Perfect Fit - PS Translation

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Management News After the first annual general shareholders’ meeting Steven Holland succeeded Stephen Clark in his role as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Brenntag AG. After the first 100 days Steven Holland talked with the editors about how he experienced the first three months in his new position. It’s all about passion Steven Holland addressing the shareholders at the first public general shareholders meeting 4 BRENNTAG | together 03|11
BRENNTAG | together 03|11 Brenntag‘s CEO at an opening ceremony of a new distribution center in Indonesia It’s now about 100 hundred days since you took over the role as CEO – how do you feel about your new role? Steven Holland: I love my job. This is a fantastic company. We have the best people in the world running a worldwide success story. I was pretty sure I knew the early challenges when faced literally with a world of opportunities. Obviously priority and prioritizing is always on my mind. It’s quite a challenge when leading a company that runs 24 hours a day. Sometimes I have to lock my faithful blackberry in a cupboard otherwise the temptation to sneak and look at messages during the night is just too tempting! What is a typical day? SH: There is no set format to my working day which is normally booked fairly well in advance with the more formal elements such as board meetings, investor and stock market events. You can imagine quite a lot of time is spent facing the media, major suppliers and major customers and supporting the wider management team in achieving their goals which are equally demanding and ambitious. Does anything worry you? SH: Well, worry is probably not the right word but the current turmoil in the global capital markets presents some strategic options. We are a resilient business and we are trying carefully to cover all possible outcomes. Clearly the continued uncertainty in the euro zone is not helping business confidence of our customers or suppliers. Safety has been set as a priority in the group. How do you feel we are performing as a group? SH: You are quite right that safety is our first priority and we have world class examples of safety management in the group and have made significant progress year over year. It might not be known to some that we receive immediate briefing on any lost time accident anywhere in the world, and review safety at every board meeting. Safety should be the first thing on the agenda of any meeting, and I would also encourage anyone who spots a near miss or potentially dangerous situation to report it without delay to their supervisors. Management News Steven Holland with Henri Néjade, CEO Brenntag Asia Pacific, Mr. Ni (Managing Director Zhong Yung) and CFO Jürgen Buchsteiner (from left to right) speaking to the employees of Zhong Yung at a welcoming event. Where do you see the group in the next few years? SH: Well, we have certainly set a pace for everyone else to follow. I’m very excited about our growth in Asia Pacific and China. India is a tantalizing prospect in the future. Equally in our more established regions there is a huge scope of further growth and acquisitions. We have a significant number of new managers and skilled workers developing their skills and responsibilities, which represent the future of our business. I genuinely feel that we are in a class of our own and can put even more distance between us and our competitors who would like to emulate our success. Do you have time to do anything except work? SH: Well, I try to guard weekends with a passion as it’s my main time with family and friends. I learned to fly light aircraft about ten years ago and weather permitting it’s a hobby I really enjoy – though not sure if any of my passengers would say the same. Is there anything you like to add? SH: Yes, I would like to get back to the macroeconomic environment which I think must be worrying some people. The Brenntag Group is in great shape and has an extremely strong business model and very solid financials, which are rated as investment grade by Standard & Poor’s. We are well equipped to cope with almost anything the markets can throw at us, provided we don’t lose momentum in capturing growth opportunities which present themselves and make sure we adopt best practices throughout the group. As an international company we are accelerating our journey to be simply world class in what we do everywhere we operate. We are already a success story with more to come. Thank you for the interview! 5
Page 1 and 2: 03|11 Issue 24 www.brenntag.com Acq
Page 3: “Multisol is a great fit” In th
Page 7 and 8: Representatives of the countries wh
Page 9 and 10: What was the strategic background b
Page 11 and 12: BRENNTAG | together 03|11 The site
Page 13 and 14: The Maghreb - facts & figures • A
Page 15 and 16: Brenntag North America Brenntag emp
Page 17 and 18: Brenntag Schweizerhall Practice mak
Page 19 and 20: People on the move Effective 1st Se

Perfect Fit - PS Translation

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?