Voith Paper under New Management

The Supervisory Board of Voith GmbH, Germany, this week appointed Andreas Endters chairman of the board of the Group Division Voith Paper, effective Oct. 1, 2017. Endters succeeds Bertram Staudenmaier, who will be leaving the company at the end of this year at his own request. 

Endters joined Voith Paper in Heidenheim in 1995 as head of sales and marketing for "QualiFlex Press Sleeves." In 2000, he was appointed EVP at Voith Paper in Ravensburg; one year later, he became chairman of the Voith Paper Advisory Board. Two years later, in 2004, Endters was appointed to the Management Board of the Group Division Voith Paper and put in charge of the Business Division Rolls. In 2008, he moved to the Management Board of the Group Division Voith Hydro, where he was responsible for the worldwide contract handling of Large Hydro. At the end of 2011, he returned to Voith Paper as a member of the Group Division Management, initially in charge of paper machines. Since October 2012, he has been responsible for the business line Projects.

"Andreas Endters can look back over 20 years of active work in the company, 19 of them at Voith Paper. His experiences in the Group Division Voith Paper cover the large plant business, the business with rolls and consumables, as well as service. Andreas’ most recent activity was the restructuring of the new plant business in the Group Division Voith Paper, which he successfully guided through the far-ranging changes in the paper industry. Today, the new plant business has been adapted to the new market situation and is firmly positioned for the future. This is largely due to Andreas’ continuous efforts. Due to decades of business and market know-how in the paper industry, as well as his proven leadership skills, he is the ideal successor for the parting Bertram Staudenmaier," said Dr. Hubert Lienhard, CEO and president of the Management Board of Voith GmbH.

Thomas Holzer, regional president of Voith Paper Asia and president of BL Projects Voith Paper Asia since 2014, will take over Endters’ former position as member of the Board of Management of Voith Paper. Holzer joined Voith Paper in Heidenheim in 1999. In 2003, he took over the role as GM of sales and VP of Voith Paper Rolls Indonesia. From 2009, he was responsible for the area of machine-section rolls in St. Pölten, Austria. In 2012, he was appointed COO/SVP of Voith Paper Fabric & Roll Systems Asia.

The successor of Holzer as regional president of Voith Paper Asia and president of BL Projects Voith Paper Asia will be Kurt Yu. Yu is a native Chinese and has excellent knowledge of the Chinese and Asian markets. He has served as VP of sales BL Projects Asia since 2014. Yu joined Voith Paper Rolls China as customer service manager in 2004; in 2007 he took over as operations manager of Nansha Rolls plant, and, in 2012, he was appointed VP of Business Development for BL FRS. He has 20 years of experience in the Asian paper industry.

Founded in 1867, Voith today has around 19,000 employees, sales of EUR 4.3 billion, and locations in more than 60 countries worldwide, and is thus one of the largest family-owned companies in Europe.