The Montan-Stiftung-Saar has appointed a new Executive Board team and with these personnel decisions is sending out a clear signal for the future of the Saarland steel industry. The overriding objective of the Foundation's Board of Directors and Board of Trustees is to successfully guide the steel industry through the upcoming years of transformation towards the production of green steel. This requires a board team which, in addition to the necessary expertise, also identifies with the Saarland steel industry and has the will to successfully implement the next steps in decarbonization.
Ready for the future
A few months ago, the foundation's Executive Board initiated a process to enable it to meet these criteria. At the end of this process is the management team that has now been presented, which will be equally responsible for the management of SHS and the board work at Dillinger and Saarstahl.
Stefan Rauber will assume the role of Chairman of the Management Board of SHS and Chairman of the Management Board of Dillinger and Saarstahl. Rauber was unanimously appointed by the Board of Trustees and the Supervisory Board representatives of the Foundation and ArcelorMittal, as well as the employee representatives. He has been a member of the management board of Montan-Stiftung-Saar for four years, has played a key role in transforming it into a genuine industrial and investment holding company, and is also a long-standing head of the energy and industry department in the Saarland Ministry of Economic Affairs and a profound expert on the Saarland steel industry.
"I would like to thank the Board of Trustees of Montan-Stiftung-Saar and the supervisory bodies of the companies for the trust they have placed in me. I look forward to working with the Executive Board team to further develop the corporate and brand strategy in a forward-looking way and successfully drive forward the transformation of the Saarland steel industry. This includes a clear commitment to the companies and the people who live and work here. But also the openness to explore new paths, identify innovations, actively promote them and thus open up new markets and customers for the future. Our mission is to make our companies two of the most modern and innovative steel producers in Europe. We will consistently pursue this goal together with our customers," says Stefan Rauber about his new task.
The decision to appoint Dr. Peter Maagh as Chief Technology and Production Officer represents a necessary expansion of competencies. In the course of the conversion of production to green steel, Mr. Maagh is to be responsible in particular for plant engineering and infrastructure. He also has a very good knowledge of the energy industry. Dr. Maagh has been involved in the construction of major industrial projects on an international level for over two decades.
Daniel Van der Hout will be responsible for sales at Dillinger and Saarstahl as a member of the Management Board. Van der Hout has been sales director at Dillinger for three years and prior to that spent approximately 20 years in various managerial positions at VoestAlpine. During his time at Dillinger, he achieved significant sales successes that helped Dillinger grow into a leading global heavy plate manufacturer.
Chief Financial Officer Markus Lauer and Joerg Disteldorf as Chief Human Resources Officer and Labor Director as well as Jonathan Weber as Chief Transformation Officer will contribute their competencies as important building blocks in the new team and ensure the success of decarbonization together with their colleagues.
"The future alignment of the Executive Board in line with the challenges ahead is a consistent and correct step. The economic basis for the transformation of the Saarland steel industry has been created in recent years under difficult conditions. A generational change must now take place so that the measures now facing us in the coming years can be implemented stringently and without interruption by a strong team," explains Dr. Karl-Ulrich Köhler.
The new team will now take responsibility for the Saarland steel industry and lead the companies through the extremely challenging period until the end of the decarbonization strategy. In the coming years, decisions will have to be made and implemented which will require a new dialog with employees, customers, suppliers, business partners, but also the public and politicians. The newly formed management team presented today stands for this future.
