Hanns-Peter Knaebel will take over as CEO of German plastics molder Röchling Group on Jan. 1, in a move that also signals the company's increased interest in building its medical division.
Knaebel will join the group's executive board Oct. 1. He also will lead Röchling's medical division as deputy chairman.
The Mannheim-based company has three divisions: medical, automotive and industrial. Automotive is its biggest unit, representing 52 percent of sales, but the company is eyeing growth in medical.
In an Aug. 23 statement, the Röchling Group said Knaebel is expected to bring his experience as a “medical technician” to the group as medical technology was its “most significant strategic growth segment.”
In January, he will take over as CEO from Ludger Bartels, who will retire.
Knaebel has a doctorate in medicine and an MBA from University of Salzburg, Austria, and was the CEO of surgical instrument and medical tools manufacturer Aesculap International GmbH for the past eight years.
“Last spring, when I found out in the press that Hanns-Peter Knaebel would be leaving Aesculap in April 2017, we reacted immediately,” said Johannes Freiherr von Salmuth, chairman of the supervisory board of the Röchling Group.
In addition to his experience in business, Knaebel is a doctor who spent 12 years in the surgery department at Heidelberg University Hospital.