Bitzer announces boardroom changes

GERMANY: There have been boardroom changes at Bitzer following the departure of two main board directors “by amicable, mutual consent”.

On Friday, the world’s largest independent refrigeration compressor manufacturer announced the restructuring of its management team following the departure of chief procurement officer Jürgen Kleiner and chief sales and marketing officer Helmut Meyer.

Jürgen Kleiner’s responsibilities have been taken over by fellow board member and chief production officer Christian Wehrle. Under the new title of chief operations officer, Wehrle will be in charge of both production and procurement.

Kleiner’s role as chief financial officer, which he had held on an interim basis, has been taken on by Frank Hartmann, the current director of corporate finance and treasury at the company headquarters in Sindelfingen. Hartmann was previously a vice president at Deutsche Bank.

Expressing sadness at the departure of Kleiner, who had worked for Bitzer for 23 years, CEO Peter Schaufler said: “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.”

Helmut Meyer, who was appointed to the role of sales and marketing officer in December last year, after 13 years with the company, is also said to have terminated his contract “at his own request and with an amicable mutual agreement”.

During his time with the company, Helmut Meyer helped to establish the Bitzer sales system in South and Central America and the company statement, in which Peter Schaufler also wished him well in the future, states that he had “made an essential contribution to setting up our transport refrigeration division”.

Meyer has been replaced by Gianni Parlanti, previously the company’s director of business development. Prior to that, he worked for almost eight years as managing director of Bitzer Refrigeration in Asia.

Bitzer says the choice of Gianni Parlanti “emphasises the significance of the increasing internationalisation as our new chief sales and marketing officer has 25 years of experience in the refrigeration and air conditioning sector and 20 years with compressors. He thus has excellent international contacts, spread all over the world”.