ZF Friedrichshafen AG has reinforced its focus on innovation by appointing Peter Holdmann as Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
The newly created position highlights the growing importance of technology and development in driving the company’s innovation capabilities and long-term business success. Holdmann, who is already a member of ZF’s Executive Board, will continue to oversee Research and Development (R&D) alongside his expanded responsibilities as CTO.
With the introduction of the CTO position, ZF is consolidating group-wide technological management at the Executive Board level. The goal is to align research and development across all divisions of the company even more effectively, efficiently, and competitively with customer needs. A comparable role did not previously exist at ZF.
“With Dr. Peter Holdmann, the newly created CTO role is being filled by an individual who convincingly combines technical depth with strategic perspective. This combination is crucial for further sharpening technology and development across the Group,” says Dr. Rolf Breidenbach, Chairman of the ZF Supervisory Board.
“Technology is our driving force and the foundation of our competitiveness,” says Mathias Miedreich, CEO of ZF. “With the CTO position, we are sending a clear signal: It strengthens technological leadership within the Group, accelerates the transfer of innovations into marketable solutions, and improves the cost-, and efficiency performance of our Group-wide research and development activities.”
Dr. Peter Holdmann has already played a key role in driving technological change at ZF in recent years. The expansion of his area of responsibility to include the CTO role reflects the increased importance of topics such as software-defined vehicles, artificial intelligence, and connected system architectures.
In his expanded role, Holdmann’s focus is on engineering efficiency across all ZF divisions: “Financial discipline and innovations developed in our ZF divisions with a customer-centric approach go hand in hand. The use of artificial intelligence is currently revolutionizing development processes and tools—with tangible effects on efficiency and speed,” emphasizes Holdmann. “This transformation is critical to ZF’s competitiveness and creates a dynamic that leads to faster decisions and, ultimately, to products that win over the market. That’s good for ZF and for our customers.”
Dr. Peter Holdmann holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering with a specialization in automotive engineering and brings more than two decades of experience in the development and management of complex automotive systems. After holding positions in research and teaching at RWTH Aachen University, he has held leadership roles at ZF since 2000 and has been a member of the Board of Management since May 2024.
