About

Jörg Kiefer, general counsel of MAHLE since 2008 – and employed by the company since 2001 – speaks extremely positively of his highly experienced and dedicated corporate legal department. ‘In the year 2000 the corporate legal department in Germany consisted of a general counsel and one assistant with only another legal department in Brazil’, he recalls. ‘Now, it consists of 17 individuals, including director corporate legal department automotive Julia Wagner, head of corporate legal department services Fabian Reichert, and head of corporate legal compliance Myriam Stauch’ besides the legal functions in the regions. Feeling that ‘the generalist approach is right for us’, nevertheless Kiefer reports that the company supplements this with the addition of specialists – focusing on ‘a diversity-driven approach’ when considering the individuals themselves; ‘this means not only hiring people from different genders, ethnic origins and ages but from different working histories’. This approach has proved extremely successful by all accounts, with Kiefer reporting ‘nine signed and closed M&A transactions on the buy and sell side’ over the past two years. In particular, he mentions ‘the sales of BMTS, MAHLE Motorkomponenten, MAHLE’s industrial filtration business and a 33% share in HBPO, and the takeover of Nagares’. As well as this, it has been involved in the management of antitrust proceedings, various recall and warranty claims and the implementation of a web-based whistle-blower hotline.