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2010-02-18 | 000-002-231 DE-EN
SCHAEFFLER AUTOMOTIVE AFTERMARKET GMBH & CO. OHG, LANGEN

Change in Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket management / Michael Söding succeeds Siegfried Kronmüller as board chairman

Since January 01, 2010 Michael Söding is the new chairman of the management board of Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket GmbH & Co. oHG in Langen. The 48 year old industrial engineer succeeds Siegfried Kronmüller (59), who retired at the end of last year.

With Michael Söding the new leadership was able to be recruited from Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket GmbH & Co. oHG’s own ranks. As a long-standing member of the management board Michael Söding was last responsible for marketing and sales at Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket. He began his career in 1989 with Pirelli Deutschland, followed by periods working for Accumulatorenwerke Hoppecke, Knorr Bremse and Exide Automotive. For the past eight years he has held a senior position with the aftermarket specialist Schaeffler Automotive.

“Under new management the company will continue to stand for consistency in a dynamic market environment – it will continue to stand for its pioneering spirit, innovation, quality as well as market-driven solutions and service concepts in the global automotive spare parts market”, says Michael Söding. Its service network, its distribution partners and regional locations ensure that Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket is always close to the customer and wararant high service and availability levels.

“Apart from having seized new market and growth potentials around the globe early on we expect, in light of the current climate of economic uncertainty, the reform of the Block Exemption Regulation (Commission Regulation (EC) 1400/2002) as well as the discussion on accessing vehicle specific data, many opportunities but also challenges in developing the automotive aftermarket. Protecting our trademarks and designs and especially the global campaign against product piracy will also be issues accompanying us throughout this business year”, says Michael Söding.

Coinciding with Michael Söding’s appointment as chairman, the management board was reorganized into the business divisions Product, Supply Chain Management, Marketing, Strategic Planning and Logistics to be consistently aligned to meet the customer demands of the Automotive Aftermarket.

With this the management board of Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket is now made up of: Dr. Robert Felger (Product), Michael Junker (Supply Chain Management), Maik Losleben (Marketing), Jens Schüler (Strategic Planning), Werner Schultz (Logistics) and Michael Söding (Chairman of the Board).

Information for editors

Dr. Robert Felger
Born in Nürnberg in 1964; studied mechanical engineering at Stuttgart University, awarded MBA from WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management, Koblenz, in 2004 and a doctorate in business administration in 2008. In 1989 he joined the LuK group, where he held a number of positions, firstly in engineering design, and later in application technology, and then as product line manager and plant manager. In 2008 Dr. Felger moved to LuK-AS, which has since become Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket GmbH & Co. oHG, as head of supplier management, purchasing and quality management. As of January 01, 2010 he was appointed manager of the company’s Product division.

Michael Junker
Following his studies of mathematics and physics Michael Junker began his career in 1985 in the IT department of Siemens AG, Brennelementewerk Hanau. In 1995 he joined Garny AG as SAP R/3 project manager, where he was later made responsible for IT. From 1998 to 2002 he was responsible for IT at Deutsche Exide GmbH. In 2002 Michael Junker became SAP project manager at what is now Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket GmbH & Co. oHG, where he was director of materials and process management/IT until his appointment as head of Supply Chain Management as of January 01, 2010.

Maik Losleben
Born in 1973 in Remscheid. Following his studies of economic sciences at Wuppertal University he began his carrier as a business development trainee at Dornier Satellitensysteme GmbH. From 2001 to 2005 he worked for Mazda Motor Europe, initially as product manager and later becoming head of product communications, before then moving to Temot International in 2005 as supplier manager. He began his career with Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket in 2008 as senior manager for the Central Sales Service. As of January 01, 2010 Maik Losleben was appointed director of marketing.

Jens Schüler
Born in 1974 in Bad Hersfeld. Studied economics at Mainz University. Following a brief period with Deutsche Börse AG in Frankfurt, in 2003 he joined what is now Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket GmbH & Co. oHG as advisor to the board for integration projects. In 2005 he also assumed responsibility for special management projects. From 2006 he was responsible for the “management office” project before becoming Automotive Aftermarket project manager at the beginning of 2009. As of January 01, 2010 Jens Schüler was appointed director of strategic planning at Schaeffler Automotive.

Werner Schultz
After graduating in economic sciences at Gießen University Werner Schultz began his career with Alfred Teves GmbH (now Continental Teves AG & Co. oHG), where he spent twelve years in various positions including head of sales/marketing and general manager in Brazil, later assuming responsibility for sales/marketing at Teves Aftermarket. In 1992 he moved to LuK, initially at managerial level, then becoming the second director. Since 1998 Werner Schultz has been the Partslife director. In 2004 he was appointed to the board of what is today Schaeffler Automotive Aftermarket GmbH & Co. oHG as director with responsibility for the supply chain. As of January 01, 2010 Werner Schultz is director of logistics.

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