Change in leadership at the ASH Group

With effect from September 2015, Stefan Heiniger will take over the position of CEO of the ASH Group to supersede Walter T. Vogel, who will then become the group’s new Chairman of the Board of Directors. The previous Chairman, Peter Spuhler, will remain a member of the Board of Directors. In addition, Dr. Peter Ramsauer, former German Minister of Transport, was appointed at the General Meeting as a new member of the Board of Directors.

42-year-old Stefan Heiniger holds a university degree in engineering (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) and additionally completed a postgraduate Executive MBA HSG study programme. After spending about 5 years at ABB, he moved on to Gallus Ferd. Rüesch AG, a company of the Heidelberg Group, in 2005. Following various leadership positions at Gallus, he has been the Operations Manager of the Label Printing Machines Division since 2010. In this capacity, he initiated and successfully implemented the necessary reorientation of this division following the financial crisis in 2009 and played a major role in expanding the market coverage, especially in Asia.

The Board of Directors is convinced that Stefan Heiniger possesses the required qualifications to successfully promote the ASH Group’s further development and growth as well as to continue consolidating the ASH Group’s position as a global leading system provider in the long term. New Chairman of the Board of Directors Walter T. Vogel says: “In Stefan Heiniger, we have gained an experienced, top-level executive for our company. He not only shares our leadership strategy but also our high standards regarding quality and customer satisfaction, which are important factors for both our past and future success. At the same time, our sincere thanks go to Peter Spuhler, who had a formative influence on the group and substantially promoted our innovative capacity during the last 8 years as Chairman of the Board of Directors. We are glad that he remains a member of the Board of Directors as a majority shareholder and will thereby continue to actively shape the future of the ASH Group.”

As part of the General Meeting, Dr. Peter Ramsauer was appointed as a new member of the Board of Directors. He is a long-serving member of the German Bundestag, Vice Chairman of the CSU, Chairman of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy and was Minister of Transport of the Federal Republic of Germany between 2009 and 2013. Furthermore, he is President of the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry. We are pleased that he will further strengthen the market competence of the ASH Group with his many years of international expertise in the field of transport infrastructure.