For the second time in the company's recent history, a non-family CEO is taking the helm at Austrian construction group Strabag. Since mid-February, Stefan Kratochwill has been leading the Vienna Stock Exchange listed company. He succeeds Klemens Haselsteiner, one of the four sons of patriarch Hans Peter Haselsteiner. The 44-year-old passed away completely unexpectedly in mid-January during a health retreat in Carinthia, due to an aneurysm rupture.

As a result, the former CEO Hans Peter Haselsteiner, who played a key role in greatly expanding the construction group, was once again granted general power of attorney. Before appointing his son as a board member in early 2020, the 80-year-old had already accompanied the executive board as a general representative. The family holds 30.7% of Strabag’s shares.

Until the end of 2022, Thomas Birtel had already been a non-family manager at the helm of the company. He took over leadership in mid-2013 from Strabag’s key architect, Hans Peter Haselsteiner, and retired nearly ten years later due to age. The calm and pragmatic manager proved to be far more than just a transitional figure, something his predecessor had publicly acknowledged early on. In this sense, the German executive serves as an example of a successful leadership transition to an external figure.

Nevertheless, after his departure, the company's management initially returned to family hands. The new CEO, Kratochwill, born in 1977, joined Strabag as a trainee in 2003. He led the European rail construction machinery business and in 2017 was promoted to head of the central division and managing director of Strabag’s construction equipment subsidiary, Strabag BMTI.

Now, as the head of the entire group, Kratochwill – who studied industrial engineering with a focus on mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Vienna – oversees 86,000 employees and an annual turnover of 19 billion euros. His contract runs until the end of 2026.

For family-led companies, leadership transitions often mark a delicate phase. Patriarchs still hold considerable influence, and do not always agree with the decisions or performance of the new leaders. At the software company Compugroup Medical, the two successors to company founder and long-time CEO Frank Gotthardt, Dirk Wössner and Michael Rauch, had only brief stints at the top. Gotthardt stepped down as CEO at the end of 2020 at the age of 70. However, he remained the central figure as chairman of the supervisory board and a major shareholder.

His successor, former Telekom Germany head Wössner, left after just one and a half years, citing „differences in strategic direction.“ Subsequently, CFO Michael Rauch was appointed as the spokesperson for the managing directors and was promoted to CEO in May 2023. But in the summer of 2024, he had to make way for Gotthardt’s son, Daniel, despite the patriarch publicly praising his loyalty.

The future succession question will be particularly interesting at United Internet. Founder and CEO Ralph Dommermuth has shaped the internet and mobile communications company from Montabaur in the Westerwald region as strongly as Gotthardt did with the software provider for doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies in Koblenz. Dommermuth, a trained banker, started in 1988 with a marketing firm, which later evolved into today’s United Internet Group, home to brands like 1&1, Ionos, GMX, Web.de, and Versatel. His son, Philipp, is also an entrepreneur, running the digital property management firm HI Immobilien and the home and living platform Homify. Dommermuth still has several years to put his house in order: He turned 61 in November.

For now, family leadership remains intact at Fuchs Petrolub and Fielmann. Since 2004, the lubricant manufacturer Fuchs has been led by Stefan Fuchs, born in 1968. He took over from his father, Manfred Fuchs, who ran the Mannheim-based company for 41 years. More recently, a generational transition took place at the optics retailer Fielmann. The company’s founder, Günther Fielmann, who passed away in early 2024, had already handed over leadership to his son, Marc. Starting in April 2018, they ran the company together, and in 2019, the younger Fielmann was promoted to sole CEO. At just 35 years old, Marc Fielmann could steer the company for decades to come.