OECHSLER AG appoints new Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Ansbach, April 30, 2024 - OECHSLER AG, a leading polymer technology company based in Ansbach/Middle Franconia, is appointing Alexander Wortberg as Chief Production and Human Resources Officer with effect from June 1, 2024. In doing so, the company is taking over from its long-standing Chief Operations Officer, Christoph Faßhauer (58), who has been with the company for 26 years and has held the position of Chief Operating Officer for 19 years. Christoph Faßhauer will step down from the Management Board and the company at his own request on August 31, 2024, but will subsequently support OECHSLER in an advisory capacity.

Alexander Wortberg (51) will gradually take over Christoph Faßhauer's areas of responsibility from June and will also be responsible for the international production sites. Due to the large number of employees that Alexander Wortberg will be responsible for in his future role at the polymers specialist's global locations, he will also take over the “Human Resources” division from Chief Financial Officer and Spokesman of the Management Board, Karl Ostler. The establishment of a centrally managed, global production organization is a key component of the BE:FOCUSED transformation program recently announced by OECHSLER.

Following Christoph Faßhauer's departure, the three-member Executive Board of OECHSLER AG will continue to include Alexander Wortberg as Chief Operating Officer (COO), Raik Lüder as Chief Products and Markets Officer (CPMO) and Karl Ostler as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Spokesman of the Executive Board from September 1, 2024.

Wortberg is a production expert with extensive international experience in the automotive industry. He comes from ZF Friedrichshafen AG, a global technology group, where he was most recently responsible for the global production of transmissions and electric axles for passenger cars. Previously, Wortberg was plant manager at Qoros Automotive, an automotive start-up, and the car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover, where he managed several international locations in China and Europe and was responsible in particular for the development and operation of international production organizations. The mechanical engineering graduate (RWTH Aachen) with an MBA (INSEAD Fontainebleau) began his professional career at the BMW Group in the “Production Strategy” division. Wortberg is married and has three children.

The current Chief Operations Officer, Christoph Faßhauer, joined OECHSLER on July 1, 1998 as Commercial Director and took over responsibility for production as a member of the Management Board in 2004. During this time, OECHSLER developed from a company with production sites exclusively in Franconia to a globally oriented group of companies with production sites in Romania, Mexico and China.

“On behalf of the Supervisory Board and Management Board, I would like to thank Christoph Faßhauer for his outstanding management of our plants, particularly in Germany and Romania, over the past 19 years. During this time, it was particularly important to him to create competitive production structures and to promote and facilitate cooperative collaboration between our qualified specialists in all process-related functions. In doing so, he made a significant contribution to the internationalization of our company,” comments Wolf Matthias Mang, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of OECHSLER AG. “With Mr. Wortberg, we have gained an experienced production expert for the Management Board who, with his international experience, will make a major contribution to the success of our transformation and make our production sites even more competitive,” continues Wolf Matthias Mang.