ThyssenKrupp Budd Company Announces Dietrich Zaps as President and Chief Executive Officer

TROY, Mich., April 15 -- ThyssenKrupp Budd Company, a leading supplier to the automotive industry, has announced the appointment of Dietrich Zaps as President and Chief Executive Officer.

Zaps most recently served as President of the Management Board of ThyssenKrupp Presta, an automotive powertrain components company in Liechtenstein.

He succeeds Wolfram Moersdorf who has been named Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp Automotive, one of the world's largest automotive suppliers with headquarters in Bochum, Germany. Moersdorf will continue as chairman of ThyssenKrupp Budd.

Zaps holds a masters degree in business and industrial engineering from the University of Karlsruhe. He and his family have relocated to Michigan.

ThyssenKrupp Budd, with headquarters in Troy, Mich. and more than $2.5 billion in sales, is part of the ThyssenKrupp Automotive Group whose annual revenues exceed $6 billion, 50 percent of which come from the NAFTA Region.

ThyssenKrupp Budd products can be found on nearly 100 current model vehicles. The company produces sheet metal stampings and assemblies, chassis modules and frame components, composite autobody panels and pickup boxes, gray and ductile iron castings and bumpers.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Electronic photograph available upon request.