SCHOTTEL Appoints Stefan Kaul as CEO and Hans Laheij as Deputy CEO

Today SCHOTTEL announced that it has appointed Mr Stefan Kaul as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & President Industrial Operations. The appointment follows the departure of Dr Christian Strahberger who has decided to leave the company. Mr Kaul joined the company in 1989 and has held several key positions in research and hydrodynamics. Mr Kaul has built up a large experience within the Marine propulsion business. Since 2007 Mr Kaul has held the position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and was responsible for all engineering activities.

At the same time SCHOTTEL announces that it will create two business focus areas to increase the company operational effectiveness and further increase the focus on delivering customer value.

The ‘Industrial Operations’ business area will ensure effective processes for customer deliveries, while the business focus area ‘Marine’ will focus on all Global Sales, Marketing and Services activities and customer contacts. Besides his duties as CEO, Mr Kaul will also lead the business area ‘Industrial Operations’.

In connection with the changes in business structure, Mr Hans Laheij has been appointed Deputy CEO & President Marine. Mr Laheij joined the company in 2016 and has since then held the position of VP Sales & Marketing at SCHOTTEL. Mr Laheij has a long working experience in the maritime business and previously worked in various commercial and project management roles at Lips Propulsion and Wärtsilä Marine Solutions. He was working in Asia and stationed in Shanghai, China before moving to Germany to join SCHOTTEL in 2016.

“With this change, we will be able to further focus on delivering customer value and optimize our design, manufacturing and delivery processes,” says Prof. Gerhard Jensen, CEO of SCHOTTEL Industries. “SCHOTTEL will continue to be an agile company with high customer focus. With the appointment of both Mr Stefan Kaul and Mr Hans Laheij, I am confident that we can continue to build an even stronger SCHOTTEL in the coming years,” says Mr Knut Herman Gjøvaag, Chairman of the Board.