As the only hospital group in Germany Helios operates its own hospitals ranging from basic care starting at 46 beds to maximum care with 1,500 beds. The acute care hospitals offer nearly the full spectrum of medical services at a high level of quality. Some Helios clinics are renowned beyond Germany’s borders for their outstanding medical achievements.

By combining senior citizens’ homes and acute medical care, Helios gives residents access to optimum, fast medical care. Helios has already implemented this intelligent and trend-setting concept of short distances for seniors at nine of its hospitals.

Helios strives to expand its integrated medical care offering. This is made possible through cooperations with non-hospital providers, especially local doctors’ practices, as well as our own medical care centers close to the hospitals. Our medical care centers are only established where they offer a useful complement to our hospitals and when high-quality outpatient care cannot be guaranteed over a long period through cooperations with local doctors’ practices. In medical care centers, patients are treated before or after an inpatient hospital stay. An important goal is to avoid unnecessary duplication in examinations, because high quality and competent medical care in conjunction with the rational use of resources best serves the well-being of patients.

The Supervisory Board of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA and the Management Board of the general partner of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, Fresenius Management SE, issued the Declaration of Conformity pursuant to Section 161 of the German Stock Corporation Act in December 2023.

Please find below the 2023 Corporate Governance Declaration and Report of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA.

The Management Board takes diversity into account when filling executive positions. At Fresenius, the individual’s qualifications are the paramount consideration in all hiring and promotion decisions. This means that women and men with comparable qualifications and suitability have the same career opportunities. Fresenius will continue to consistently act upon this principle – in compliance with the obligations arising from the Act on the Equal Participation of Women and Men in Leadership Positions in the Private Sector and the Public Sector (FüPoG I) and the Act to Supplement and Amend the Regulations for the Equal Participation of Women in Leadership Positions in the Private Sector and the Public Sector (FüPoG II):

For the Supervisory Board of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, the law requires a quota of at least 30% women and 30% men. These mandatory quotas were again met by the Supervisory Board elections in 2021.

The legally stipulated targets for the Management Board do not apply to Fresenius Management SE or to Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA. Due to its legal form, Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA does not have a Management Board. Fresenius Management SE is not listed on the stock exchange and is also not subject to co-determination. In accordance with the legal requirements, the Management Board specifies composition of the two management levels directly below the Management Board as follows:

The first management level includes all Senior Vice Presidents and Vice Presidents who have an employment contract with Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA and who report directly to a Member of the Management Board. Through a decision effective January 1, 2021 the Management Board has set a target, which has to be met by December 31, 2025, and calls for a proportion of women of 30.0% at the first management level.

The second management level includes all Vice Presidents who have an employment contract with Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA and who report directly to a member of the first management level. Through the decision effective January 1, 2021, the Management Board has set a target, which has to be met by December 31, 2025, and calls for a proportion of women of 30.0% at the second management level. The Management Board believes that inclusion in the company-wide long-term incentive programs is a strong indicator that an individual holds a leading executive position. The proportion of women in this group of our top 1,800 executives was approximately 34% as of December 31, 2022.

Compensation of the Management Board and Supervisory Board

For a detailed report on the Management and Supervisory Board members’ compensation please refer to the Compensation Report 2023.

For further information regarding the Compensation System 2023+, please refer to the following document:

Stock Option Plans and Employee Participation Program

Our corporate philosophy "entrepreneur in the enterprise" implies not only that our employees are driven by a spirit of entrepreneurial responsibility but that they also have a stake in the company's performance. The overall remuneration package for Group executives and the members of the Management Board has been linked to the performance of the share price through stock option plans.

As of December 31, 2022, Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA had two share-based compensation plans in place: the Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA Long Term Incentive Program 2013 (2013 LTIP) which is based on stock options and phantom stocks and the Long Term Incentive Plan 2018 (LTIP 2018) which is solely based on performance shares. Currently, solely LTIP 2018 can be used to grant performance shares.

In 2023, the new employee participation program Fresenius SHARE was introduced. The program applies equally to all employees of the participating companies - whether collectively agreed or non-pay-scale employees, executives as well as trainees and temporary workers. The program consists of two components: On the one hand, participants can annually purchase a share package with ordinary shares of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA at a significant discount. Secondly, four targets have been set, upon achievement of which a certain amount will be issued in ordinary shares of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA. In addition to increasing the Group's net income, the targets include the topics of cybersecurity and quality. The first shares will be issued in 2024, corresponding to the achievement of the targets in the 2023 financial year.

Management Board

Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA does not have an own Management Board. The Management Board of the general partner, Fresenius Management SE, is responsible for conducting the business of the KGaA. It formulates strategy, coordinates this with the Supervisory Board of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, and sees to its implementation. It is guided solely by the best interests of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA.

Supervisory Board of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA

The Supervisory Board of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA supervises the management of the Company’s business by the general partner and the latter’s Management Board. The Supervisory Board of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA has 12 members – 6 shareholder representatives and 6 employee representatives It supervises whether corporate decisions are compliant, suitable, and financially sound. The members of the Management Board of the general partner are appointed by the Supervisory Board of Fresenius Management SE, not by the Supervisory Board of the KGaA.

The Supervisory Board of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA has the following committees:

- Audit Committee
- Nomination Committee
- Joint Committee

Supervisory Board of Fresenius Management SE

The Supervisory Board of Fresenius Management SE advises and supervises the Management Board in its management of the Company. The Supervisory Board of Fresenius Management SE appoints the members of the Management Board. He consists of six members who are elected by the annual general meeting of Fresenius Management SE Committees.

Michael Sen, 55, became Chairman of the Management Board of Fresenius (equivalent to President and CEO) on October 1, 2022. He joined Fresenius in April 2021 as Chairman of the Management Board of Fresenius Kabi. Before joining Fresenius Kabi, Michael Sen was a member of the Management Board of Siemens AG, where he was responsible for the healthcare business Siemens Healthineers and for Siemens’ energy business. Prior to that, he was Chief Financial Officer of E.ON SE. At the start of his professional career, Michael Sen completed an apprenticeship at Siemens in Berlin and then studied business administration at the Technical University of Berlin.

Pierluigi Antonelli, 56, joined the Management Board of Fresenius in March 2023 with responsibility for Fresenius Kabi. In his previous role since 2019, he was the CEO of Angelini Pharma, a company of the Italian Angelini Group specializing in brain health and consumer health. Prior to that, he held senior leadership positions at Novartis Oncology, Sandoz, Merck & Co. and Bristol Myers Squibb in the United States and across Europe. 

Sara Hennicken (43) was appointed CFO of Fresenius as of September 1, 2022. She joined the Group in 2019 as Senior Vice President Global Treasury & Corporate Finance for Fresenius and Fresenius Medical Care. Previously, she spent 14 years in investment banking, including nine years at Deutsche Bank, lastly as Managing Director and Senior Client Executive in Corporate Finance Coverage before moving to Fresenius. Between 2005 and 2010 she worked for Citigroup in Frankfurt and London. Sara Hennicken studied economics in Germany and in the United States.

Robert Möller, 56, joined the Management Board of Fresenius in September 2023 with responsibility for Fresenius Helios. Robert Möller has been CEO of Helios Kliniken GmbH since 2022. He joined Helios in 2014, where he held the position of Clinic Managing Director at Helios Hanseklinikum Stralsund until 2017. After a short time away, he returned to Helios in 2019 and took over the management of various regions. Möller studied human medicine at the University of Hamburg and practiced as a specialist for internal medicine. After various medical positions and a part-time master's degree in health care management, he switched to hospital management while continuing to work as a physician.

Michael Moser (47) joined the Management Board of Fresenius in July 2023 with responsibility for Legal, Compliance, Risk Management, ESG and the business segment Fresenius Vamed. Since December 2023, he is also responsible for Human Resources. After starting his career at Baker McKenzie, he joined E.ON SE in 2008. During this time, he inter alia became member of the Management Board of the stock listed company ENEVA in Brazil, steered the listing of Uniper and served as Deputy CEO and CFO of Enerjisa, the stock listed leading energy company in Turkey. He has received university degrees in law and business economics in Germany, USA, UK, Switzerland and China.