ABB picks electrification chief Wierod as CEO

ZURICH (Reuters) -ABB appointed Morten Wierod as chief executive on Friday, replacing Bjorn Rosengren who led an overhaul of the Swiss engineering company and will retire at the end of the year.

Wierod, head of ABB's electrification business, will replace Rosengren, effective Aug. 1, the Zurich-based company said.

ABB shares were down 1.4% in early trading in Zurich.

The 64-year-old Rosengren, who joined ABB in 2020, will advise and assist Wierod, 52, during a transition period, the engineering group said.

Chairman Peter Voser said he was pleased the company, which makes factory robots as well as industrial motors and drives, had found an internal candidate to replace Rosengren.

"Morten is a strong successor to Björn with his deep understanding of ABB and our decentralised operating model in addition to his extensive expertise across our key customer segments and strong performance track record," Voser said in a statement.

ABB's performance has significantly improved under Rosengren, a former CEO at Swedish engineering company Sandvik and Finnish power company Wartsila.

ABB cut costs and decentralised while its share price doubled, significantly outperforming the Swiss blue-chip index.

Rosengren also oversaw the separation of businesses such as its power conversion business, power transmission unit Dodge and the spin-off of its turbocharging unit Accelleron to shareholders.

Rosengren, who had applied to join ABB as a trainee after leaving university but was unsuccessful, said the company was now on the way to exploiting mega trends like increasing electrification and automation of production lines.

"Together with our more than 105,000 people, we have transformed ABB into an agile and purpose-driven leader in electrification and automation that has an important role in helping to accelerate the energy transition," he said.

(Reporting by John Revill; editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Jason Neely)