New Siemens CEO Has Hands Full

As First Outside Head, Löscher Must Juggle Probes, Restructuring

As a former captain of Austria's national volleyball team, Peter Löscher is used to performing under pressure.

He will need all of that cool and more in his new role as chief executive officer of Siemens AG, which is at the center of Europe's biggest corporate-corruption scandal. Today, the 49-year-old former Merck & Co. executive takes charge of Europe's largest engineering company by sales. He will have his hands full as he grapples with criminal probes that have sullied Siemens's image and raised the specter of costly fines and lawsuits.

At the same time, he must field investors' calls to ...