GERMANY – Jürgen Kleiner, the Managing Director of BITZER SE has left the company by amicable consent, after having worked for the company for 23 years.
“The board of management and the management team are very sorry to see Mr. Kleiner go. We would like to thank him for his outstanding and extremely successful work for BITZER and we wish him all of the best for both his professional and for his private life” announced Senator h. c. Peter Schaufler, CEO of BITZER.
The company have already taken steps to reorganise and restructure the management team, with Jürgen Kleiner’s responsibility within the management team as head of materials management to be taken up by Christian Wehrle in his position as the new Chief Operations Officer. Wehrle was previously a member of the Bitzer management team in his capacity as Chief Production Officer. This decision means that the responsibility for production and for procurement for the company now rests on the shoulders of Mr Wehrle.
The company’s new Chief Financial Officer will be Frank Hartmann, who takes over from Jürgen Kleiner who was acting Chief Financial Officer. The 41-year old Mr Hartmann is a proven financial expert who has already held positions of responsibility with Bitzer as the Director of Corporate Finance and Treasury at the company’s headquarters in Sindelfingen. Mr Hartmann brings extensive international experience from the financial sector to the table, particularly as a result of his previous position as Vice President at Deutsche Bank, and he will be expected to liaise closely with Bitzer’s financial partners.
Helmut Meyer has also signed an amicable mutual agreement that will terminate his contract of employment with the company. “In recent years, Mr. Meyer has contributed to the successful development of the Bitzer group. We would like to thank him for his many years of dedication in our sales division and we would like to offer him our best wishes for the future, both professionally and personally,” declared Senator h. c. Peter Schaufler. Mr Meyer was influential in establishing the Bitzer sales system in South and Central America and also contributed to setting up the company’s transport refrigeration division.
Bitzer further announced that Gianni Parlanti would take up the responsibility of Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. Mr Parlanti’s previous role within the company was Director of Business Development at Bitzer HQ in Sindelfingen and prior to that posting he worked for almost eight years as Managing Director of Bitzer Refrigeration in Asia.
“An important market for the company which he managed very successfully,” stated Senator h. c. Peter Schaufler.
The choice of Mr Parlanti as Chief Sales and Marketing Officer underlines the growing importance of internationalization within Bitzer as Mr Parlanti has 25 years of experience in the refrigeration and air conditioning sector and 20 years with compressors and boasts excellent international contacts.