FRANKFURT, May 22: Siemens has appointed a new chief executive from outside the company for the first time in its 160-year history who is also a non-German. He will take over on July 1.

Siemens hopes Austrian-born Peter Loescher, a top US healthcare executive who is relatively unknown in Germany, will improve the image of Siemens. Current CEO Klaus Kleinfeld tendered his resignation last month after failing to receive clear backing from the supervisory board. An MBA graduate of Vienna University School of Economics, Loescher has also studied in Hong Kong and at Harvard.

He is fluent in English, Spanish and French and can get by in Japanese thanks to a stint as CEO of the Japanese division of drugmaker Aventis, now Sanofi-Aventis.—Reuters