Herrenknecht expands Board of Management
Sep 16, 2014
Herrenknecht AG is expanding its top management. At July's meeting the Supervisory Board appointed three new members to the Board of Management. Since August 1, 2014, Günter Richter, Ulrich Schaffhauser and Michael Sprang are members of the expanded Board of Management of Herrenknecht AG. With this step the Supervisory Board and the Board of Management are paving the way for succession in the top management.
The Supervisory Board and Board of Management have initiated a generational change in the top management of Herrenknecht AG, headquartered in Schwanau (Baden-Württemberg, Germany). With effect from August 1, 2014 the senior management executives Günter Richter (54), Ulrich Schaffhauser (50) and Michael Sprang (36) have risen to the ranks of top management as Deputy Members of the Board of Management. They thus join the long-standing Board of Management team around Chairman and company founder Dr.-Ing. E.h. Martin Herrenknecht (72), Vice Chairman Gebhard Lehmann (62) and Chief Financial Officer Kurt Stiefel (58). The existing Board of Management members have held their positions since the transformation of the limited liability company Herrenknecht GmbH into a stock corporation on July 31, 1998. Together they took the Herrenknecht Group to market leadership in mechanized tunneling worldwide (annual sales 2013: 1,051 million Euros).
The appointment of the three new members follows a plan for orderly succession in the Group's Board of Management. Günter Richter and Ulrich Schaffhauser have been in positions of responsibility at Herrenknecht for more than 20 years, and Michael Sprang since 2010. They have sound and broad management experience. As "home-grown talent", in the past years they have contributed decisively to the overall success of the family-run company. The existing Board of Management portfolios remain unchanged.
The new Deputy Board Members will be progressively entrusted with operational and strategic duties by Martin Herrenknecht, Gebhard Lehmann and Kurt Stiefel. On August 1, 2014 Günter Richter takes responsibility for the overall management of the Business Unit Traffic Tunnelling (tunnel boring machines from Ø 4.20 meters). With a business volume of over 600 million Euros, this division covers the majority of the Group's sales. Michael Sprang will take over the commercial management of Traffic Tunnelling on January 1, 2015. The industrial engineer is Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the largest Chinese subsidiary of Herrenknecht. From August 1, 2014 Ulrich Schaffhauser is responsible for the overall management of the Business Unit Utility Tunnelling (tunnel boring machines up to Ø 4.20 meters). Here Herrenknecht has a turnover of around 200 million Euros.
Company founder and Chairman of the Board of Management Dr.-Ing. E.h. Martin Herrenknecht and his colleagues are pleased with the step taken to secure the company's future: "We are ensuring a succession in keeping with the entrepreneurial spirit of Herrenknecht. I am particularly pleased that as a family-run company we are able to renew ourselves with proven and reliable leaders from within our own ranks." With its expanded Board of Management, Hans-Jörg Vetter, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Herrenknecht AG, sees the company on the right track ahead of the upcoming generational change: "A globally positioned technology leader like Herrenknecht needs professional continuity and profound international management know-how to continue asserting itself at the forefront of the market in the future too. With the jointly initiated succession plan in top management we have laid an important foundation for the World Champion Herrenknecht."
The Supervisory Board of Herrenknecht AG as of 01. August 2014
Dr.-Ing. E. h. Martin Herrenknecht, Chairman of the Board of Management
Martin Herrenknecht (72) is founder and name giver, driving force and Chairman of the Board of Management of Herrenknecht AG. After completing his degree the graduate engineer (FH) began his career as a design engineer in Switzerland. This was followed by several positions, some lasting several years, as project and design engineering manager in Canada, Germany and then again in Switzerland. In 1975 he founded the Martin Herrenknecht Engineering Service Company, then Herrenknecht GmbH in 1977, and he remained Managing Director until it became a joint stock company. Martin Herrenknecht is responsible for Group strategy as well as the areas of Marketing & Communications, Quality Management and Internal Audit. Martin Herrenknecht has received many awards and honors, including an honorary doctorate (Dr.-Ing. E. h.) from the Carolo-Wilhelmina Technical University in Braunschweig (Brunswick), entry into the Handelsblatt Hall of Fame for German Entrepreneurship and the German Founders Award in 2013. Martin Herrenknecht is married and has three children.
Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Gebhard Lehmann, Vice Chairman of the Board of Management
Gebhard Lehmann (62) has been a member of the Board of Management since 1998 and Vice Chairman of Herrenknecht AG right from the start. He joined Herrenknecht as a design engineer in 1976, fresh from completing his mechanical engineering degree in Offenburg and has been with the company and its Chairman from the "Martin Herrenknecht Engineering Company" era through to the world market leadership of the Group. He is responsible for the Business Unit Traffic Tunnelling and manages the areas of Business Development, Global Sales, Research & Development as well as the subsidiaries and associated companies working in related fields. Gebhard Lehmann is married.
Betriebswirt (VWA) Kurt Stiefel, Member of the Board of Management
Kurt Stiefel (58) has been a member of the Board of Managament since Herrenknecht became a joint stock company in 1998, and is responsible for Finance and the central commercial units. Moreover he is also responsible for the Business Unit Utility Tunnelling. The banker and business economist (VWA) joined Herrenknecht in 1982 and just one year later he took over the commercial management of the Herrenknecht GmbH as it was then. Kurt Stiefel is married and has two children.
Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Günter Richter, Deputy Member of the Board of Management
Günter Richter (54) joined Herrenknecht in 1985 after receiving his mechanical engineering degree from Offenburg University of Applied Sciences. After positions in design engineering and field service, from early 1990 the graduate engineer (FH) worked in project management, where he quickly took on increasing management responsibility. In 2004 he was entrusted with the technical management of the Business Unit Traffic Tunnelling, since 2006 he has been a member of the Traffic Tunnelling Executive Board. In the same year, as a part-time student, he completed his EMBA at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). Günter Richter is married and has two children.
Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Ulrich Schaffhauser, Deputy Member of the Board of Management
Ulrich Schaffhauser (50) joined Herrenknecht in 1992 as a design engineer after completing his degree in mechanical engineering at the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences. Since then the graduate engineer (FH) has worked in various responsible positions in the Business Unit Utility Tunnelling, including as Head of Production and since 2011 as Chairman of the Unit's Executive Board. Ulrich Schaffhauser lives with his family in Friesenheim.
Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Michael Sprang, Deputy Member of the Board of Management
Michael Sprang (36) studied industrial engineering at the University of Karlsruhe and then majored in Finance at the University of Zurich. He began his professional career in 2005 at Siemens Management Consulting, part of Siemens AG. In 2010 he joined the Herrenknecht Group as assistant to the Chairman of the Board of Management, Dr.-Ing. E.h. Martin Herrenknecht. In this position he prepared the introduction of a modern ERP system as part of the Group project CHANGE 2015. From March 2012 to April 2013 he was CFO of Herrenknecht Tunnelling Services Panama Corp. Since May 2013 he has been CFO at the largest production site outside Germany, at Herrenknecht Tunnelling Machinery Co., Ltd. (Guangzhou, China). Michael Sprang currently lives in Guangzhou, a metropolis of 12 million people.
More News and Articles
Mar 27, 2024
News
USU Study Looks at Water Main Break Rates in the U.S. and Canada
Report Highlights Correlation Between Material and Diameter
Mar 26, 2024
News
Update BE-21: New Material in Course and Modules on Trenchless Pipe Installation
Online training on the topic of pipeline installation in civil engineering: Trenchless technology for underground drainage construction can be a resource-efficient, environmentally friendly, time-saving, and cost-effective alternative to open cut methods. The UNITRACC e-learning course "Utility Tunnelling" has been enhanced …
Mar 25, 2024
Article
Bacteria as a new weapon in wastewater treatment
In early November, San Diego based startup Aquacycl officially opened its first European office and test center at the Water Campus in Leeuwarden. The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) and the Investment and Development Agency for the Northern Netherlands (NOM) …
Mar 22, 2024
News
A superior HDD offering
Building on its relationships with leading horizontal directional drilling companies, TRACTO Australia has delivered three new rigs to operator Superior HDD.
Mar 20, 2024
News
New portable water filtration technology could improve access to clean drinking water worldwide
The University of Texas at Austin has developed an injectable water filtration system with the aim to aid the over two billion people worldwide who are without clean drinking water.
Mar 18, 2024
News
Global Student Innovation Challenge Calls on Next-Generation Leaders to Tackle Water Security
High School and University Students Worldwide Invited to Expand Water Access and Community Resilience
Mar 15, 2024
News
New water treatment wins Prestigious Award
Introducing a advancement in water treatment, developed by Cardiff University researchers in collaboration with Origin Aqua, the FreeOxTM technology has garnered acclaim by winning a prestigious challenge award at the World Water Tech Innovation Summit. This single-step process not only …
Mar 13, 2024
News
Satellite-based river monitoring technique could provide early warning of flooding
A satellite-based method for monitoring the flow of rivers from orbit could provide a valuable early warning system for flood risk, University of Glasgow researchers have claimed.
Mar 11, 2024
News
Revitalising infrastructure with HDD
Through the use of horizontal directional drilling, TasWater is delivering a new sewer pipeline to improve sewer and stormwater transfer capacity in Launceston, Tasmania.
Mar 06, 2024
News
Picking up the pace on climate action: Building momentum from COP28
At the halfway point of the Paris Agreement, the legally binding international treaty on climate action, average global temperatures are already hitting 1.8°C above pre-industrial levels and future projections are stark. At COP28 in December, we could not escape the reality …
Mar 01, 2024
News
Luminescent sensor detects ‘forever chemical’ pollution in water
Researchers in the UK and Germany have developed a new approach for detecting pollution from ‘forever chemicals’ in water through luminescence.
Feb 28, 2024
Article
BETT installation demonstrating GHG emissions reduction of wastewater treatment
This study presents BioElectrochemical Treatment Technology (BETT) as a new wastewater management solution toward the Net-Zero future. The results reported herein were collected from a BETT pilot system installed at a large brewery in Los Angeles, CA, United States processing …
Contact
Herrenknecht AG
Achim Kühn
Schlehenweg 2
77963 Schwanau-Allmannsweier
Germany
Phone:
+49 (0)7824 302-5400
Fax:
+49 (0)7824 302-4730