EnBW recruits E.ON’s renewable energy expert as CEO

German energy supplier EnBW said Friday it has recruited Frank Mastiaux, former head of renewable energies at rival E.ON, as its new chief executive from October.

“The supervisory board of EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG appointed Frank Mastiaux as member and chairman of the board of management, effective as of October 1 for a term of five years,” EnBW said in a statement.

Mastiaux, 47, currently head of E.ON International Energy, will replace Hans-Peter Villis whose contract expires at the end of September.

The change of guard at EnBW, Germany’s third-biggest power supplier, comes at a time when the company is rethinking its business strategy in the light of the German government’s decision to phase out nuclear power.

Villis is a fierce of advocate of atomic energy.

EnBW ran up a net loss of 867 million euros ($1.2 billion) last year owing to the shutdown of two of its nuclear plants in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.