Deutsche Telekom chairman under pressure to leave

Klaus Zumwinkel, chairman of Deutsche Telekom is under pressure from other board members to leave his non-executive post when his contract ends in May 2008, a German newspaper said on Thrusday.

Several supervisory board members had questioned whether Zumwinkel, who is also chief executive of mail and logistics group Deutsche Post and non-executive chairman of Deutsche Postbank could devote enough time to Deutsche Telekom, the Financial Times Deutschland said.

Deutsche Telecom faces strikes over plans to move some 50,000 staff into lower-paying service units as it tries to cut costs in the face of hefty fixed-line subscriber losses.

Citing people familiar with the situation, the paper said Zumwinkel wanted to delay any decision on his future at Deutsche Telekom until later in the year.
The paper said that private equity firm Blackstone, which holds a 4.4 percent stake in Deutsche Telekom, had in December pushed for the resignation of Zumwinkel, citing a possible conflict of interest and arguing that Zumwinkel was unable to devote sufficient attention to Deutsche Telekom.

But the German government, which still owns 31 percent of Deutsche Telekom, had rejected the complaint, the paper said.

No one at Deutsche Telekom, which holds its annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, was not immediately available for comment. Deutsche Post declined to comment.