Klöckner & Co SE announced that Guido Kerkhoff, who has been responsible for the operating business in Europe as Deputy Chairman of the Management Board since the beginning of September 2020, has been appointed by the Supervisory Board to take over as CEO of Klöckner & Co SE as of the close of the Annual General Meeting as planned, effective May 13, 2021. He succeeds Gisbert Rühl, a member of the Management Board since 2006 and CEO since 2009. In addition, the Supervisory Board has appointed Mr. Bernhard Weiß to the Group Management Board of Klöckner & Co SE as Chief Executive Officer Europe (CEO Europe), effective June 1, 2021. In this role, he will be responsible for the EU activities (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands). For the past several years, Bernhard Weiß has been CEO of the French country organization, where his accomplishments include a successful restructuring. Before joining Klöckner & Co, he served as CEO of Yara International in Africa for approximately three years. He also held various international executive roles at Siemens. To better integrate operations, he also takes over the management of Klöckner & Co Deutschland in addition to France. Thus, as of June 1, 2021, the Group Management Board of Klöckner & Co SE will consist of Guido Kerkhoff, CEO; Dr. Oliver Falk, CFO; John Ganem, CEO Americas; and Bernhard Weiß, CEO Europe.
Kloeckner & Co SE is a Germany-based steel and metal distributor and steel service center. The Company's range includes products for building installations, roof and wall construction, and water supply. It processes flat steel products, such as thin sheets and strips as well as thick sheets, and long steel products, including merchant bars, sectional steel, beams, tubes, and hollow sections, such as structural hollow sections, precision tubes, and seamless heavy-wall pipes, stainless steel, and high-grade steel, including sheet, profiles, and tubes, as well as aluminum profiles, sheet, strip, and plates. Its service portfolio comprises coil processing, forming, and manufacturing of pressed parts, computer numerical control (CNC) turning and milling, two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) tube laser cutting, laser and water jet cutting, processing of steel and high-grade structural steel thermal cutting, surface treatment, including shot blasting and primer painting.