The Board of Directors of Autoneum has named Matthias Holzammer, the former, long-term head of business group Europe, as the new CEO with immediate effect. He is taking over from Martin Hirzel, who will be leaving the company in agreement with the BoD. Autoneum is a manufacturer of vehicle acoustic and thermal management solutions for vehicles.

Holzammer has already demonstrated his operational expertise as the company’s head of business group Europe, which he successfully restructured from 2012 on and transformed into a highly profitable business group. Due to the severe operational and commercial issues in North America, the turnaround and improvement of results will take more time than expected. Holzammer will devote himself to this task with the highest priority, in order to return the business group and the group back to profitability as quickly as possible, according to Autoneum.

Under the leadership of Holzammer, business group Europe contributed significantly to the company’s profitable growth as of 2012. Before joining Autoneum, he held senior operational roles at various automotive suppliers, including the position of managing director of production from 2009 to 2011 at automotive supplier Keiper in Kaiserslautern, Germany, prior to the integration of Keiper into Johnson Controls in 2011. He graduated from the Wuerzburg-Schweinfurt University of Applied Sciences with a degree in industrial engineering, specializing in production and logistics. Following the success achieved with business group Europe, he left Autoneum at the beginning of the year to take up a new professional challenge which he will now be tackling in his role as CEO.

“In view of the current challenges in North America and the volatile global market environment, Holzammer is the ideal choice to lead the company as CEO with his industry experience, knowledge of Autoneum and track record in restructuring”, Hans-Peter Schwald, chairman of the board of directors of Autoneum said.