Creation of new sustainability and digitalization roles and new group chief financial officer announced
IN line with the company’s ‘Beyond 2020’ strategic targets, HeidelbergCement have established two new positions on their managing board to further drive their transformation in sustainability and digitalization. Both changes are said to reflect the company’s ambition to be the industry leader on the road to carbon neutrality and become the first industrial technology group in the building materials industry.
Dr Nicola Kimm will take on the newly established managing board position of chief sustainability officer, responsible for environment social governance, global research and development, and new technologies. Dr Kimm is a renowned sustainability expert, currently serving as executive committee member and chief sustainability officer with Signify, the Philips lighting business carve out.
As a trained ecologist and chemical engineer and with a PhD in business engineering, she has almost 25 years’ international professional experience and has held sustainability roles with BASF, Corbion/CSM and Philips, and worked in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Dennis Lentz will take on the newly established managing board position of chief digital officer, with responsibility for the company’s digital transformation. Since 2010, he has held management positions as head of group energy purchasing, director of logistics and group chief information officer at HeidelbergCement. Before joining the company, he worked as a management consultant in the building materials and mining industry, with a strong focus on process optimization.
‘With Dr Nicola Kimm and Dennis Lentz, we are strengthening our managing board with two renowned experts,’ said Fritz-Jürgen Heckmann, chairman of the supervisory board of HeidelbergCement. ‘We are convinced that they will accelerate our initiatives on the path to become the leading building materials company in the fields of sustainability and digitalization and wish them the best of success in their important roles.’
Meanwhile, René Aldach will take over as HeidelbergCement’s chief financial officer from Dr Lorenz Näger, who is retiring at the end of August 2021. Mr Aldach currently works as director of group reporting, controlling and consolidation for HeidelbergCement.
He joined the company in 2004, proving his management excellence in numerous international roles in Germany, Africa and Australia, including chief financial officer of Hanson Australia. As member of the managing board, he will be in charge of finance, accounting, controlling, taxes, treasury, insurance and risk management, data governance, shared service centre, and purchasing.
‘We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr Lorenz Näger,’ said Mr Heckmann. ‘As group chief financial officer, he has played an instrumental and successful role in shaping HeidelbergCement for almost two decades. During his term of office, HeidelbergCement’s revenue and result has almost tripled and free cash flow has nearly quadrupled. We wish him all the best for his future.’
He continued: ‘With René Aldach, an internationally experienced manager from among our own ranks is taking over as group chief financial officer. We are convinced that he will carry on the successful work of Dr Näger and wish him well in this challenging task.’
Dr Dominik von Achten, chairman of the managing board of HeidelbergCement, added: ‘To continue with the implementation of our strategy and the successful development of the Group, it is very important that we have been able to attract proven experts and strong team players.
‘Together with my board colleagues, I am looking forward to a great collaboration with Dr Nicola Kimm, Dennis Lentz and René Aldach. They will strengthen our managing board team decisively.’
All changes will become effective as of 1 September 2021.
