Helmut Gruber, who is currently responsible for the technical management of strip production at voestalpine’s Linz-based steel division, is soon to become the Austrian steelmaker’s new technical director.
The appointment follows the recent appointment of Hubert Zajicek, the former technical director, as the company’s steel division chairman. Zajicek replaces Herbert Eibensteiner who will take over from long time CEO Wolfgang Eder and assumes the role of chairman of the whole Group on 3 July.
Gruber will take on the overall technical management of voestalpine’s strip division from Zajicek and joins the management board of what is the Austrian steelmaker’s largest division in terms of revenue.
According to voestalpine, its steel division is ‘a global leader in its product segments’. The division employs 11,000 employees who generated an operating result (EBITDA) of over EUR900 million and revenue of EUR4.8 billion in the 2017/18 financial year.
Gruber joined voestalpine in 1997 as an industrial engineer.
Commenting on his appointment, Gruber said: “I’m very much looking forward to working together with my colleagues to ensure the steel division is consistently prepared to meet the technical challenges we face in the future, and I am grateful for the trust that has been placed in me.”