Fifty-four year-old von Achten took over the chairmanship on February 1. He has been deputy chairman of the managing board since 2015, and succeeds Dr. Bernd Scheifele (61), who will step down from the role of chairman on 31 January 2020 after his third term of office to enter retirement.
“With Dr. Dominik von Achten, a competent, recognised, and internationally experienced manager from among our own ranks is taking over the chairmanship of HeidelbergCement,” said Fritz-Jürgen Heckmann, chairman of the supervisory board of HeidelbergCement. “Over the past 13 years, he has proven himself in a variety of roles within the company."
von Achten has been a member of the managing board of HeidelbergCement since 2007 and deputy chairman of the managing board since 2015. His area of responsibility included the group areas of North America and Western and Southern Europe as well as the competence centre materials. He played a significant role in the successful integration of both Hanson and Italcementi. As chief digital officer, he is responsible for the areas of digital transformation and digital ventures.
Heckmann thanked Scheifele for his many years of highly successful commitment to the company.
He added that Sheifele had "successfully increased the company’s competitiveness by introducing efficient management processes and a lean administration, he expanded its geographic positioning and business activities, and developed it into the globally leading, vertically integrated building materials Group. Under his leadership, HeidelbergCement’s revenue has more than doubled to around €18 billion, result from current operations almost tripled, and the headcount increased by roughly 40% to around 57,000 employees.”
After the statutory two-year cooling-off period has expired, Scheifele will stand as a candidate for the supervisory board of HeidelbergCement in 2022 to become its chairman.
HeidelbergCement made a number of other changes to its managing board on February 1. Dr. Lorenz Näger, who has been the company’s chief financial officer since 2004, will additionally become the new deputy chairman of the managing board. He is responsible for finance, group accounting, controlling, taxes, treasury, data protection, insurance & corporate risk management, IT, purchasing, and shared service centre.
von Achten will hand over responsibility for the Western and Southern Europe group area to Jon Morrish, who was previously responsible for the North America group area.
Chris Ward, who was previously head of the Canada region and has been a member of the managing board of HeidelbergCement since 1 September 2019, takes over the North America group area and the competence centre materials. He has been with the company since 1996 and held several management positions in the USA before assuming responsibility for the Canada region of the North America group area.
