Following a search by its nomination committee, dormakaba announced this week that Sabrina Soussan has been appointed as the company’s new CEO effective April 1, 2021. Soussan has served as the co-CEO of Siemens Mobility since 2017 and had held several leadership positions in the company over the past 20 years.
Riet Cadonau, who has been the CEO of dormakaba Group since 2021, will leave the post at the end of next March to focus on his role as chairman of the company’s board.
“Sabrina Soussan combines strong leadership and personal skills, profound industrial knowledge and a successful track record of growing businesses profitably. We are pleased that she will be joining dormakaba and assuming the CEO role as of next April, and we are looking forward to working with her to further develop dormakaba as a leading access and security solutions provider,” Hans Hess, Vice-Chairman, Lead Independent Director and Chair of the Nomination Committee of dormakaba, said in a statement. “In pursuing dormakaba’s ambitions, we will continue to count on the strategic foresight of Riet Cadonau as Chairman. In the last almost ten years as CEO, he has successfully established a leading global full-range access supplier and guided the Group into the digital future of our industry, very well positioned dormakaba in its markets, and his experience is extremely valuable also in view of the current challenging economic environment.”
Prior to her role as co-CEO of Siemens Mobility, a EUR 8.9 billion business, Soussan was CEO of the Mainline Transport business unit within Siemens’ Mobility Division from 2015 to 2017 and Vice President Commuter and Regional Trains from 2013 to 2015. In addition, she was CEO of the Rolling Stock business unit at Siemens from 2017 to 2018. From 2009, she was with Siemens Building Technologies in Switzerland as Head of Strategy and Marketing for Building Automation until 2011, and as Vice President Sustainability and Energy Management until 2013. Her prior roles at Siemens also include various management positions in the field of automotive powertrain solutions. She started her career in 1994 as an Engine Research & Development Engineer at Renault in Paris.
“I am excited to be joining dormakaba and working with the team to build on the company’s strengths, providing customers with high-quality solutions and market-leading innovation,” Soussan said. “I want to thank the board of directors for the confidence they have placed in me to lead dormakaba, and I will bring all my dedication and passion for people, technology and innovation to enable dormakaba to further exploit its potential in rapidly changing markets. I also very much look forward to returning to Switzerland while continuing to work in a very international environment.”
Changes to the Board of Directors
As announced in September 2019, Rolf Dörig, member of the board of directors of dormakaba since 2004 and vice-chairman from 2006 to 2018, has decided to retire from the board at the next annual general meeting on Oct. 20, 2020. All other members of the board will stand for re-election for another one-year term of office, with Cadonau as chairman and Hess as vice-chairman and lead independent director.
The board is proposing John Liu, a recognized digital technology expert with in-depth knowledge of Asian markets, as a new board member. Over the course of his career, Liu held several leadership positions in businesses driven by digitalization. He served as president for Google in China from 2008 to 2013 and held senior executive roles at internet company Qihoo 360 from 2014 to 2015 and Wanda Internet Technology Group from 2016 to 2018. He was the independent non-executive board director of London-listed ARM Holdings from 2014 to 2016 and has been a non-executive member of the board of directors of Hong Kong-listed Digital China Holdings Ltd since 2014.
“Rolf Dörig’s contributions in the Board of Directors have been instrumental to the successful development of dormakaba over the past more than 15 years; we are very grateful to him and wish him all the best for the future,” Cadonau said. “We are also very pleased to nominate John Liu as a new board member. He has profound experience at the forefront of digital trends in markets across Asia and internationally.”
Cadonau added: “We have a strong team on all levels and across regions, and I am very happy to be announcing Sabrina Soussan as my successor as CEO. Along with my colleagues on the board of directors, I am convinced that with her global business experience, her know-how in the field of technology and her drive for innovation as well as her authentic personality, she is an excellent fit for dormakaba and has everything it takes to successfully advance our business.”
