Siemens Gamesa names Luijendijk CEO of onshore wind unit

By Andres Gonzalez

LONDON (Reuters) – Wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa has appointed its Asia Pacific boss Richard Luijendijk as chief executive of its onshore unit as it seeks to turn around the business, a memo signed by Siemens Gamesa CEO Jochen Eickholt showed.

Luijendijk will replace Lars Bondo Krogsgaard, whose departure was announced in October, with the company saying in an email to staff it needed a “change due to the losses in the onshore business and the continuous underperformance.”

A Siemens Gamesa spokesperson declined to comment.

The company posted a net loss of 940 million euros ($997.90 million) for 2022, citing higher-than-expected direct material cost inflation and component failures, while its onshore order intake was impacted by protracted contract negotiations and market delays.

“I want us to move away from silo thinking and for us to believe in the turnaround”, Luijendijk said in the memo.

Luijendijk will take on his new role in January.

($1 = 0.9420 euros)

(Reporting by Andres Gonzalez, editing by Pamela Barbaglia and Barbara Lewis)