Otto Group: Petra Scharner-Wolff becomes CEO

The Hamburg-based trading and services group Otto Group has appointed Petra Scharner-Wolff as its new CEO.

The previous Group Board Member for Finance, Controlling and Human Resources has taken over overall management as CEO with effect from March 1, the Otto Group announced on Monday. She is taking over for Alexander Birken, who, after eight years in this role, is moving to the Group's Supervisory Board and taking over the chairmanship from Michael Otto.

Otto veteran takes over overall management

Scharner-Wolff has been a member of the Executive Board since June 2015. She first joined the Hamburg-based group in 1999 as part of the controlling team after the business graduate started her career at the Munich-based management consultancy Gruppe Nymphenburg. In 2002, Scharner-Wolff took over as Director of Group Controlling Participations for controlling all companies in the group.

In 2007, she moved to the Schwab management and was responsible for the business areas of planning and controlling, finance and accounting, IT, merchandise management and technology, and human resources. At the Hanau-based mail order company, she also built up the plus-size brand Sheego, which has been part of the clothing supplier Witt Group within the Otto Group since October .

In 2012, Scharner-Wolff returned to Hamburg, where she assumed responsibility for human resources, management and IT as Otto's divisional director. Three years later, she was promoted to the Group Executive Board.

"Petra Scharner-Wolff is a very strong leader and is characterized by her wealth of experience, entrepreneurial skills, her sharp mind and her empathetic understanding of people and culture," said Michael Otto. "As CFO, she has played a crucial role in steering the Otto Group through extremely challenging and changing times in recent years. Petra Scharner-Wolff has all the prerequisites to continue to shape the Group's future in a sustained and successful manner."

New CFO comes from within the company

Katy Roewer will succeed Scharner-Wolff as Chief Financial Officer. The 49-year-old was most recently the Divisional Director for Service, Human Resources and Finance at Otto. She became part of the Otto Group's investment controlling department in July 2001 after beginning her career as an associate at the British auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. In 2007, she took over as head of investment controlling at the Hamburg-based group.