Movement in the sheetfed sector at KBA: Andreas Mössner (43) and Ralf Sammeck (44)
On July 31 next year, at his own request, Andreas Mössner (43) will step down from the Koenig & Bauer (KBA) board of directors, resigning the position he has held since January 1998 as executive vice president for sales at KBA’s sheetfed division in Radebeul (Dresden). He will be replaced on August 1 2007 by Ralf Sammeck (44), who has guided KBA North America’s sheetfed division to new heights since being appointed president and CEO in October 2002. Mössner has accepted an appointment by the supervisory board of KBA’s Austrian subsidiary, KBA-Mödling, as successor to managing director Wolfgang Schischek (62), who retires at the end of January 2008.
Mössner joined what was then KBA-Planeta as financial director in 1993 after several years at international auditors Price Waterhouse, and in early 1998 was promoted to deputy executive vice president for finances and controlling.
Following the merger with the parent company, Koenig & Bauer, in the summer of the same year, Mössner joined the new managing board as executive vice president for sheetfed sales and controlling. On his watch, sheetfed sales have more than trebled, to over €800m (US$1bn), and KBA has vigorously defended its position as one of Germany’s three global leaders in the printing press market.
Mössner has also been instrumental in extending KBA’s international sales and service network by setting up subsidiaries and outlets in Italy, eastern Europe, China, Singapore and Australia.
He has been equally active in driving acquisitions to diversify the group’s product portfolio, the most recent being Grafitec in the Czech Republic and LTG Mailänder in Germany. Mössner represents KBA’s interests on the supervisory boards of seven European, North American and Chinese subsidiaries.
The proposed succession change on February 2008 1 following Wolfgang Schischek’s retirement will enable Mössner to achieve his ambition of taking the helm at a corporate enterprise. KBA-Mödling, whose 800 employees generated sales in 2005 of around €140m (US$179m), is already a major production plant for KBA’s security presses and sheetfed subassemblies, but Mössner is planning to ramp up growth still further and intensify sheetfed sales and service activities in Austria, Hungary, ex-Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Ralf Sammeck, a qualified printer and printing engineer, joined KBA’s Radebeul division on September 1 2000 as sales director for digital printing systems following a seven-year stint at KBA competitor, Heidelberg, where he rose to become head of the Düsseldorf operation, and four years as managing partner at a family enterprise in the packaging press business.
Since Sammeck’s appointment in October 2002 as president and CEO of KBA North America in Williston (Vermont), which handles sales and service of KBA sheetfed presses in the USA and Canada, sales have more than doubled and the company has substantially increased its market share, expanding its historically strong position in the packaging printing sector and making further inroads in the commercial market.
Sammeck will now bring his formidable sales and marketing skills to the global arena. Born in North Rhine-Westphalia, he is married and has two children.
