock, Oliver Jakobi is a highly experienced industry expert and knows our company inside out. In recent months, he has shown that he is the best candidate to lead Ottobock into the next phase of its development," says Professor Hans Georg Näder, majority owner and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA. "In his previous roles, he represented our products, customers and markets like no other. Together with our management team, he will successfully continue our growth strategy."

Prior to his role as interim CEO, Jakobi was responsible for global operations in his role as CSO, leading the company's regions and markets as well as its more than 390 patient care facilities worldwide. In his role as CEO, the Sales, Legal & Compliance, Communications and Public Affairs departments will report to him. The focus of his work will be on the further execution of the growth strategy and on making Ottobock a holistic care provider alongside our partners and users around the world.

"I would like to thank Professor Hans Georg Näder and the entire Board of Directors for the trust they have placed in me," says Oliver Jakobi, CEO of Ottobock. "Now I look forward to working with our colleagues to leverage our innovative power and our strong growth potential to further expand our leading market position. Going forward, we will focus even more consistently on our users."

"Under the leadership of Oliver Jakobi, Ottobock has made excellent progress and is on track for profitable growth and operational excellence," said Marcus Brennecke, Board Member and Global Co-Head Private Equity at EQT. "He assumed the role of interim CEO in May in a very volatile economic environment. Since then, he has successfully navigated Ottobock through macroeconomic challenges, the ongoing energy crisis as well as geopolitical uncertainties. Oliver Jakobi is exactly the right person to lead Ottobock though the next phase of the company's development."

Prof Dr Michael Kaschke new member of the Board of Directors

Changes to the Supervisory Board and Board of Directors of Ottobock: Prof Dr Michael Kaschke moved from the Supervisory Board to the Board of Directors as of December 15, 2022, where he took up his position as an additional non-executive director.

Georgia Näder, great-granddaughter of company founder Otto Bock, is joining Ottobock's operating business. As Vice President of Futuring Mediterranee & Business Transition, Georgia Näder will from now on be responsible for both the orderly generation change at the Ottobock foreign subsidiary in France as well as future concepts for efficient cooperation between headquarters and the markets. Therefore, she has resigned from the company’s Supervisory Board as of December 15, 2022. In accordance with the company's corporate governance, it is not possible to serve on the Supervisory Board in parallel.

Prof Dr Kaschke and Georgia Näder will be succeeded on the Supervisory Board by Jan Willem de Cler, former member of the Management Board of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, and Prof Dr Christoph Seibt, Partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, as of December 15, 2022.