Rhenus Rejuvenates its Management

´Good bye, Peter! Today (1 October) was Rhenus Alpina CEO Peter Widmer’s last day in office at the Swiss arm of the German logistics firm. The 68 year-old long-time Helmsman of Rhenus Alpina AG, who has been leading the company since its inception in 2000, reached retirement age.
But Peter won’t be sitting in the rocking chair in future times; instead, he will take on a new but less time-consuming duty in the Swiss Rhenus Supervisory Board. In addition to his new assignment Peter will stay on deck as a company advisor, whenever needed.

Changing of the guard
With him leaving the top deck, Rhenus has decided to make the best of it and hand over responsibilities to the next generation of managers. Accordingly, the Supervisory Board appointed 40 year-old Andreas Stoeckli to Rhenus’ Board of Directors. Andreas will also be responsible for all company activities in Switzerland and selected areas of special contract logistics. 

Simultaneously, the Board of Directors has decided to appoint Tobias Bartz as from 1st January 2015 as an additional member to the Board. 37 year-old Tobias started his career in Rhenus as a management trainee in 2005. As one of three Managing Directors, he is currently leading the activities of the European Road Freight. In a first step, he will be responsible for the European activities in Air & Ocean Freight, followed by managing the company’s global Air & Ocean business as of September next year. To be on the spot for closely coordinating activities in both fields, he will be based in Singapore. 

The baton has been passed to the future generation
By appointing two fairly young talents Rhenus lays key responsibilities in the hands of the next generation. Now it’s mainly their and their team’s task to replicate the firm’s longstanding success and to drive business forward.
At the Rhenus Group, 24,000 people are employed at more than 390 locations worldwide. In fiscal 2013 the logistics provider turned over €4.1 billion.

Heiner Siegmund