Long-standing CEO Dr. Dietmar Ley is stepping down at the end of the year. His successor will be the current CCO/COO Hardy Mehl. External appointment to the CTO position by Dr. Kai Jens Ströder.

Ahrensburg, October 30, 2025 - The Supervisory Board of Basler AG announces changes to the Management Board. The contract of CEO Dr. Dietmar Ley will expire at the end of 2025. After more than 25 years as CEO, Dietmar Ley has expressed his wish not to extend his mandate for personal reasons and has asked the Supervisory Board to find a successor. It is intended that Ley will continue to support the company in an advisory capacity and, at the request of the majority shareholder, will move to the Supervisory Board.

Hardy Mehl, who has been with the company since 1999 and on the Management Board since 2014, will take over the CEO position in the three-member Management Board and will be responsible for Sales, Operations, Human Resources, and Investor Relations. Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ines Brückel will continue to be responsible for Finance, Controlling, Legal, and Compliance. Dr. Kai Jens Ströder, an experienced manager, will join the company on January 1, 2026. Since 2009, he has held various positions at Carl Zeiss AG and tooz technologies GmbH, a deep tech start-up in the field of optical systems for augmented reality applications owned by Deutsche Telekom AG and Carl Zeiss AG. He will fill the newly created position of Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and will be responsible for Product Generation and Innovation in the future.

For founder and Supervisory Board Chairman Norbert Basler, the change in the CEO position marks the end of an era in the company's history: "Dietmar Ley has led the company extremely successfully for over two decades, guiding it through important strategic decisions together with the entire Management Board and leaving a decisive mark on it. On behalf of the entire Supervisory Board, and also personally, I would like to express my sincere thanks for his achievements and his many years of commitment. At the same time, we know that with the new management team, the company is in excellent, professionally skilled, and experienced hands. We wish the new management team every success."

Dietmar Ley sums up: "After more than three decades at Basler, I look back with gratitude and pride on a varied and fulfilling time. We have developed the company from a start-up to one of the world's leading providers of computer vision technology, mastering many challenges together, driving innovation and actively shaping the transformation of our industry. It has been an honor to be part of the Basler team for so long and to lead this development. I wish our new management team every success, courage, and the same passion with which we have worked together so far."