Changes will take place at the top of the Swiss-based instrumentation company Endress+Hauser at the start of 2024. Dr Klaus Endress will give up his responsibilities as president of the supervisory board by end of 2023. He is to be succeeded by CEO Matthias Altendorf. The new CEO of the group will be Dr Peter Selders, the present head of the centre of competence for level and pressure measurement technology. Steven Endress, currently managing director of Endress+Hauser UK, will become the second member of the family to sit on the supervisory board.
Dr Endress, born in 1948, joined the company his father founded in 1979. He then took over the management in 1995. In 2014, he handed over day-to-day operation of the company to Altendorf and became president of the supervisory board. Much of the company bears his signature to this day. He also focused in recent years on ensuring a smooth generational change within the shareholder family.
New management for the group of companies
Altendorf is slated to take over as president of the supervisory board on 1 Jan 2024. He will be proposed for election at the annual general meeting on 3 Apr 2023. Dr Endress said: “He has known our company for 35 years and has led with prudence and success for nearly a decade. Altendorf also embodies the Endress+Hauser culture in an exemplary manner.”
Dr Selders will take over the reins as CEO. The 53-year-old executive, who holds a PhD in physics, joined Endress+Hauser in 2004 and has led the centre of competence for level and pressure measurement technology based in Maulburg, Germany, since 2019.
Family remains closely linked to the company
“It goes without saying that family will continue to be closely connected with the company,” said Dr Endress. As before, it will be represented by two members on the supervisory board. In addition to Sandra Genge, Steven Endress will join the board on 1 Jan 2024. The 44-year-old grandson of the company’s founder has worked for Endress+Hauser since 2012 and served as managing director in the UK since 2016.
Even though Dr Endress will no longer have an active role, he will remain chairman of the family council, which decides on all important issues in the relationship between the family and the company. For years, a family charter has governed the shareholders’ interaction and their relationship with the company.
Further succession arrangements in place
Dr Selders will be succeeded at the top of the centre of competence for level and pressure measurement technology by 49-year-old Dr Dirk Mörmann, currently director of technology and member of the board of directors. The fortunes of Endress+Hauser UK will be in the hands of Iain Cropper (51) as of 1 May 2023. As a member of the board of directors, to date he has been responsible for the sales centre’s operations.
