MUNICH, Germany -- Last April, the United Nations Security Council convened to discuss an issue of pressing importance to people world-wide -- the prevention of conflicts like those in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet, the session was less notable for the subject matter than for its featured speaker.

Addressing the chamber that day was not a senior government official or diplomat, but Heinrich von Pierer, chief executive of German engineering titan Siemens AG. The Security Council appearance -- the first ever by a German business executive -- was just the latest indication of Mr. von Pierer's growing influence and his emergence as corporate Germany's most powerful advocate. Whether the subject is non-U.S. contractors in Iraq, the creation of European corporate champions or the transfer of Western technology to China, Mr. von Pierer is often in the middle of the debate.

"Alone, business can't change the world," he told the gathered diplomats. "But together with public partners, business can make decisive contributions in the struggle against violence, against anarchy and against terrorism -- and for civilization, for freedom and for prosperity."

But his biggest cause is Germany. As Europe's largest economy struggles to overcome chronic unemployment and persistent economic stagnation, Mr. von Pierer, 63 years old, has used a mixture of folksy charm and realpolitik to try to convince his countrymen and Germany's political class of the necessity of imposing sweeping structural changes on the nation's generous welfare state.

"In Germany we have to ask ourselves what we have to offer," he said in a recent interview. "We have to accept the challenge. We have to offer something special that will allow us to assert ourselves."

GO TEAM! Siemens Chief Executive Heinrich von Pierer has taken a lead role in summoning Germans to adopt a sweeping agenda that would: • Overhaul economic, labor and welfare policies   • Improve secondary and university education   • Promote more industrial innovation   • Secure Asian-Pacific markets for German goods

Mark Woessner, the chairman of Citigroup Inc.'s German operations and the former CEO of Bertelsmann AG, who has known Mr. von Pierer for years, says Mr. von Pierer manages to be direct without being overbearing: "He's never loud, but he always speaks his mind. His business acumen and his engagement on sociopolitical issues have made him the doyen of corporate Germany."

Mr. von Pierer circulates in the highest political echelons as well as business circles: Despite membership in Germany's conservative party, he is a close adviser and tennis partner to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a Social Democrat. The two meet regularly in public and in private, and Mr. von Pierer has become a cheerleader for the chancellor's initiative to foster more innovation in German industry.

German business has had an unofficial spokesman throughout the postwar era, acting as a bridge between the government and industry. The function was important to the success of Germany's postwar consensus model, a system that depended on close cooperation among politics, business and unions. While the competitive pressures of globalization have frayed those ties, Germany remains a consensus-driven society.

The heads of Germany's banks and insurers, which through cross-shareholdings once controlled large swaths of its industry, typically have served as the spokesmen for corporate Germany. With the unwinding of those holdings, however, the financial industry has lost much of its sway. What is more, the leading personalities of Germany's financial world -- from Deutsche Bank AG's Josef Ackermann and Rolf Breuer to Allianz AG's Henning Schulte-Noelle -- have seen their reputations tarnished by controversy or failed strategies.

That has opened the door for Mr. von Pierer, a military officer's son from rural Bavaria, whose modesty and diplomatic manner have earned him a degree of legitimacy enjoyed by few of Germany's corporate elite. Until quite recently, few would have predicted Mr. von Pierer would become the dean of corporate Germany. In the 1990s, many investors and analysts viewed Siemens as the embodiment of the caution and resistance to change hobbling Deutschland AG. For sticking with Siemens's traditional conglomerate structure and rejecting calls for the company to do a "megamerger," Mr. von Pierer was widely criticized.

His company's share price never soared to the heights achieved by Deutsche Telekom and other darlings of 1990s boom. But under Mr. von Pierer, Siemens did put in a solid financial performance. After 12 years as chief executive, Mr. von Pierer plans to step down at the beginning of next year to become the company's supervisory board chairman.

As Germany's struggle to revive the economy continues, Mr. von Pierer's influence is unlikely to wane. Indeed, just a few months ago he was on conservatives' short list of candidates to be nominated for Germany's presidency, a largely ceremonial role. Though Horst Koehler, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, was chosen, that Mr. von Pierer was a serious candidate is a testament to his stature.

Mr. von Pierer grew up in the Bavarian city of Erlangen, a Siemens stronghold, where he remains deeply rooted. A lawyer by training, Mr. von Pierer joined the Siemens legal department in 1969 before rising through the business ranks and heading the company's power-generation division. In 1992, he became chief executive.

Despite criticism that he hasn't done enough to overhaul Siemens, Mr. von Pierer has succeeded in transforming the company from a plodding bureaucracy dependent on government contracts into one of Germany's most successful major companies. That achievement, amid years of economic malaise in Germany, has served as a potent reminder of the strength German industry has long enjoyed.

"Siemens is proof that Germany can be reformed," concluded the left-leaning Die Zeit weekly recently.

Just how powerful the Siemens chief has become became apparent last month in negotiations with Germany's formidable metalworkers union, IG Metall. Siemens, which has 167,000 employees in Germany, threatened to move two handset factories to Hungary if workers didn't agree to work 40 hours a week at no extra pay. The demand challenged what many in Germany consider the labor movement's crowning achievement: the introduction in the 1990s of the 35-hour workweek.

Siemens's stance prompted loud protests and charges that management was exploiting workers. The union publicly berated Mr. von Pierer, accusing him of using "Rambo" tactics and of secretly plotting to shift Siemens jobs abroad en masse.

The battle put Mr. von Pierer in an odd position. For years, he had curried favor with unions by promising to keep Siemens in Germany. A former city councilman, Mr. von Pierer used his political talents to win over the company's rank and file, often sitting down for a beer and bratwurst after work to discuss employee concerns. One of Siemens's workers councils even made him an honorary member.

A record of engagement with workers lent Mr. von Pierer a degree of legitimacy that proved crucial in helping to sell the longer workweek. "We need two things in Germany: innovation and cost-efficient labor conditions," he told workers time and again. After weeks of negotiations, the unions finally agreed to Siemens's terms, a deal expected to serve as a model for wage negotiations across German industry. Indeed, last week DaimlerChrysler AG won labor concessions extending the hours of some of its workers.

As Germany's economic situation has worsened, the chancellor has cited Siemens as an example of what works in Germany. In a speech at the German Patent Office earlier this month, for example, Mr. Schroeder mentioned Mr. von Pierer five times and praised the "creative potential" of Siemens's engineers.

Mr. von Pierer says: "I'm not ready to give up. There's a tremendous amount of energy in this country."

Mr. von Pierer has used the relationship to further Siemens's agenda abroad. When foreign dignitaries, such as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, visit Berlin, Mr. von Pierer is often at the chancellor's side, lobbying.

Mr. Schroeder also consulted closely with Mr. von Pierer in the spring over France's efforts to save Alstom SA, the flagging industrial titan, from bankruptcy. On Siemens's behalf, Mr. Schroeder lobbied for a solution that would allow Siemens to acquire parts of Alstom and create a "European champion." In the end, the plan died amid opposition from French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who worried about German domination of one of France's most important companies.