On 6 November 2024 the Supervisory Board of Rheinmetall AG approved changes to the structure and composition of the group’s Executive Board that will take effect from 1 January 2025.
The changes are a response to the increased demands being placed on the board by Rheinmetall’s significant recent growth. The group will reach the threshold of about EUR 10 billion in annual sales for the first time in 2024. With the order backlog expected to grow to around EUR 60 billion by the end of the year, the group is preparing to generate annual sales of around EUR 20 billion in just a few years.
In addition to the extension of the mandate for the Chairman of the Executive Board, Armin Papperger, the most important change is the appointment of the newly created position of Chief Operation Officer. The reason given for this, along with the company’s major growth, is the backdrop of a rapidly advancing internationalisation in combination with an expansion in business activities.
The Supervisory Board is focusing on readjusting the balance between continuity and innovation, Rheinmetall stated in a 6 November press release. Accordingly, the measures adopted on 6 November are intended to guarantee organisational sustainability and reliability as well as the necessary ability to innovate and adapt while displaying continued entrepreneurial agility in the coming years, which will be characterised by extraordinary organic and inorganic growth.
The personnel reorganisation in detail is as follows:
- Armin Papperger, who has headed Rheinmetall as CEO since 1 January 2013, will be appointed Chairman of the Executive Board for a further five years from 1 January 2025.
- Dagmar Steinert will step down from her position as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) on 31 December 2024.
- Klaus Neumann will become CFO from 1 January 2025. Neumann is currently Head of Corporate Accounting at Rheinmetall AG and has been with the group for 12 years. In addition to the further development of financial reporting, he will also be responsible for continuing the group’s IT transformation.
- René Gansauge will take on the newly created position of Chief Operations Officer (COO) from 1 January 2025. Gansauge is currently head of the Weapon and Ammunition Division and has been with the company for 19 years. He will be responsible for driving forward the company-wide alignment, optimisation and activation of production and organisational processes.
- Ursula Biernert, who was appointed as the new Chief Human Resources Officer and Labour Director this year, completes the Executive Board and, together with her team, will continue to lay the personnel foundations for the growth path on which the company has embarked and manage the expansion of the global workforce.
Ulrich Grillo, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Rheinmetall AG, said of the reorganisation, “With the measures and decisions taken, we are enabling the Executive Board of Rheinmetall AG to meet the major challenges of the coming years in a confident and well-positioned manner. We are particularly pleased that we were able to win Armin Papperger for an extension of his contract. His assertive and agile leadership and knowledge of the Group, its customers and products creates continuity and appears to be essential in order to continue successfully pursuing the growth path we have embarked upon. The fact that we have been able to recruit such experienced managers from the Group in Klaus Neumann and René Gansauge to lay the essential operational and organisational foundations for the transformation of the Group is also a good step for the company and its employees.”
