After thirteen successful years at Voith, Bertram Staudenmaier (photo), chairman of the Management Board of Voith Paper and a member of the Corporate Board of Management, has decided to look for new challenges outside of the company. He will therefore not be extending his contract, which terminates at the end of this year. The Supervisory Board will decide about his successor at the next regular meeting on June 2, 2017.

Staudenmaier joined Voith as a member of the Corporate Board of Management in 2005, where he assumed responsibility for Fabric & Roll Systems (FRS) at Voith Paper. Under his leadership, FRS grew to become a highly successful and profitable business division in the Voith Group. On July 1, 2014, he was appointed chairman of the Management Board of Voith Paper and took over the overall responsibility for this group division when the company faced significant challenges. With great skill and dedication, he and his management team succeeded in putting Voith’s paper division in a position to meet the challenges of the future. 

Today Voith Paper is well adjusted to the diminished size of the market and ready to embark on new growth. Despite the shrinking market for graphic paper products, the global paper industry is a very attractive, big, and significant industry with a market volume of approximately $200 billion. In this industry, Voith again holds an excellent position. 

"With his strong leadership qualities and wide-ranging industry experience both in Germany and abroad, Bertram Staudenmaier put Voith Paper back on course to success," said Dr. Hubert Lienhard, president and CEO of Voith GmbH. "In his 13 years in various functions, he has made an outstanding contribution to our company."

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.