Former Thyssen CEO to run MobilCom

Dieter Vogel will take over the chairmanship of MobilCom's board of directors, according to "Focus Online." The German government engaged the 61-year-old in September to resolve the conflict between MobilCom majority shareholder Gerhard Schmid and France Telecom. By late November Vogel had managed to broker an agreement between Schmid, the German and French telecoms, politicians in Berlin and Paris, and banks.

Vogel started his career working for the Bertelsmann media empire. In 1996 he became CEO of Thyssen, one of Germany's leading industrial firms, with a yearly turnover of 40 billion marks. Following Thyssen's fusion with Krupp in 1998, Vogel left the company after Krupp boss Gerhard Cromme was named CEO. Since then Vogel has been working as a management consultant and was CEO of the German train company until he fell out with the current head Helmut Mehdorn in 2001.