German industrial giant Siemens said on Wednesday that it would extend the contract of its chief executive Peter Loescher by five years until 2017.
Siemens's supervisory board cited the "successful work" of Loescher, a 53-year-old Austrian, since he took the helm of the conglomerate in 2007 in a statement on the decision.
Loescher's appointment four years ago had met with scepticism as he was Siemens's first chief executive appointed externally, after working for US rival General Electric.
It was seen at the time as an attempt to turn the page on a vast corruption scandal that claimed the scalps of several top executives and cost the group more than one billion euros in fines and legal bills.
Loescher won the nickname "fireman" for his crisis management, in a play on his last name which means "extinguisher" in German.
He also radically restructured the group, promoting activities in "green" technology as well as international urban development, and delivered robust results even during the global economic crisis.
Loescher aims to place Siemens among the elite club of German corporations posting more than $145 billion in annual turnover, alongside automotive giants Volkswagen and Daimler.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011
