Who we are

We are a family of 23,000 people, as colorful as life itself, with a wide variety of talents. And that is precisely where our greatest strength lies: in our diversity, with which we find the best solutions together. We give our all. With courage, ambition and respect. And never give up.

The BENTELER Group Executive Board

Ralf Göttel
Chief Executive Officer

Ralf Göttel has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BENTELER International AG in Salzburg since April 2017. He is responsible for strategy and mergers and acquisitions; procurement; group compliance and board affairs, as well as communications & marketing.

Ralf graduated from RWTH Aachen with a degree in engineering. His career began in 1991 when he started as a development engineer at a major automobile manufacturer. Since 2010, he has held various management positions with the BENTELER Group. From 2014 to 2017, he was Chairman of the Management Board of BENTELER Automobiltechnik GmbH, which he has again headed as CEO since August 2018 in addition to his role as Chairman of the Group's Executive Board.

Dr. Tobias Braun
Chief Financial Officer

Tobias Braun has been Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of BENTELER International AG in Salzburg since September 2022. His responsibilities include Finance and Controlling, Legal and Insurance, Internal Audit as well as Tax.

In addition, Tobias Braun has been Managing Director and CFO of the BENTELER Steel/Tube division since joining the company in 2018. Here, he is responsible for Finance and Controlling, Strategy, Human Resources, Purchasing, Marketing/Communications and Compliance, among others.

Previously, he managed numerous projects in the industrial goods, steel and automotive sectors as a partner of the management consultancy Stern Stewart & Co.

The Book of Pioneers

Stories from the Family of Driven Professionals

With their outstanding commitment and ideas, it’s our employees that make the difference at BENTELER. For our customers and for our partners.

How exactly? What motivates our Driven Professionals around the world? In our Book of Pioneers, they share their stories, one by one. Check back regularly to discover new, inspiring narratives from our employees and get an authentic, first-hand look at the many facets of BENTELER.

Note: This link leads to an external website. The operator of the external website is responsible for its content. Other data protection regulations may also apply there.


BENTELER Driven Professionals

Our Stories

Sabrina Lohmann

From trainee to manager in just a few years: Sabrina Lohmann is an example of the many opportunities for a career at BENTELER. At the age of 29, she took over as head of commercial processing at BENTELER Maschinenbau Glass Processing Equipment in 2017. "In this role, you need an eye for detail and for the big picture in equal measure. I really enjoy this mixture."

Always on the cutting edge: Together with her team, Sabrina Lohmann has, for example, adapted BENTELER Maschinenbau's entire contracting system to international standards. "With over 4,000 projects in more than 70 years and over 60 countries it was quite a challenge. As a team, however, we succeeded brilliantly." By the way, Sabrina Lohmann is currently taking her trainer's license herself - to train the next managers of BENTELER!

A job learned from scratch

Claudia Freitag is vice president of finance, controlling and processes at the Steel/Tube Division. Working for BENTELER runs in the 41-year-old’s family. Her grandfather worked for the automotive division at the Talle plant from the 60s to the 80s and her father also worked for the Steel/Tube division at the Schloss Neuhaus plant for many years. Claudia learned her skills from scratch: her first contact with the company was as a work student in 2003. After joining the Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) department in 2007, she worked in plant and sales controlling and headed the central controlling function.

In her current position, she follows the principle of “leadership based on equal standing”. She wants to always have an open ear for her team. “A sense of togetherness is incredibly important to me”, she says. That applies both to her job and to her family, with whom she prefers to spend time outside in nature. The Freitag household also includes three dwarf rabbits.

Daniel Wienhusen

Daniel Wienhusen is 37 years old and a real BENTELER native. In 2009, he successfully completed his combined studies in International Business, including training as an industrial clerk. Since then he has worked in various areas in the Automotive Division and has already gained experience in management positions.

Mabel Diaz

Through numerous, random projects and many learning opportunities our colleague Mabel from Burgos has been with us and supported us for many years now. It’s not without reason that as Assistant to the Plant Manager she is considered one of our driven professionals at BENTELER. In almost 30 years working with us, she has experienced a lot – but it’s never been boring:

“BENTELER is everything except boring. Here you can grow, learn, and develop your skills. There are always new challenges, new tasks, new projects going on. I love this.”

18,250 days of coaching legend - We say thank you!

For us, the dream of every soccer club became true: With Helmut Timmermann, we have a coach who motivates his team to top performance for exactly 50 years. He has been part of our Steel/Tube Division since August 1, 1972, and is celebrating his 50th company anniversary this year.

Initially trained as a machinist, 20 years later instructor in our training center. Although this was planned for a limited period of time, we are all the happier today that Mr. Timmermann remained with us as an instructor. With his good instincts and a certain sensitivity for our trainees, he makes a significant contribution to ensuring that our trainees feel good. He shows this commitment not only during the training, but also otherwise. He has first-class soccer-know-how and passes this to our trainees: he coaches trainee teams and has already won numerous cups with them.

WE MAKE IT HAPPEN: Tanja Kress

From trainee to assistant to the CEO: Tanja Kress is one of our 23,000 driven professionals worldwide. She’s been working in our Automotive Division in Germany for more than 20 years. For Tanja, it's been a very varied time in which shared experiences with colleagues, learning from each other and team spirit are at the forefront and give her great pleasure.

Successful apprenticeship at BENTELER

We would like to congratulate our 100 colleagues from the plants in Paderborn, Warburg, Kleinenberg, Eisenach, Dinslaken, Bottrop, Bielefeld, Lingen, Siegen-Weidenau & Schwandorf on successfully completing their apprenticeship in 2022.

The BENTELER Group provides apprenticeship in a wide range of technical fields, including process engineers, industrial mechanics, mechatronics engineers and many others. In Paderborn, we also offer training in IT professions such as IT specialist and commercial professions, as well as dual courses of study such as mechanical engineering, industrial engineering and computer science.

Apprenticeship is also a top priority at BENTELER internationally: In our training centers in Mexico and Brazil, we are pleased this year with 11 and 49 colleagues, respectively, who are completing their training in the occupational fields of tool mechanic, mechatronics engineer or quality inspector.

Theresa Ahlers

With a dream grade of 1.0, our colleague Theresa Ahlers was honored on Wednesday for her master's degree in Accounting & Finance. In addition to the award from the OWL Group and the University of Paderborn, Theresa also received prize money. We congratulate her warmly and are happy that Theresa has been supporting the BENTELER Group as a Junior Controller in Salzburg since October last year. Her career began at BENTELER in 2017 with a dual study program including assignments abroad in Shreveport (USA) and Burgos, Spain. In parallel, Theresa also completed her apprenticeship as an industrial clerk.

BENTELER employees clean up

Whether in Shanghai, Klášterec or Paderborn – we take care of the environment everywhere. Which is why our employees around the world took part in World Cleanup Day.

In doing so, they helped clean up nature by removing several hundred kilos of waste. Actions like these clearly show that we make sustainability happen – in products, production and beyond.

Our Team in Fuzhou

As the philosopher Confucius knew, no road is too long with a friend by your side. That goes for us, too: We are there wherever our customers need us.

For example, in Fuzhou, China where we’ve been producing front and rear axles at our plant using state-of-the-art technology since 2008. That’s how we make the mobility of the future lighter, safer and more sustainable.

Paulo Figueira

Brazil, South Africa, USA: These are Paulo Figueira's previous stops on his journey at BENTELER. Today, he heads the Human Resources department and the BENTELER Academy at our Steel/Tube Division’s Shreveport plant.

"What do I like most at BENTELER? Having a positive impact on the employees' day. By listening to them and understanding their expectations and challenges. Because they are our most important asset."

Pavel Jurkovic

We're proud of our 23,000 driven professionals. They achieve outstanding things. With courage, ambition and respect. And not just for BENTELER but also for the community.

Take Pavel Jurkovic, for example. Our Czech colleague took vacation to help out at the covid-19 ward at Liberec hospital. Thank you Pavel for your commitment!

Vanessa Cereser

Vanessa Cereser is one of our 23,000 driven professionals. She heads our legal department for the Mercosur region.

"Working with colleagues from different cultures, the global exchange of experience and the international problems – I'm excited about the diversity in my role at BENTELER."

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