Ink World staff11.12.20
The Management Board of the ALPLA Group, the global plastic packaging and recycling specialist based in Hard, Austria, is being restructured.
Philipp Lehner will succeed Günther Lehner as CEO on Jan. 1, 2021, making him the third generation of the family to run the company.
Lehner will assume the position of chairman.
The company has been preparing for this generational change for years, and it will now be effected with Günther Lehner handing over the agendas of the CEO to his son, Philipp, on Jan. 1, 2021.
They will visit customers together in 2021 to introduce Philipp as the new CEO of the ALPLA Group.
As chairman, Günther Lehner will play a part in the company’s strategic direction in the years to come.
One of the focuses of his future activities will be further developing the recycling and circular economy lines of business.
He will also contribute his many years of experience in technology development and innovation and will play a significant part in shaping the company’s strategic networking with customers, suppliers and other business partners.
"I am delighted to be placing the management of our company in family hands and I am confident that Philipp will do excellently at occupying this position. This will secure the continuity that our customers and business partners need," Günther Lehner said.
"ALPLA has strong foundations and is excellently positioned to rise to the challenges of these times," added Philipp Lehner. "I am grateful to my family for the enormous trust they are placing in me and I look forward to shaping the company’s future together with our staff."
Philipp Lehner, 36, joined ALPLA in June 2014 following his business management training, study periods abroad, jobs in the finance and consultancy sectors, and an MBA qualification at the Harvard Business School.
Upon joining the family-owned business, he spent his first six months on a plant trainee programme in Lübeck, Germany. He then served as plant manager at ALPLA Iowa for 18 months.
Since January 2019, Philipp has been CFO of ALPLA, making him responsible for the areas of finance, IT, digitalization and HR.
Günther Lehner, 61, became plant manager at ALPLA’s newly acquired plant in Lübeck in 1987.
He then returned to the company’s headquarters in Hard in 1989 as head of the Technical Center and subsequently joined the ALPLA management.
He became CEO in 2006.
Starting Jan. 1, 2021, the ALPLA Group Management Board will include: CEO Philipp Lehner, Chief Commerical Officer Nicolas Lehner, CFO Ricardo Rehm, Chief Technology Officer Klaus Allgäuer, and Chief Operating Officer Walter Ritzer.