TBM giant plans top management succession 5 Aug 2014

Expansion of the Supervisory Board of Herrenknecht paves the way for the succession of company founder and Management Board Chairman Martin Herrenknecht, Vice-Chairman Gebhard Lehmann, and Chief Financial Officer Kurt Stiefel.

Appointment of three younger generation Deputy Board Members to the Supervisory Board, “follows a plan for orderly succession in the Group’s Board of Management”. The trio will work initially alongside long-serving Management Board members who have served continuously since Herrenknecht became a listed company in 1998 and, in the case of Herrenknecht himself and Lehmann, since the company was founded in 1976.

The new appointments are:

• Günter Richter, aged 54. Richter took overall management responsibility of the Traffic Tunnelling Business Unit (TBMs of 4.2m diameter and above) on August 1 (2014). With an annual business volume of more than €600 million, this division covers the majority of the Group’s sales. He has been at the company for more than 20 years.
• Michael Sprang, aged 36, has been with Herrenknecht since 2010 when he joined as assistant to the Chairman of the Board. He will take over the commercial management of the Traffic Tunnelling Unit on 1 January 2015. The industrial engineer is currently Chief Financial Officer of the largest Herrenknecht production site outside Germany in Guangzhou, China.
• Ulrich Schaffhauser, aged 50, took responsibility for the overall management of the Utility Tunnelling Business Unit (TBMs up to 4.2m diameter) on August 1 (2014). This division has an annual turnover of around €200 million. Like Richter, Schaffhauser has been at Herrenknecht for more than 20 years.

A company statement explained that the three new Deputy Board Members will be progressively entrusted with operational and strategic duties by Martin Herrenknecht, Gebhard Lehmann and Kurt Stiefel.

Dr Martin Herrenknecht, aged 72, said: “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.” Hans-Jörg Vetter, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, said: “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. With the jointly initiated succession plan in top management we have laid an important foundation for Herrenknecht.”