Change in the Vaillant Group Management Board

• Dr Dietmar Meister appointed new Managing Director
• Claes Göransson to leave the Vaillant Group at his own wish after 10 years of successful work
  

Remscheid, 15 June 2009 – The Supervisory Board of Vaillant GmbH has appointed Dr Dietmar Meister as a full Managing Director of the company with effect from 1 July 2009 in succession to Claes Göransson. The PhD of Business Administration will be responsible for the Finance Division and will lead the Vaillant Group as a member of the Management Board together with Ralf-Otto Limbach and Dieter Müller. He will also assume the position of Director Human Resources.

Dr Meister was born in Stuttgart on 19 August 1962. He completed his business administration studies, which included periods in England and the USA, with a degree and PhD. Having graduated, in 1991 he joined Daimler-Benz AG where until 1997 he took over various tasks in the Strategic and Operative Controlling department. In 1997, Dr Meister switched to Jungheinrich AG, in Hamburg, as head of Group Controlling. Subsequently, he worked from 2000 to 2005 for the Refrigeration Engineering business division of Linde AG, in Cologne, initially as Commercial Director and from 2001 as Managing Director. Following the sale of Linde Refrigeration Engineering to the US Carrier Group in 2005, Dr Meister joined the Brose Group, Coburg, an internationally operating automotive components supplier, as Commercial Managing Director. Dr Meister is married and has one son.

Claes Göransson leaves the company after successful service
Claes Göransson will on 30 June 2009 leave the company as Managing Director of the Finance Division after 10 years of successful service for the Vaillant Group. Since 2000, he has put his stamp on and helped shaping the Vaillant Group. During this period, significant changes in the corporate structure took place – above all the expansion of the international alignment of the Vaillant Group. In his area of responsibility he successfully accompanied from 2001 the takeover of the Anglo-French competitor Hepworth Group, which opened up new markets and product lines for the Vaillant Group. He then helped to shape the successful integration of the different corporate cultures. And with the takeover of the leading Turkish heating and air-conditioning specialist Türk Demir Döküm in 2007 a further step in developing new markets was initialised. Claes Göransson built up healthy, robust finance structures and thereby created a stable basis for the company's future challenges, even in a difficult overall economic environment.

Claes Göransson has rendered great services to the Vaillant Group. The Supervisory Board thanks him for his work and wishes him all the best for the future.



The Vaillant Group is an internationally operating heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technology concern based in Remscheid, Germany. As one of the world's market and technology leaders, the Vaillant Group de-velops and produces tailor-made products, systems and services for domestic comfort. The product portfolio ranges from efficient heating appliances based on customary fuels to system solutions for using regenerative energy sources. In financial year 2008 the company, which has been family-owned since its founding in 1874, achieved with almost 13,000 employees sales totalling €2.4 billion.


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Contact
Dr Jens Wichtermann
Head of Corporate Communications
Vaillant Group
D-42850 Remscheid
Phone: +49 (0)2191 18-2754
Mobile: +49 (0)175 295 18 10
Fax: +49 (0)2191 18-2895
e-mail: jens.wichtermann@vaillant.de