Gelsenkirchen, 3 May 2016 – The upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Masterflex SE will see some changes in the Supervisory Board. The long-standing Supervisory Board Chairman, Friedrich Wilhelm Bischoping, will be stepping down at the end of the AGM on 14 June. At the same time, Supervisory Board member Axel Klomp will also resign at the end of the AGM. The management is proposing Dr Gerson Link and Jan van der Zouw as their successors on the Supervisory Board.
Supervisory Board Chairman Bischoping, born in 1944, wishes to hand over responsibility after 16 years in office due to his advancing age. The qualified engineer has been the Chairman of the Supervisory Board since 2000. Prior to this, he founded the company (then named Masterflex Kunststofftechnik GmbH) in 1987 together with two partners and became one of its managing directors. Following the IPO in 2000, Bischoping moved to the Supervisory Board and has chaired it since then. Bischoping comments as follows on his planned retirement: “The Masterflex Group is excellently positioned today, with a sound balance sheet and a consistent growth strategy with sustainable implementation, while internationalisation is really picking up momentum now. For this reason, it is now exactly the right time to pass on this important task to younger hands.”
Dr Andreas Bastin, Chief Executive Officer of Masterflex since 2008, acknowledges the Supervisory Board Chairman’s many years of commitment: “The company, as well as myself personally, have a great deal to thank Mr Bischoping for. Without his thorough experience in plastics processing and his knowledge of the hose market, the company would never have experienced such a positive development and evolution. Furthermore, Mr Bischoping always offered advice and active support, including when the overall situation was rather more difficult, for example between 2008 and 2010. On account of this long-lasting and exemplary commitment to the company, the Executive Board and the incumbent Supervisory Board consider it to be fitting to propose to the shareholders that they elect Mr Bischoping as the future honorary chairman of the Masterflex Group.” And he adds with a smile: “Of course, this is also a way for us to make sure he stays with us, because we wouldn’t want to do without his advice in the future.”
Georg van Hall intends to candidate as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at the first meeting after the AGM. In light of the fact that the auditor and tax consultant has been on the Supervisory Board since 2009 and has served as its Deputy Chairman since 2011, this will ensure continuity in the three-person supervisory body.
The departing Supervisory Board Chairman Bischoping would like to thank the Supervisory Board member Klomp, who will be leaving at the same time as him, for his willingness to take on this position at a time when the company was still in the middle of its restructuring. “In this difficult phase, Mr Klomp contributed his expertise as an auditor and tax consultant. We owe him praise and thanks for this.”
To fill these mandates that are now becoming vacant, the management is proposing Dr Link from Düsseldorf and Mr van der Zouw from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Dr Link has gained extensive experience in restructuring and corporate expansion, particularly in the segment of niche markets, and has also successfully implemented corporate acquisitions. Mr van der Zouw has gathered many years of experience in the management of medium-sized and large industrial companies in other European countries, particularly when it comes to reorganising traditional technical suppliers as modern industrial suppliers. The management is therefore delighted at their willingness to join the company. Bischoping comments: “With these candidacies, the Masterflex Group is taking another important step on its growth path based on internationalisation and innovation.”