Ulf Mark Schneider: Fresenius CEO

Ulf Mark Schneider who’s also known as Mark was born in 1965, in Germany.  Academic-wise Mark  has achieved what has basically has to be achieved, from the University of St Gallen, he earned a degree in finance and accounting and a PhD in economics. He also holds an MBA from Harvard. 

Mark began working for Franz Haniel & Cie in 1989. He held a number of senior executive positions then rose to the rank of Group Finance Director for the Coventry-based Gehe UK plc, a pharmaceutical wholesale and retail distributor which is part of the Haniel group, in 1995. 

In November 2001, Mark joined Fresenius as chief financial officer of the Fresenius Medical Care.  On May 28, 2003, less than two years, since joining he became the CEO of the entire group. Mark was the choice of no less than his predecessor Gerd Krick. He was 37 years of age at that time and a relative newcomer to the company. Many were surprised by the decision and Mark himself did not expect it. 

He hasn’t been a disappointment but on the contrary has increased the firm’s revenue and helped expand the company’s global presence. In the first five years of heading the company Mark was able raise sales by 50 percent to $14.5 billion and operating profit by 85 percent to $1.9 billion. In turn the price of share in the company quadrupled. 

He has expanded the firm to a significant extent through acquisition with the objective of strengthening all three of the firm’s major divisions with small and medium purchases. Mark knows the importance of acquiring small and medium companies. Yet he also does big acquisitions like in 2006 when he led the purchase of Renal Care Group Inc and Helios Kliniken GmbH for around $6 billion. Buying Helios Kliniken made Fresenius one of the top three hospital operators in Germany.

Fresenius is a global healthcare group offering high-quality products and services for dialysis, hospitals, and outpatients treatment. It has over 200,000 employees in over 100 countries and annual sales of over €20 billion.