BENTELER Steel/Tube strengthens top management from its own ranks

Salzburg/Paderborn, September 28, 2022. BENTELER Steel/Tube is strengthening its management team to continue the successful implementation of its strategic transformation: As of October 1, 2022, Christian Wiethüchter, previously Chief Sales and Operating Officer and member of the Management Board, will take over the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In future, he will be responsible for the areas of sales, strategy, communications, project management, human resources and the Shreveport plant until the completion of the planned sale. As before, he will report to Ralf Göttel, CEO of the BENTELER Group.

Thomas Michels, previously Vice President Operations for the BENTELER Steel/Tube Schloss Neuhaus/Paderborn cluster, will become the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) and member of the Management Board. In future he will be responsible for all of the company's plants as well as manufacturing engineering, SHE & operation services, purchasing and the raw materials trading company Günther Voth GmbH.

Dr. Tobias Braun completes the Management Board as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) BENTELER Steel/Tube. Tobias Braun has also been CFO of the BENTELER Group since September 1, 2022.

Ralf Göttel: "BENTELER Steel/Tube is on the road to success. It is economically strong, a quality leader, and industry-wide pioneer in the field of sustainability. The transformation of the past years is paying off! Christian Wiethüchter has played a decisive role in this and I am very pleased that this will be even more clearly reflected in his future role as CEO. At the same time, Thomas Michels will now take on a higher-level role to ensure that all our steel/tube plants work together even more effectively."

Ralf Göttel continues, “I am proud that we have been able to fill the positions at BENTELER Steel/Tube internally. We have many highly talented employees in the company and we are consistently developing them to continue the successful transformation at full speed. BENTELER Steel/Tube is excellently positioned: geographically through the announced sale of our steel tube plant in Shreveport; strategically through our focus on high-quality, sustainably produced steel tubes; and in terms of personnel through a lean, highly competent management team.”

Christian Wiethüchter, born in 1968 in La Paz, Bolivia, has been Managing Director of BENTELER Steel/Tube since 2017. In his previous role as Chief Sales and Operating Officer, he was responsible for the general strategic orientation of the BENTELER division, among other things. Previously, he held various management positions, including at Körber AG and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen GmbH.

Thomas Michels, born in Warburg in 1970, began his career at BENTELER in 1997 as an engineer in production and passed through various functions in the company. At BENTELER Steel/Tube he was responsible, among other things, for quality, logistics, new construction and maintenance from 2010-2020 in the plant management at the Schloss Neuhaus site.