EQS-News: Change of President and CEO at Carl Zeiss Meditec AG

Change of President and CEO at Carl Zeiss Meditec AG

• The President and CEO, Dr. Markus Weber, will step down from the Management Board, of his own accord and on the best of terms, on 31 May 2025.
• Starting 1 June 2025, the new President and CEO will be Maximilian Foerst, who is currently Head of ZEISS Greater China.

Jena, Germany | 7 May 2025 | Carl Zeiss Meditec AG

The President and CEO of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Dr. Markus Weber, has informed the Supervisory Board that he will leave the company of his own accord. The Supervisory Board acknowledges and deeply regrets Dr. Weber’s decision. Today, Dr. Weber and the Supervisory Board reached a mutual agreement on the best of terms that his mandate as President and CEO will end on 31 May 2025.

The Supervisory Board has appointed Maximilian Foerst as the new President and CEO of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG effective 1 June 2025. As Head of ZEISS Greater China since 2009, he has been responsible for all business 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 services 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. The ZEISS Medical Technology segment plays a major role in all these markets. At Medical Technology, 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.

“Under Markus Weber’s leadership, Carl Zeiss Meditec AG has laid a very important strategic foundation and, as a technology leader in ophthalmology and microsurgery, is very well positioned for the future. With the acquisition of the company Dutch Ophthalmic Research Center (D.O.R.C.), he successfully made a key addition to the company’s service portfolio,” says Andreas Pecher, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG and President and CEO of Carl Zeiss AG. “The Supervisory Board of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG would like to thank Markus Weber for his exceptional dedication and extremely successful time as President and CEO. We very much regret his decision and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

“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 22 years at ZEISS and being in my early 50s, now is the right time to once again take on an entirely new challenge. I wish my successor, Maximilian Foerst, all the best and continued success.“

Andreas Pecher is pleased to be able to appoint a highly competent successor from within the ZEISS Group. “With experience in international business and outstanding qualifications, Maximilian Foerst has successfully built up and expanded the ZEISS Group’s business in what for us is currently the strongest market globally in terms of revenue,” says Andreas Pecher. “In light of his experience at the ZEISS Medical Technology segment and its close alignment with customers in challenging international markets, he will successfully develop this important part of the ZEISS Group.”

Speaking about his appointment as President and CEO of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Maximilian Foerst said: “I am very much looking forward to this new position at Carl Zeiss Meditec AG. In challenging times, Carl Zeiss Meditec AG is very well positioned and aligned. The long-term potential of innovative medical technology is based on megatrends such as demographic change, the increasing importance of health and digitalization. Now, we have to leverage this with a keen eye to the diverse requirements of our global markets.”

Thus, starting 1 June 2025, the Management Board of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG will consist of Maximilian Foerst (President and CEO) and Justus Wehmer (Chief Financial Officer).

Short profiles:

Dr. Markus Weber (52) 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.

Maximilian Foerst (56) 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, in 1998, became 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.

Contact for investors and the press

Sebastian Frericks
Head of Group Finance & Investor Relations
Carl Zeiss Meditec AG
Phone: +49 3641 220 116
Mail: investors.med@zeiss.com

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