After 35 years in various management positions in the Daimler Group, Hartmut Schick (59), Member of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck AG, responsible for Daimler Trucks Asia, will retire on December 31, 2021. His successor as of December 1, 2021 will be Karl Deppen (55), currently responsible for the Latin America region of Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Buses.
“On behalf of the entire Board of Management and Supervisory Board, I would like to thank Hartmut Schick most sincerely for his outstanding commitment: over more than three decades, he has contributed to the successful development of our company in various positions. In particular, as head of our bus division and subsequently as head of Daimler Trucks Asia, Hartmut Schick has shaped our commercial vehicle business with his integrative and motivating leadership skills for more than a decade. In addition, Hartmut was an early proponent of zero-emission vehicles,” says Martin Daum, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck AG and member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG. “At the same time, I am delighted to have won Karl Deppen, a highly experienced international manager with strong expertise in the commercial vehicle sector and proven competence in Asia, as his successor. Karl Deppen knows the global commercial vehicle business from various assignments at different locations. He has successfully launched many projects in Europe, North and South America and Asia. With this valuable combination of experience and knowledge, Karl Deppen is exactly the right person for our commercial vehicle business in Asia. Together with my management team, I would like to warmly welcome Karl Deppen to the Board of Management of Daimler Truck AG.”
Daum continued: “We are already very well positioned in Asia and ready to take the business to the next level: Our goal is to increase profitability and our potential profit contribution to Daimler Truck AG. We see Asia as region with the greatest growth prospects in the medium term. Particularly in China we will open a new chapter with our Mercedes-Benz heavy-duty truck ‘made in China for China’ in addition to the successful distribution of the Auman branded trucks in our Joint-Venture Beijing Foton Daimler Automotive together with our partner Beiqi Foton Motor.”
Hartmut Schick joined the research and development department of the former Daimler-Benz AG in 1986 after graduating in mechanical engineering. After changing to passenger car production, Hartmut Schick worked in the marketing department of DASA in Munich from 1990. In 1993, he took over the management of the CEO’s Corporate Office there. Hartmut Schick returned to Stuttgart in 1995 as Head of the Corporate Office of the Chairman of the Board of Daimler-Benz AG. In 1997, he was entrusted with the development of the Mercedes-Benz plant in Juiz de Fora (Brazil) as Head of Production and Logistics. In 1999, he became Chief of Staff of the CEO of DaimlerChrysler. From 2002, he was Head of Global Communications for the Daimler Group and in 2009 took over as Head of the Daimler Buses Division and Chairman of the Board of Management of EvoBus GmbH. Since April 2018, Hartmut Schick has been responsible for the Asian business of Daimler Truck.
Karl Deppen joined the Group in 1990 and held various management positions in purchasing and logistics until 2007, mostly with a focus on commercial vehicles. His professional career took him to the USA, Turkey and Japan, where he spent several years. In Japan, Karl Deppen was responsible for purchasing and transport logistics at Mitsubishi Fuso. In 2007 he took over strategic project management for the Mercedes-Benz Atego truck. From 2011 to 2014, Karl Deppen was responsible for global management development at Daimler before moving to Beijing as CFO of Daimler Greater China Ltd. He was then responsible for cost controlling at Mercedes-Benz AG. Since May 2020, Karl Deppen has been CEO of Mercedes-Benz do Brazil Ltd. and responsible for the Latin America region of Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Buses.