DB head out over snooping allegations

DB head out over snooping allegations    Deutsche Bahn's chief executive officer has resigned amid furor over efforts to weed out corruption in the vast company, a program critics decried as a widespread “snooping” campaign.
   According to international press outlets, CEO Hartmut Mehdorn had authorized the screening of e-mails from some 173,000 employees from 2002 to 2003 as part of an anti-corruption investigation.
   Aside from being an international railroad powerhouse, DB is also the parent of transportation and logistics giant Schenker. The company’s profits fell 23 percent in 2008, to $1.74 billion.
   'Although I am a tough man, we have reached the limit of what is bearable,' Mehdorn told a press conference in Berlin this week, accusing his critics of falsely painting the anti-corruption effort as snooping.
   Mehdorn, who headed DB for the last 10 years, also faced criticism over his attempts to sell shares in the company’s train operating unit, a move delayed by the financial crisis in 2008.
   “The tough-talking executive, who has faced down several calls to quit over recent years, bowed to public pressure after the government dropped its support this weekend,” the Financial Times reported this week. “This followed calls last Friday from rail unions for the DB head to go. As the man charged with implementing privatization, Mr. Mehdorn long ago lost the support of the public, which feared the project would cut services and raise prices. His forthright manner has also tested the patience of politicians. But the government saw him as an important figure for the financial markets, as potential investors trusted him as the motor of DB's transformation from a sleepy, subsidized national bureaucracy to profitable European logistics group.”
   DB’s board will pick a successor in the coming weeks.