Joe Kaeser

Kaeser was born in Arnbruck, in the Bavarian Forest in West Germany, on June 23, 1957. He spent his early life in education throughout Germany. Following his studies in business administration at the Regensburg University of Applied Sciences, he joined Siemens in 1980.

Career at Siemens

Kaeser previously held various business administration management positions, including a term at the Siemens Components Operations in Malacca, Malaysia (1987–1988). In 1990 he was appointed vice president of business administration of the Opto Semiconductors Division. In 1994 Kaeser first was executive vice president and chief financial officer, and later CEO of the group's American subsidiary Siemens Components, located in Cupertino, California, as well as at Siemens Microelectronics, in neighboring San Jose.

In 1999 Kaeser joined Corporate Finance where he was responsible for developing a company-wide performance controlling system. During this time he also shared oversight for preparing the company's stock market listing in New York and the worldwide conversion of its accounting system to US GAAP.

From April 2001 to September 2004, Kaeser was a member of the group executive committee of IC Mobile and was its chief financial officer, where he was especially active in managing and restructuring its finance exposure from customer loans and working capital management.

In his former function as chief strategy officer, Kaeser supported CEO Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld in the design and execution of the Fit4More transformation program, as well as the long-term orientation of the company's strategies on global megatrends.