Daimler Truck finance chief Jochen Goetz, credited with its spinoff from Mercedes-Benz maker, dies

Jochen Goetz, the chief financial officer of Daimler Truck and credited with its successful spinoff from the automotive giant that makes the Mercedes-Benz, has died, the company said Sunday. He was 52.

Goetz spent more than three decades working at the Daimler Group, the Stuttgart, Germany-based company best known as the maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars.

Daimler Truck said he was “decisively responsible” for the spinoff in 2021 of Daimler’s truck division, which is the world’s largest maker of trucks, from the rest of the company that renamed itself Mercedes-Benz Group AG.

The company’s statement said Goetz died in a “tragic incident” on Saturday but didn’t give details.

“The death of Jochen Goetz is a tremendous loss for Daimler Truck, both personally and professionally,” said a statement from Martin Daum, chairman of the company’s board of management, of which Goetz was also a member.