Former E.ON CEO Bernotat Dies

E.ON is mourning the loss of its former CEO Wulf Bernotat who died August 28 after long illness aged 68, the German utility said.

Bernotat was the CEO who led the company's major European expansion – including into the then-unliberalised gas markets in central and eastern Europe, territories from which it has since largely withdrawn – from May 2003 until 2010, succeeding Ulrich Hartmann and Wilhelm Simson in this post.

As CEO, Bernotat played a key role in shaping the company’s development. After a phase of consolidation following the merger of Veba and Viag to form E.ON, he drove the internationalisation of the group by expanding into the UK, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy. Bernotat succeeded in turning many different business activities into a strategically and culturally integrated E.ON Group, E.ON said August 29.

“Thanks to his outstanding personality, Wulf Bernotat managed to give E.ON a powerful identity within only a few years after the merger, and we are still benefiting from that strength today. One of his achievements was his personal commitment to developing what was still a young renewable energies business in Europe and North America. It’s not only for that reason that he will always be 'Mister Just-do-it' for me. We at E.ON will always hold him in grateful memory,” said E.ON CEO Johannes Teyssen.

Wulf Bernotat (Photo credit: E.ON 2007 annual report)

William Powell