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, and will of course comply with the law on the equal participation of women and men in executive positions in private companies and public service.
For the Supervisory Board of Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, the law requires a quota of at least 30% women and 30% men. These quotas are met.
For the Management Board, the law does not proscribe its composition for a company with our legal structure. 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. The target set for the proportion of women is 33.3% of the positions at this level, to be reached by December 31, 2020. This reflects the composition of the first management level as of December 31, 2015.
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. The target set for the proportion of women is 37.5% of the positions at this level, to be reached by December 31, 2020. This reflects the composition of the second management level as of December 31, 2015.
The Management Board believes the composition of participants in the company-wide stock option program is a good indicator of the number of females in leading executive positions around the world. The proportion of women in this group of our top 1,500 executives was 31.6% as of December 31, 2019.