16.12.2021 Foundation Dr. Michael Bolle becomes new Chairman of the Shareholder Council of the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung

The Carl Zeiss Foundation has appointed Dr Michael Bolle (60) as the new Chairman of the Shareholder Council. He will take over the office on 1 January 2022 from Dr Dieter Kurz (73), who has held this position since 2012. The Chairman of the Shareholder Council represents the interests of the Foundation as the sole shareholder in the foundation companies Carl Zeiss AG and SCHOTT AG.

Dr Bolle holds a PhD in engineering and has held executive positions at Bosch since 1992 - with an interruption as the founder of a high-tech start-up from 1999 to 2002. Most recently, he was Managing Director, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of Robert Bosch GmbH. During his time at Bosch, Dr. Bolle was the driving force behind the creation of the Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence and helped to link up the Internet of Things with artificial intelligence (AIoT).

"We are delighted that we have been able to recruit Dr. Michael Bolle, with his many years of experience in a foundation company and global corporation, as the new Chairman of the Shareholder Council," said Minister Theresia Bauer, Chairwoman of the Foundation Administration.

The Carl Zeiss Foundation is one of the oldest and largest private science-funding foundations in Germany. It finances its funding activities from the dividend distributions of the two foundation companies ZEISS and SCHOTT. In the last ten years, the total of approved funding amounted to more than 330 million euros.

"I am very much looking forward to the new challenge of representing the economic interests of the Carl Zeiss Foundation over the next five years as Chairman of the Shareholder Council and helping to shape the future of one of the largest corporate-affiliated foundations in Germany, and I am particularly pleased with the Foundation's focus on promoting STEM subjects," says Dr. Michael Bolle.

"The function of the chairmen of the shareholder council as a link between the foundation and its companies is very important," explains Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, member of the foundation administration. "We are pleased to have filled the chair optimally both in the past and for the future, as well as looking forward to working with Dr. Michael Bolle."

"We would like to thank Dr Dieter Kurz for his many years of trusting and successful cooperation in his functions as Chairman of the Shareholder Council and Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of SCHOTT and ZEISS. The foundation companies were extremely successful during his two terms in office and are very well positioned for the future. We wish him all the best for the future," said Minister Bauer, Chairwoman of the Foundation Administration, bidding farewell to the outgoing Chairman of the Shareholder Council. For more than four decades, Dieter Kurz first helped to shape the development of Carl Zeiss AG and later of the Foundation.