Changes to the Executive Board of Carl Zeiss AG for the Medical Technology segment

• Dr. Markus Weber, responsible for the ZEISS Medical Technology segment, will step down, of his own accord and on the best of terms, from the Executive Board of Carl Zeiss AG on 31 May 2025.
• His successor, effective 1 June 2025, will be Maximilian Foerst, who is currently Head of ZEISS Greater China.

Oberkochen, Germany | 7 May 2025 | ZEISS Group

After more than 22 years at ZEISS, most recently as the member of the Executive Board of Carl Zeiss AG responsible for the Medical Technology segment, Dr. Markus Weber will step down from the Executive Board – of his own accord and on the best of terms with the Supervisory Board – to pursue a new challenge outside of the ZEISS Group effective 31 May 2025. The Supervisory Board deeply regrets his decision. Dr. Weber is also President and CEO of the listed company Carl Zeiss Meditec AG. He will also hand over this mandate on 31 May 2025.

The Supervisory Board has appointed Maximilian Foerst as Head of the ZEISS Medical Technology segment effective 1 June 2025. As Head of ZEISS Greater China since 2009, he has been responsible for all activities in what is now the ZEISS Group’s strongest market globally in terms of revenue, generating around two billion euros annually. In addition to the sales and service companies of all four ZEISS segments, he currently oversees seven production sites, three innovation centers, regional support functions and over 7,000 employees at more than 30 locations. Prior to this, he headed the ZEISS Group’s sales and service companies in Korea and France. Medical Technology plays a major role in all these markets. At this segment, Maximilian Foerst previously served as Director of Sales and Marketing as well as Head of Product Management for Lasers at the Ophthalmology strategic business unit.

Since 2002, Dr. Markus Weber has been extremely successful in a range of important management functions within the ZEISS Group. He has been a member of the ZEISS Executive Board since 2020. He was initially responsible for the Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology segment. In 2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he took over the Medical Technology segment, which, under his leadership, achieved record revenue of around 2.6 billion euros in fiscal year 2023/24. "The Supervisory Board of Carl Zeiss AG would like to thank Markus Weber for his extremely successful work in all his positions within the ZEISS Group, as well as for the strategically very important development of the ZEISS Medical Technology segment. We regret his decision and wish him all the best in his future endeavors," says Dr. Michael Bolle, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Carl Zeiss AG. "With Maximilian Foerst, we are once again pleased to have appointed a successor from within the ZEISS Group with international experience. Once more, this illustrates the exceptional quality of the top executives within the company. Maximilian Foerst successfully built up and expanded the ZEISS Group’s business in China, which is currently our strongest market in terms of revenue. Thanks to his activities at and for the Medical Technology segment, he possesses the relevant experience to successfully drive this important part of the ZEISS Group," adds Dr. Bolle.

"I would like to thank the Supervisory Board, all the customers, partners and all the employees for the excellent cooperation and for putting their trust in me," says Dr. Weber. "After more than 22 years at ZEISS and being in my early 50s, now is the right time to once again take on an entirely new challenge. At the same time, it is also possible to include my successor, who will lead the segment on the Executive Board, early on in the future strategic alignment of the ZEISS Group. I wish him all the best and continued success."

Thus, starting 1 June 2025, the Executive Board of Carl Zeiss AG will consist of Andreas Pecher (President and CEO), Susan-Stefanie Breitkopf (Chief Transformation Officer), Stefan Müller (Chief Financial Officer), Maximilian Foerst (Head of the ZEISS Medical Technology segment), Sven Hermann (Head of the ZEISS Consumer Markets segment), Dr. Jochen Peter (Head of the ZEISS Industrial Quality & Research segment), and Dr. Frank Rohmund (Head of the ZEISS Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology segment).

Dr. Markus Weber studied physics and completed his Ph.D. at the universities of Karlsruhe and Ulm. He joined ZEISS as a research scientist at Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology in 2002. After holding management positions in various departments, in 2009 he became Head of Advanced Development in the Microsurgery strategic business unit (SBU) at Medical Technology. In 2010, Dr. Weber became Head of Corporate Research & Technology for the ZEISS Group. He was appointed Head of the Research Microscopy Solutions SBU in 2015, while also joining the Management Team of the Industrial Quality & Research segment in 2018. Dr. Weber was appointed a member of the Executive Board of Carl Zeiss AG in 2019. His responsibilities initially included the ZEISS Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology segment along with the Shared Production Unit and the Korea sales region. In 2022, he became Head of the ZEISS Medical Technology segment as President and CEO of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG and also oversees the Japan, France, Iberia and Türkiye sales regions.

Maximilian Foerst trained as an industrial administrator in Paris and then completed a degree in business administration at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, as well as an MBA at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, in the US. In 1995, he joined the ZEISS Group as a project manager at the site in Oberkochen. In 1996, he moved to Jena as Head of Product Management for Lasers and, starting in 1998, served as Director of Sales and Marketing for the Ophthalmology strategic business unit at the ZEISS Medical Technology segment. Here, his responsibilities included the market launches of therapy lasers for age-related macular degeneration, OCT technology and the segment’s optical biometry products. From 2001 until 2006, Maximilian Foerst headed the business of the ZEISS Group’s sales and service company (SSC) in France and, from 2007 until 2009, in Korea. He then took on his current role as Head of ZEISS Greater China. Since then, he has overseen all business activities in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (region). Under his leadership, these grew from 60 million euros in revenue to around two billion euros in annual revenue today. During this time, Maximilian Foerst established three strategic fields of business with global development and revenue responsibility and initiated a variety of acquisitions that have been successfully integrated in the ZEISS Group.