The European Central Bank’s chief services officer is leaving well before the end of his second term in the most senior unscheduled departure since Christine Lagarde took over as president.
(Bloomberg) — The European Central Bank’s chief services officer is leaving well before the end of his second term in the most senior unscheduled departure since Christine Lagarde took over as president.
The 60-year-old Michael Diemer will retire from his role at the end of this month and the search for a successor is in progress, according to a spokesperson.
Appointed by Lagarde’s predecessor, Mario Draghi, the German former management consultant is one of the most powerful officials at the ECB, with a wide remit that encompasses most of its non-policy-focused areas.
Diemer is the only manager at the central bank whose responsibilities are listed on its website together with those of the Executive Board, despite not being one of its six members. Answering to him are director generals responsible for administration and finance, human resources, and information systems.
Since Lagarde took charge in 2019, Diemer is the most senior official to have left aside from former Executive Board member Yves Mersch, whose non-renewable eight-year term ended in 2020.
The appointment of a chief services officer was an innovation under Draghi after a review by consulting firm Egon Zehnder in 2014, the year the ECB expanded to include banking supervision and looked to widen its monetary policy operations to encompass asset purchases.
That exercise mirrored an assessment of the Bank of England ordered by former governor, Mark Carney. That was conducted by McKinsey & Co., where its then chief operating officer, Charlotte Hogg, had previously worked. Her role was similar in scope to that of Diemer.
New Term
By delegating management of support areas to a single administrative official, Draghi’s change effectively stripped Executive Board members of some existing responsibilities to focus them more on policy.
Diemer, a former executive at IBM in Germany, took up his role in January 2016. Following Lagarde’s accession as president, he was granted a second five-year term that was scheduled to last until the end of 2025.
“After more than six years of service, Michael Diemer recently informed the ECB‘s Executive Board of his desire to retire from his position as chief services officer,” the ECB said in a statement provided by its spokesperson. “To ensure proper integrity safeguards, the ECB will release Michael from his responsibilities as of end-September. A search for his replacement is under way.”
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