Dr. Heinz Klinkhammer, Member of the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management responsible for Human Resources has decided to resign from office effective the end of 2006 for personal reasons at the age of 60. Mr. Klinkhammer was appointed to the Board of Management in February 1996. He has played a key role in shaping the transformation of Deutsche Telekom and its structures from a state-owned company to a publicly traded multi-national corporation in the past ten years.
His name is closely linked with an HR policy that was aimed at upholding various interests within the Group and can be described as fair and well balanced. He implemented the staff restructuring process that was necessary at Deutsche Telekom and developed an HR policy to accommodate the consequences of the job cuts. He was also skilled in holding very constructive dialog with the trade unions. The employment alliance concluded under his management in 2004 safeguarded around 10,000 jobs at Deutsche Telekom AG by way of a collective reduction in weekly working hours. The creation of Vivento as a service provider responsible for staff surplus and placement management initiated by Mr. Klinkhammer has opened up new career opportunities for some 22,000 employees since 2003.
With Deutsche Telekom as a stock corporation, Mr. Klinkhammer focused all HR work on the requirements of an increasingly international company. His contribution enabled Deutsche Telekom to replace the terms of employment stemming from the days when the company was a public-service entity with a new job evaluation and remuneration system. Mr. Klinkhammer also played a key role in the Amendment to the Staff Legal Provisions Act (Postpersonalrechtsgesetz).
With around 12,000 trainees in twelve different professions at present and special study courses that combine theory with practice, Deutsche Telekom is making a major contribution towards the promotion of young talent in Germany.
The Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom thanks Dr. Klinkhammer for his many years of successful work. “I valued Mr. Klinkhammer highly as an active and highly competent member of the Board. I would like to thank him sincerely for his outstanding entrepreneurial and HR work and wish him all the best for the future,“ said Dr. Klaus Zumwinkel, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom.
"In the course of our years together on the Board of Management, I witnessed how Heinz Klinkhammer approached the challenges of HR policy with a great deal of humanity and honesty," said René Obermann, Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom. "I would like to thank him for that, also on behalf of the entire Board of Management and the employees of Deutsche Telekom."
Dr. Heinz Klinkhammer, born in 1946, studied law and business administration, receiving his doctor of law in 1977 at Freie Universität Berlin. In the course of his career, he worked as a labor court judge in Krefeld and Oberhausen and was appointed Labor Director at the Krupp Mannesmann GmbH in 1991. From April 1992, he performed the same function as member of the board of management of Mannesmann Röhrenwerke AG. In February 1996, the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom AG appointed Dr. Klinkhammer as member of the Board of Management responsible for Human Resources and Labor Director. He was made an Honorary Professor at the Deutsche Telekom Leipzig University of Applied Sciences in September 2004. He will continue to honor this commitment and maintain ties with Deutsche Telekom as a result. Dr. Klinkhammer intends to work as an attorney in the field of labor and economic law in the future.
Dr. Heinz Klinkhammer lives in Krefeld and is married with two children.