Judith Hartmann, taking over as Bayer’s CFO next June, is a skilled mountaineer. Earlier this year, she climbed Aconcagua, a 22,838-foot peak in Argentina; it taught her “perseverance, adaptability and the power of belief in oneself,” she says.
Bayer’s board is counting on it.
Hartmann will succeed Wolfgang Nickl as CFO. The pharmaceutical and agricultural giant announced her appointment in November to follow Nickl’s retirement in May. Hartmann will join the Bayer board in March.
She will be tackling a tough role at Bayer; the German multinational is burdened with high debt—over €32 billion at the end of last year—and faces litigation risks over its Roundup herbicide. Last but not least, it is restructuring to eliminate layers of management.
The Roundup litigation stems from Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto in 2018. The plaintiffs allege that Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Bayer lawyers deny any link to cancer, but years after the Monsanto purchase, the legal nightmare persists. The company faces 65,000 potentially pricey, unresolved claims. In March, a plaintiff in Georgia was awarded $2.1 billion; Bayer said at the time that it would appeal.
Hartmann, 55, is much traveled. She joins Bayer from US-based Sandbrook Capital, but previously worked at French energy company Engie—including as interim co-CEO—German media giant Bertelsmann, GE, and Disney, holding top positions “in seven countries across three continents,” as she says on LinkedIn.
An alumnus of Vienna University of Economics and Business, the future head of finance speaks German, English, and French; Norbert Winkeljohann, chair of Bayer’s supervisory board, highlights her “vast international experience.”