Herrenknecht AG is expanding its top management. At yesterday's meeting the Supervisory Board appointed three new members to the Board of Management. As of 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.

August 1, 2014 Schwanau / Germany. 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 tunnelling 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."