STEAG streamlines management

CFO Dr. Heiko Sanders steps down / CTO Ralf Schmitz takes on additional responsibility for Finance

Essen. Dr. Heiko Sanders, 52, Chief Financial Officer of STEAG GmbH since May 2020, is leaving the Essen-based energy company with effect from September 15, 2021, at his own request and by mutual agreement, in order to take on new professional challenges.

The reason for this is the large overlap between the areas of responsibility of Dr. Heiko Sanders as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Ralf Schmitz, the Chief Transformation Officer (CTO), who was appointed in August 2021.

Joint decision
“After only a few weeks of working together it became clear that the links between restructuring and finance are so close that it is only logical to place the responsibility for both areas in one pair of hands,” says Dr. Heiko Sanders. Against that background, it was a decision arrived at jointly to reorganize the management team and to entrust CTO Ralf Schmitz with responsibility for Finance in the future.

Thanks from the Supervisory Board
Guntram Pehlke, the Chairman of STEAG’s Supervisory Board, thanked the outgoing CFO on behalf of the company and its representative bodies for his great personal commitment in what have been challenging times for STEAG. “Dr. Heiko Sanders came on board in troubled waters and made important contributions during his time as a member of the Board of Management – in drawing up a restructuring concept for STEAG, in closely supervising the ongoing transformation process and now also in the almost completed refinancing of STEAG and its parent company KSBG. We greatly regret that Dr. Sanders is leaving the company and wish him all the best for his professional and personal future.”

The personnel decision that has now been taken was reached amicably by all those involved, Guntram Pehlke confirms. It underlines once again the great sense of responsibility for STEAG that Dr. Heiko Sanders has always exhibited during his work for the company, says the STEAG Supervisory Board’s Chairman.

Ralf Schmitz, 54, whose area of responsibility within the Board of Management will be expanded accordingly on the departure of Dr. Heiko Sanders, is a partner in the Düsseldorf-based management consultancy Schmitz & Partner, and has extensive experience in the restructuring and transformation of companies in the industrial sector. An industrial engineer, he is the fourth member of the STEAG Board of Management alongside Joachim Rumstadt (Chairman), Dr. Andreas Reichel (Human Resources), and Dr. Ralf Schiele (Market and Technology).