- First half of building project successfully completed
- Demolition work concluded, new construction beginning on schedule
- Building to meet highest sustainability standards
Together with Munich Mayor Christian Ude, Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher has laid the foundation stone for the company's new headquarters building, which will be completed on Wittelsbacherplatz in Munich by the end of 2015. The future inner-city complex will provide employees with a 21st-century working environment and be freely accessible to the general public at ground level. Siemens has set the highest standards for sustainability for its new headquarters, and will fulfill the criteria for minimum energy consumptions in buildings.
- Gerhard Cromme reelected Supervisory Board Chairman
- Ten new shareholder representatives elected to Supervisory Board
At the Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Siemens AG on Wednesday, ten shareholder representatives were elected to the company's Supervisory Board. Their election had been proposed in the previously published agenda. At the Supervisory Board meeting held immediately following the Annual Shareholders' Meeting, Gerhard Cromme was reelected Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
The winner of the architecture competition for the planned rebuilding of Siemens' corporate headquarters has now been chosen. The winning design for the company's new headquarters building in Munich was developed by Henning Larsen Architects of Copenhagen, Denmark. "We're creating a future-oriented symbol of sustainability that will set the standard for advanced urban architecture and innovative, efficient building technology – for the benefit of our employees and the citizens of Munich," said Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher. "Siemens' clear commitment to Munich strengthens our city as a location for the future. The newly designed corporate campus will be a showpiece of sustainable and responsible urban development that will preserve Wittelsbacherplatz, enliven the Oskar-von-Miller-Ring, chime with the city structure, enhance the attractiveness of our city center and make Munich even greener," stated Munich Mayor Christian Ude. Twelve outstanding architecture firms from across Europe entered the competition, which was launched by Siemens and the City of Munich in February.
On the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Chief Technology Officer Prof. Karl Heinz Beckurts and his driver Eckhard Groppler, Siemens pays tribute to the victims and their families, in a spirit of profound solidarity with them. On the morning of July 9, 1986, a bomb destroyed the car of Karl Heinz Beckurts, who was being driven to work by Eckhard Groppler.
In fiscal 2011, Siemens generated 8,600 inventions, nearly 40 per working day – a ten percent increase year-over-year. The number of invention reports per Siemens R&D employee (current R&D workforce: 27,800) has doubled in the last ten years. Initial patent applications filed by the company rose to 4,300, nearly 20 per working day – a 15 percent increase over the previous year. In Europe, Siemens was Number 1 in patent applications for the first time. Twelve extremely successful researchers and developers, who were honored in Munich on November 22 with the company's Inventor of the Year Award, made key contributions to this achievement. Altogether, these researchers generated 730 invention reports and 636 individual patents. "Every day, they've demonstrated pioneering spirit, entrepreneurial thinking and international teamwork – exactly the factors we'll need to continue succeeding on the world markets of tomorrow," said Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher at the awards ceremony. Löscher also announced that Siemens' R&D investments in fiscal 2012 would exceed the previous year's level (€3.9 billion) by about €500 million.
For the 15th time, Siemens – together with Friedrich Alexander University (FAU) in Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany – is hosting a special technology conference, the Erlanger Technikgespräch, in the Siemens medicare building in Erlangen, Germany. Climate change, diminishing natural resources, increasing urbanization, rising prosperity and the related increase in energy demand require a new approach to the way energy is handled. The German government has set the course with its new energy concept. Plans call for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels, while increasing the amount of power generated from renewable sources by the same percentage. Today, 16 percent of Germany’s energy requirements are met by renewable energies. “We won’t reach our climate goals,” emphasized Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher, “unless we make electricity our all-encompassing energy carrier. In the future, electricity will also be used in fields where other energy carriers now dominate – in transportation, for example. We’re on the threshold of a new electric age.” And precisely here, added Löscher, is where Siemens, with its Environmental Portfolio, can make a decisive contribution – from renewable energies to electric mobility.
Siemens AG is starting its own large-scale fleet test with electrical vehicles. One hundred employees will test the cars in everyday use. The first 20 vehicles will be put into service in late November, ten each in Erlangen and Munich, and the others will follow in the months thereafter at both locations as well as in Berlin. Siemens will also offer employees zero-cost recharging. “With this fleet testing, we hope to improve how cars work in conjunction with the electrical grid, such as when many electric cars are recharging at the same time,” explained Prof. Dr. Gernot Spiegelberg, Director of Electromobility Concept Development at Siemens Corporate Research. The company is presenting its latest developments in electromobility at the eCarTec trade show from October 19-20, 2010, in Munich.
Siemens researchers and developers worldwide reported 8,800 invention disclosures in fiscal year 2010. That’s 15 percent more than in the previous year and corresponds to 40 inventions each business day. All in all, it’s another demonstration of the innovative power of the more than 30,000 R&D employees who work at Siemens. The total number of patents granted increased from 56,000 in 2009 to 57,900. At an awards ceremony in Munich on November 22, Siemens CEO Peter Löscher honored 12 particularly successful research and development employees as “Inventor of the Year.” These 12 alone account for around 1,300 granted individual patents. “Siemens owes its pioneering achievements and its leading position throughout the world to extraordinary personalities such as these,” said Löscher. “Our research and development specialists are laying the foundation for sustainable growth far into the future. And we will once again be investing considerable funds into research and development in fiscal year 2011.”
Siemens AG is orienting its IT business toward promising solution areas and is therefore planning to make additional investments of more than €500 million by 2012. These investments are primarily intended to help Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS) offer customers economical IT solutions to an even greater extent than before. The solutions business will form the second pillar – alongside IT outsourcing – of the SIS organization, which will be considerably simpler in the future. The solutions business will combine IT systems integration services and industry-related IT solutions – services and solutions that will also benefit the Siemens’ Energy, Industry and Healthcare Sectors. To date, the IT division has comprised seven business units. “The combination of IT outsourcing and specific industry solutions makes SIS an excellent partner for comprehensive IT consulting and IT management and can build on the specific industry and software knowhow of the Siemens Sectors, which are world-leaders in their businesses,” said Siemens CFO Joe Kaeser. “We want to put SIS on a solid long-term foundation,” emphasized Christian Oecking, acting CEO of the IT business. As part of the reorientation, plans call for eliminating some 4,200 of about 35,000 jobs worldwide by 2011. Roughly 2,000 of the jobs affected are in Germany, primarily at major locations for example in Munich and Paderborn as well as the Nuremberg/Erlangen metropolitan area. “We will implement these measures responsibly. The clear focus will make our IT business fit for the future,” stated Siemens Chief Human Resources Officer Siegfried Russwurm.
Siemens is supporting the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, which has begun its academic instruction this semester. KAUST is a graduate research university in Thuwal on the Red Sea, with a diverse, international faculty and graduate student body. Siemens is a founding member of the partnership program KAUST Industrial Collaboration Program (KICP) which aims to intensify cooperation with industry on a regional and a global scale. The focus of the international university’s research activities will include renewable energy, environmental technologies, and material and biosciences.