OSNABRÜCK, Germany — July 5, 2018 — Orderly and carefully planned changes in the leadership of the Osnabrück-based Felix Schoeller Group have now been actioned. After 12 years as CEO, Dr. Bernhard Klofat handed over the helm to Hans-Christoph Gallenkamp, who has been vice chair of the management board for the last three years and COO since January 2017. There has also been a change on the advisory board of the Osnabrück-based family business. The vice-chair of the advisory board, Prof. Andreas Georgi, was elected as its chair, with Dr. Klofat replacing him as vice chair. Having served as chair of the advisory board for many years, Hans-Michael Gallenkamp was appointed to the post of honorary chair.
The appointment of Hans-Christoph Gallenkamp sees a member of the Schoeller family once more at the helm of the company, which was founded in 1895.
The Felix Schoeller Group is a well-positioned family business with international operations. It currently has production facilities in five countries on three continents, manufacturing high-end specialty papers for a wide range of industries. The company’s success is based on the consistent global focus of its sales and production strategy. In addition to its production sites in Germany, the United States and Canada and its worldwide sales offices, it also set up the Mayak-Technocell joint venture in Russia back in 2006. Last year, another joint venture was added: Winbon Schoeller New Materials in China. These two foreign joint ventures are key elements in the Group’s continuing growth strategy.
Dr. Bernhard Klofat
Dr. Klofat joined the Felix Schoeller Group in 1993 and was chair of the family business’s management board (CEO) until the end of June 2018.
Born in Düsseldorf in 1958, he left school after passing his Abitur in 1976 and from then until 1979 trained as a business management assistant with Henkel KGaA in Düsseldorf. He then started a degree in business management at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich in 1980, graduating in 1985. After completing his doctorate in 1988, he joined Klöckner & Co. in Duisburg, where he worked as an assistant to the board of management. In 1989, he became head of the company’s central accounting/business management department. Dr. Klofat joined the Schoeller Group in January 1993, as head of the central commercial function. In parallel to this, he was appointed to the management board of the photographic and specialty paper business unit in October 1994. From January 1995 until the end of 2005, he was head of the Imaging Division with its three business units – photo, digital imaging and specialty papers. In January 2006 he was appointed as COO of the Felix Schoeller Group and was at the helm of the company from 1 January 2007 until 30 June 2018 as chair of the management board. Dr Klofat will remain connected with the company in his role as consultant and vice-chair of the advisory board.
Hans-Christoph Gallenkamp
The Felix Schoeller Group’s new CEO joined the company back in 1997. Born in 1969, after leaving school he did a degree in paper engineering at TU Darmstadt and an international Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in Canada, which he gained under the University of Toronto’s program for working professionals.
Milestones in his career with the Felix Schoeller Group include his job on paper machine 1 (PM1) at the Osnabrück mill and later his position as head of raw materials management in the extrusion process at the Osnabrück mill. Between 1999 and 2001, Hans-Christoph Gallenkamp was in charge of specialty base paper production at the Schoeller Group’s American mill in Pulaski, N.Y. From 2002 onwards, he was COO of the Technocell Division. This position included responsibility for marketing, sales and technology. As chief technical officer Gallenkamp has been on the management board of Felix Schoeller Holding since October 2012. He took up the post of deputy CEO of the Osnabrück-based Felix Schoeller Group on 1 January 2015. He then became COO on 1 January 2017. He was appointed CEO of the company with effect from 1 July 2018.
Hans-Christoph Gallenkamp is a fifth-generation shareholder in the Felix Schoeller Group.
Hans-Michael Gallenkamp
Hans-Michael Gallenkamp (born in 1945), the grandson of Gerhard Schoeller, joined the company in 1978 and became CEO in 1980. Under his leadership, the company focused initially – both in terms of strategy and operations – on producing photographic base paper. In 1984, paper machine 1 was built at the Osnabrück mill, becoming the world’s largest photo paper machine. As a result, the company rose to the position of international market leader in this product segment. In 1990, Hans-Michael Gallenkamp began to diversify into new growth areas. He drove forward the production of decor papers for the wood-based products industry and the expansion of the digital media business. This was followed by the first element in the internationalization of the production facility in Drummondville, Canada, at the beginning of the 2000s. In 2006, the Mayak-Technocell joint venture was set up in Russia with the aim of supplying high-quality decor papers to the local market. In the same year, Hans-Michael Gallenkamp handed over the baton to Dr Bernhard Klofat and took on the role of chair of the advisory board to the Group.
Prof. Andreas Georgi
Prof. Georgi, formerly a member of the board of Dresdner Bank AG, serves on several supervisory boards and committees, some of which he chairs. He is honorary professor at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and also works as an executive advisor.
Born in Bremen on 17 May 1957, Andreas Georgi trained as a bank clerk with Bremer Bank, a branch of Dresdner Bank AG, before beginning a degree in business administration and engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt. After graduating, he worked as a research assistant in the finance and tax law department at the same university, gaining his doctorate in this field.
Andreas Georgi joined Dresdner Bank AG in 1986, working first in the credit/risk management department at the bank’s headquarters and subsequently as assistant to Kurt Morgen, member of the management board. In 1993, Andreas Georgi joined Bankhaus Reuschel & Co in Munich as a partner with personal liability. In 2000, he was appointed to the board of directors of Dresdner Bank AG in Frankfurt/Main.
In addition to this, he was appointed to the supervisory boards of various companies – some of them listed (DAX or MDAX) and some of them family-run businesses. He had particular responsibility on these boards for finance and capital markets.
Andreas Georgi is honorary professor at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, where he has been teaching since 2008. His areas of expertise are management and controlling problems in practice and supervisory board management in listed, family-run and non-profit companies.
Prof. Georgi has been a member of the advisory board to the Felix Schoeller Group since 1999. He was elected chair of the advisory board in June 2018.
Posted July 5, 2018
Source: Felix Schoeller Group
