Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberg will not be extending his management contract when it expires on midyear 2013 and will be leaving the company at the end of 2012. He is handing over the company’s chairmanship after almost 13 years in charge. Over recent months, key steps have been taken to set the company’s new strategic course and a start has been made on putting this into practice to return Heidelberg to sustained profitable growth.
More than that, the industry trade show, drupa 2012 has led to the highest quarterly incoming orders in four years for the first quarter of financial year 2012/2013. The Supervisory Board and Schreier himself feel now is the right time to make the change in order to create new impetus at the very top of the company. The Supervisory Board unanimously appointed Dr. Gerold Linzbach (56) as Heidelberg CEO with effect from September 1, 2012. Schreier will ensure the transition goes smoothly and will accompany the handover process up till the end of the year.
“I would like to thank Bernhard Schreier for his achievements as Heidelberg CEO. In a career spanning a total of 37 years, 13 of them as CEO, he has truly made his mark on the company and has succeeded in guiding it through two major global economic crisis and structural upheaval in the printing industry. Particularly in very difficult recent times, he has helped transform Heidelberg from a traditional press manufacturer into a solution and service provider in the print media industry,” said Robert J. Koehler, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. “Dr. Linzbach has many years of management and capital market expertise, which will help pave the way for a successful future at Heidelberg,” he added.
Dr. Gerold Linzbach (born in 1956) obtained a degree in chemistry and added a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Dortmund in 1985. He started his career as the head of a research group at the DECHEMA Institute in Frankfurt. After holding various positions, in 2009, he was appointed CEO and Member of the Management Board of D+S Europe and its successor companies in Hamburg.
