Merz, who also sits on Lufthansa's supervisory board and the board of directors of trucks maker Volvo, has been recommended to the board and is supported by its members, the people said.

No official decision has been made. Thyssenkrupp will hold a supervisory board meeting on Nov. 20, a day ahead of its annual press conference, one of the people said.

Merz would fill one of the two vacant seats on the board's capital side which have been vacant since the resignation of former Chairman Ulrich Lehner and former Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Rene Obermann earlier this year.

Bernhard Pellens, a member of the board since 2005, took over as chairman at the end of September but can only stay on until 2020 under German corporate governance rules.

The group might present a successor at its next annual general meeting which is scheduled for Feb. 1, 2019, one of the people said.

German business daily Boersen-Zeitung reported earlier that Merz would join the supervisory board on behalf of activist investor Cevian, Thyssenkrupp's second-largest shareholder with an 18 percent stake, citing shareholder sources.

Cevian already holds one seat on the supervisory board and is entitled to a second, but the fund has so far not claimed that right, a person familiar with the matter said.

Thyssenkrupp, Cevian and Saf Holland all declined to comment. Merz was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, editing by Louise Heavens)