“His era has been characterized by consistent professionalization and intelligent expansion” / Wolfram Senger-Weiss to be CEO from 2019 / Jürgen Bauer, currently Director and Regional Manager East, will join the Management Board for the land transport business area
After approximately 14 successful years as CEO at Gebrüder Weiss, Wolfgang Niessner will resign from his operational positions at the end of 2018 and start a well-earned retirement. (Source: Gebrüder Weiss)
Wolfgang Niessner (63) has headed up the international logistics company Gebrüder Weiss since 2005. Now, at the end of this year, a career that has been crowned with huge success will be completed – at least from an operational point of view.
As the company’s Supervisory Board has just announced, Wolfgang Niessner will retire as planned with effect from 12/31/2018. “Wolfgang Niessner has developed Gebrüder Weiss in every sense,” says Caspar Einem, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Gebrüder Weiss. “His era has been characterized by consistent professionalization and intelligent expansion.” Under his leadership the company – whose roots date back to the 15th century – has nearly doubled in scale in many of its areas. In 2004, Gebrüder Weiss had a turnover of 700 million euros, but today that figure is 1.55 billion. Its locations have increased in number from 102 to 150. The number of employees has grown from about 3,000 to over 7,000 people.
“Wolfgang Niessner has proved himself to be an entirely worthy successor to Heidi and Paul Senger-Weiss and is passing on a company that is in excellent shape and that presents itself worldwide as a quality provider for all aspects of logistics. With its range of services and its strong team spirit, the company is in a position so that it is absolutely fit for the future. The Supervisory Board and all the employees of Gebrüder Weiss owe Wolfgang Niessner a huge debt of gratitude for his outstanding achievements,” says Caspar Einem.
Wolfgang Niessner will leave his role as CEO and Member of the Management Board with responsibility for the land transport business area at the end of the year. It is expected that Wolfgang Niessner will join the Supervisory Board of Gebrüder Weiss next year and that as a consequence he will continue to be part of the company.
Wolfram Senger-Weiss to be the new CEO
Wolfgang Niessner’s successor in the post of CEO is by no means an unknown quantity: from January 2019, Wolfram Senger-Weiss will take overall responsibility for the fortunes of the international logistics company. Wolfram Senger-Weiss has been a Member of the Management Board at Gebrüder Weiss since 2005, with responsibility for finance, law, purchasing, investments, HSEQ, internal audit and M&A. “Wolfram Senger-Weiss was involved in all the key strategic initiatives at the company throughout the Niessner era. We are confident that Mr. Senger-Weiss will lead this company through the numerous challenges of our times and secure Gebrüder Weiss a permanent place among the world’s foremost logistics companies,” says Caspar Einem. Wolfram Senger-Weiss has been President of the Austrian Association for Freight Forwarding & Logistics since 2012 and in that role also stands up for Austria as a location for logistics. Born in Vorarlberg, he now lives in Vienna and commutes regularly between the Gebrüder Weiss Head Office in Lauterach, Vorarlberg, and the company’s location in Vienna. Wolfram Senger-Weiss is 47 years old, married and has three children.
Following the departure of Wolfgang Niessner, responsibility for land transport on the Management Board will be restructured. Jürgen Bauer (48), the long-standing Regional Manager East at Gebrüder Weiss, is promoted to the Management Board within the same business area. Besides CEP and new business, Peter Kloiber continues to be responsible for the key specialist areas of IT services, human resources development, brand management & communication, logistics and research & development. Heinz Senger-Weiss is in charge of Air & Sea, sales and customs. “Overall, the Supervisory Board is very satisfied with how the company is progressing,” says Caspar Einem. “So we are delighted that, from next year, there will still be four experienced managers on the Management Board who have contributed a great deal to the company’s success in recent years and have long since proven just how important it is to them to preserve the very special working environment here, described by many as the ‘Orange Family’.”
From 2019, Wolfram Senger-Weiss will take over as CEO at Gebrüder Weiss. (Source: Gebrüder Weiss)
With this announcement of the changes to its top management, the company wants to let its employees, customers and partners know about the changes on the Management Board as soon as possible. Wolfram Senger-Weiss and Jürgen Bauer will only comment on their new roles as of the beginning of 2019.
Jürgen Bauer, long-standing Regional Manager East at Gebrüder Weiss, will join the Board from 2019. (Source: Gebrüder Weiss)