Sandra Füllsack takes over as chair of VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery
Ulrich Reifenhäuser, former CSO of Reifenhäuser GmbH & Co. KG, and Rainer Zimmermann, CEO of AZO GmbH & Co. KG, have retired from the executive board of VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery, and Sandra Füllsack has been named chair.
Reifenhäuser was a member of the board for 32 years, 18 of those as chair. He has also served as president and as chairman of the exhibitor advisory board of the K show.
“Ulrich Reifenhäuser is a role model when it comes to being courageous in times of ever-changing geopolitical and economic challenges, actively shaping the future with confidence and working to ensure the sustainability of the rubber and plastics machinery industry. His ability to bring people together has always advanced our common mission,” said Thorsten Kühmann, managing director of VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery.
Ulrich Reifenhäuser will be replaced by his younger brother, Bernd Reifenhäuser, CEO and Managing Partner of Reifenhäuser GmbH & Co. KG Maschinenfabrik.
Rainer Zimmermann, who served on the board for over two decades and was a voice for small and medium-sized enterprises, will be replaced on the board by his son Lukas Zimmermann, managing partner of AZO Holding.
Füllsack, managing director of Motan Holding GmbH, will succeed him as chair. She is the daughter of Ralf Schneider, who bought Motan in 1972 and moved it into the plastics industry in 1973.
She told Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing in 2019 that she took a long detour before joining the family business, working as a lawyer before easing into the German materials handling machinery manufacturing company at age 38.
She initially joined Motan in 2006 to handle the growing company’s legal and financial issues, but eventually committed to take over the company from her father, and became CEO in 2018.
More than 200 companies are members of the VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery trade association, covering over 90 percent of the industry's production in Germany. It also includes member companies from Austria, Switzerland and France.