Preh Chief Michael Roesnick to Retire

NOVI, Mich. - Aug. 5, 2015 - PRLog -- Preh President and CEO Michael Roesnick, 61, who holds a doctorate in control engineering, is set to retire at the end of the year after 16 years running the company, signaling the end of an era for Preh. His successor, Christoph Hummel, 49, has been a member of the executive board of the car component and automation specialist since 2008. Dr. Roesnick and Hummel aim to use the remainder of this year to ensure a seamless transition and maximum continuity between the new management and the old.

Preh will continue to benefit from Roesnick’s experience even after the change of leadership, by having Roesnick fill the position of chairman of the supervisory board in May 2016. Hummel will assume management duties at Preh for sales/marketing, project management, e-mobility, Preh IMA Automation and quality.

Dr. Michael Roesnick was instrumental in making Preh a global player in automobile electronics and automation solutions. When he became chairman of the board in 1999, Preh had an annual revenue of approximately $189 million (€172 million). By 2014, revenues had grown to $667 million (€611 million) and the company’s earning power was substantially stronger. In 1999, Preh had 1,500 employees worldwide. Today, the employee complement exceeds 4,500 and continues to grow.

Roesnick also systematically pursued a course of internationalization at Preh. He opened a U.S. sales office in Novi, Michigan for the automotive business in 2003 and founded a new manufacturing plant in Monterrey, Mexico in 2005.  Within only 10 years, Preh rose to the position of market leader for air conditioning control systems in North America. At the height of the global automobile crisis in 2008-2009, the management team led by Dr. Roesnick boldly embarked on another crucial internationalization venture by opening a plant in Rumania in 2009. The plant soon became a major contributor to the growing competitive power of the car component supply company. Finally, in 2011, Roesnick was one of the key figures in winning the Chinese investor Joyson as a partner for Preh. To swiftly close the gap in the rapidly growing Chinese market, Roesnick persuaded the then investor DBAG not only to invest in a new production plant in China, but also to sell to a Chinese strategic investor. This decision was vindicated by Preh’s growth rates in the last four years, which were well above the industry average.

Jeff Wang, the founder and majority shareholder of Joyson, says about the life’s work of Hamburg-born Dr. Roesnick: “It is no exaggeration to say that Michael Roesnick is ‘Mister Preh’. His impact on the company in the last two decades has been second to none. Despite systematic internationalization and dynamic growth, he succeeded in preserving the company’s traditional corporate culture and steadily continued to develop Preh’s unique innovative capacity.

“This is Preh’s most important strong point, and I am profoundly grateful to Dr. Roesnick for fostering it.  Even at our very first meetings, I was impressed both by his leadership qualities and by the caliber of his management team. This was a crucial factor in our decision to invest in Preh.”

About Preh
Preh is a subsidiary of the Joyson Group, Ningbo (China), which has bundled its automotive activities into the public company Joyson Electronics. Within the Joyson Group, Preh represents the divisions of Automotive Electronics and Automation.

As a global automotive supplier, Preh recorded sales of $667 million (€611 million) in 2014 with around 4,200 employees. The company has locations in Germany, Portugal, Romania, Mexico, the U.S.A. and China. Preh’s development and manufacturing capabilities focus on climate and driver control systems for passenger and utility vehicles, electronic control units for the battery management of electrical vehicles, as well as assembly and automation systems.