Change on the Executive Board of Röchling Group

Change on the Executive Board of Röchling Group

On July 1, 2025, Franz Lübbers will retire as CEO of Röchling Industrial and member of the Executive Board of the Röchling Group. For this reason, the global plastics processor, headquartered in Mannheim, Germany is rearranging the Group Executive Board. Franz Lübbers has been a loyal and respected employee of the company for more than 50 years; his father already worked for Röchling Industrial. He has been a member of the Group Executive Board since 2017.

Raphael Wolfram, CEO of Röchling Automotive and Spokesman of the Executive Board of the Röchling Group, will take over Franz Lübber’s position on July 1, 2025. He joined the company in 2019 as Automotive CFO. On January 1, 2022, he was appointed CEO of the division and to the Executive Board of the Röchling Group, of which he later became spokesman and remains in the new set-up.

“[...] We in the supervisory boards are certain that Raphael Wolfram is the right person for this crucial role. We are delighted that he has agreed to assume this position and look forward to continuing our excellent collaboration as both the Spokesman of the Group Executive Board and in his new role for Röchling Industrial,” says von Salmuth.

The focus at Röchling Industrial will be to maintain its market position in Europe, the expansion of the composites business unit and hence tapping new potentials for value creation as well as the continued international expansion through organic growth and acquisitions, particularly in Asia and North America. Sustainability and the circular economy will be enhanced further as strategic topics.

Due to this personnel change, Röchling Automotive will have a new CEO in Martin Schüler as of February 1, 2025. He will be appointed to the Executive Board of Röchling Automotive and the Executive Board of the Röchling Group as early as November 1, 2024. The 56-year-old mechanical engineer spent almost 20 years as CEO of HBPO, a division of the French automotive supplier OPmobility (formerly Plastic Omnium). HBPO was established as a joint venture of the automotive suppliers Hella, Behr and Plastic Omnium, and has been a wholly owned subsidiary of OPmobility since the end of 2022. Martin Schüler was also a member of the Executive Board of HBPO’s parent company for more than five years.

(Source: Röchling SE & Co. KG Press Release)