On September 11, 2025, the management of ZF Group, the German manufacturer renowned for its automotive transmissions, active safety systems, and commercial vehicle chassis, was once again rocked by turmoil. CEO Dr. Holger Klein, having failed to reverse the company’s declining performance and reduce its heavy debt load, completely lost the trust of the foundation and supervisory board. He has been forced to step down early, effective September 30, 2025.
Born in 1970, Dr. Klein worked at consulting firm McKinsey for many years before joining ZF in 2014 as an international industrial consulting expert. From 2015, he played an active role in ZF’s largest-ever acquisition—the purchase of U.S. company TRW. He was later promoted to head of the Passenger Car Chassis Division. In 2018, he joined the Board of Management and was stationed in Shanghai, overseeing the Asia-Pacific and India regions.
On January 1, 2023, Dr. Klein succeeded former CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider as head of ZF Group. During his more than two years at the helm, ZF’s sales fell from €46.6 billion in 2023 to a forecasted €38.8 billion in 2025 (according to S&P), a cumulative decline of 17%. EBIT margin dropped from 3.2% in 2023 to just 0.5% in 2024.
From a debt perspective, under Dr. Klein’s leadership, ZF’s net debt remained high at around €13.5 billion for three consecutive years, while total debt hovered near €15 billion. Factoring in the group’s €3.5 billion annual pension obligations, ZF’s overall debt burden balloons to an alarming €18.5 billion.
Now, ZF’s financial crisis is intensifying. Under Dr. Klein, the management team has proven unable to cope with strategic, market, and HR-related challenges. During mass employee protests around the release of ZF’s 2025 half-year results, calls for the board’s resignation grew louder. Thus, the CEO’s early departure was not unexpected.
According to the group’s plan, Mathias Miedreich, former Global VP of Exhaust Systems at Faurecia, former CEO of Umicore, and most recently head of ZF’s Electrified Powertrain Technology division, will take over as the new CEO.
The incoming CEO, Mathias Miedreich, also comes from a consulting background—not from McKinsey, but from KPMG in the Netherlands. However, he has no engineering background or technical experience.
Miedreich has held executive roles at Siemens, Continental, and Faurecia. Before joining ZF, he served as CEO of Belgian catalyst and circular materials company Umicore. However, under his leadership, a €3 billion joint battery materials investment with Volkswagen failed to launch mass production on schedule, leading to a 50% drop in Umicore’s stock within a year. As a result, Miedreich reached an agreement with Umicore’s supervisory board to resign from his post.
