Kapferer, currently acting as chairperson of the BDEW’s executive board, will assume his new position on 1 January 2020 at the latest
New 50Hertz CEO Stefan Kapferer (right) and Elia Group CEO Chris Peeters. Picture: Jan Pauls
Berlin, 26 June 2019 – The 50Hertz supervisory board has appointed Stefan Kapferer as the company’s new CEO at yesterday’s meeting. Kapferer, the current chairperson of the executive board and member of the presidium of the German Energy and Water Association (BDEW), will take up his activities on 1 January 2020 at the latest.
Chris Peeters, chairperson of the 50Hertz supervisory board, commented the following: “We are very pleased about Stefan Kapferer’s commitment to 50Hertz. He has a great deal of experience in our business sector as well as vast expertise. His positions as Secretary of State at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and as head of the BDEW furthermore stand for deep understanding of the political and social evolutionary trends in Germany - exactly the right mix for a 50Hertz CEO: after all, as system operators we provide services to society. Stefan Kapferer’s international experience as Deputy Secretary-General at the OECD in Paris gave him the opportunity to look beyond the country’s borders, which is very well suited to the European growth perspectives of our Elia Group. We are convinced that Stefan Kapferer’s expertise, paired with the technical competencies of business and personnel management, will further advance the company another boost, and thus help bring about a successful energy transition in Germany and Europe.”
Dr Lutz-Christian Funke, member of the 50Hertz supervisory board for the KfW Bankengruppe, emphasised: “As shareholder on behalf of the federal government, we are delighted to have found Stefan Kapferer to be the CEO of 50Hertz – a politically experienced and excellently networked individual who is also very well known to KfW. Mr. Kapferer is experienced in the energy industry and has worked very successfully in the past in a variety of roles both in politics and as an interface between politics and business. The skills he has acquired in these roles will be of great use to 50Hertz in terms of further development and future challenges being faced by the German and European energy market. We wish him and the entire 50Hertz team every success in this endeavour."
Stefan Kapferer is also looking forward to his future tasks at the head of the transmission system operator: “I am very eager to face the exciting challenge of contributing to the practical implementation of the energy transition at 50Hertz. The energy transition is becoming more and more of a corporate challenge as well as a Euro-pean project. 50Hertz has always been a pioneer in the integration of renewable energy and in connecting the individual components. Together with Elia, 50Hertz also thinks beyond national borders. I am therefore looking forward to this new role, even if it will be difficult to say goodbye to the BDEW.”
About Stefan Kapferer:
Stefan Kapferer was born in Karlsruhe on 6 November 1965. After graduating high school and finishing his military service, Mr Kapferer studied Administrative Sciences at the Uni-versity of Konstanz. After earning his degree in late 1992, he collaborated in a research project as a scholarship holder of Berlin’s Treuhandanstalt.
From September 1993 to late 1998, Mr Kapferer worked for the FDP’s regional association of Lower Saxony in Hannover. From January 1999, he was active in the FDP’s parliamen-tary group, working for its chairperson Dr Wolfgang Gerhardt, who appointed him as head of the Strategy and Campaign Department at the national headquarters in August 1999.
In August 2003, Mr Kapferer moved on to direct the state chancellery of Lower Saxony. As head of the delegation of Lower Saxony to the federal government, he assisted with the legislative work in the Bundesrat. In October 2008, the Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Transport of Lower Saxony, Walter Hirche, appointed Mr Kapferer as his Secretary of State in Hannover. In addition to his activities at the Ministry and because of his function, Mr Kapferer during this time also acted as chairperson of the supervisory board of N-Bank, the development bank of Lower Saxony and JadeWeserPort Realisierungs GmbH & Co. KG.
In 2009, Mr Kapferer was appointed as Secretary of State of the Federal Ministry of Health. As the only Administrative Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry of Health, he had full political and organisation responsibility.
With the appointment of Dr Philipp Rösler as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Mr Kap-ferer moved to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology in June 2011. His main tasks included legislative coordination with the Chancellor’s Office in his capacity of Secretary of State to the Vice-Chancellor. He also regularly represented the Ministry in the European Councils, such as the Council of Energy Ministers. When Secretary of State Jochen Homann switched to the Federal Network Agency, the responsibility for the Energy Department fell to him as well. Mr Kapferer moreover assumed the presidency of the supervisory board at the German Energy Agency (dena). After the federal elections of 2013, Mr Kapferer remained Secretary of State to Federal Minister Sigmar Gabriel at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
From October 2014 to April 2016, Mr Kapferer was Deputy Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, where he was responsible for the organisation of the departments ‘Science, Technology and Industry’, ‘Employment, Labour, Social Security’ as well as the ‘Centre for Entrepreneurship’.
Since 1/5/2016, Mr Kapferer has been the chairperson of the BDEW’s executive board. Mr Kapferer is married and has two school-age children. His place of residence is Berlin.
Press release as pdf file