Ackermann to Resign From Board of Siemens

Josef Ackermann, the former chief executive of Deutsche Bank, plans to resign as a deputy chairman of Siemens, a move that comes shortly after he abruptly resigned as chairman of Zurich Insurance Group last month.

Mr. Ackermann had stepped down from his post at Zurich Insurance after he was mentioned in a suicide note written by the company’s chief financial officer, Pierre Wauthier.

Mr. Ackermann said Thursday that his resignation from the Siemens supervisory board was not linked to his departure from Zurich Insurance. The decision to leave Siemens was made ”quite independently and for completely different reasons,” he told reporters in Berlin at an event to publicize his biography, according to news reports.

The biography, titled ”Late Remorse: A Close-Up of Josef Ackermann,” was written by Stefan Baron, an aide to Mr. Ackermann during his tenure at Deutsche Bank.

Mr. Ackermann’s decision was confirmed by a person with direct knowledge of the situation, who declined to be named because Siemens has yet to make a formal announcement.

Siemens, whose supervisory board is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, declined to comment on Mr. Ackermann’s decision.

Mr. Ackermann, a native of Switzerland, is to remain a non-executive director of the board at oil company Royal Dutch Shell. He is also a member of the board of directors at Investor, an investment company founded by Sweden’s Wallenberg family.

Mr. Ackermann left Deutsche Bank last year after 10 years as chief executive. He led the bank through the financial crisis, avoiding a direct government bailout, and became a spokesman for the banking industry as a whole.

But he has also generated controversy during his career, becoming enmeshed in several legal battles and getting into a public feud with Deutsche Bank’s supervisory board chairman over his successor at the bank.

Mr. Ackermann said last month he was ”deeply shocked” by the death of Mr. Wauthier. But he also said that suggestions by Mr. Wauthier’s widow that he should take some blame for her husband’s death were ”unfounded.”

Mr. Wauthier, who was found dead on Aug. 26 at at his home south of Zurich, wrote a suicide note whose contents alluded to a tense relationship with Mr. Ackermann, according to Tom de Swaan, who was named acting chairman of the Swiss insurer.