Keynote Speaker Prof. Dr.-Ing. H. J. Fuhrmann on the occasion of the JCI European Conference in June 2012

Prof. Fuhrmann has been the Chairman of the Executive Board of Salzgitter AG, Germany’s second-largest steel company, since 1 February 2011. He joined the Salzgitter Group in 1995 and has been a member of the board since 1996. In 2001 he took over the Finance Division and in 2007 he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Executive Board. He is also responsible for the Technology Division.

Prof. Fuhrmann was born in 1956 and studied metallurgy after his Abitur. Following this, he was a research assistant with the Verein Deutscher Eisenhüttenleute (Association for Iron Metallurgy). From 1983 until he joined Salzgitter AG, Prof. Fuhrmann worked in various positions at Klöckner Werke and held leading positions. In his scarce free time he follows the motto “calmness and exercise”. He keeps a distance from the loud and fast-paced daily business and enjoys peace and quiet and fresh air doing sport (tennis), attending cultural events and going for long walks with his wife and two dogs.

As Chairman of the Executive Board of Salzgitter AG, he is responsible for around 25,000 work places with a turnover of approx. 10 billion Euros together with his colleagues. In 2011, the EBT is expected to reach 200 million Euros. Today Salzgitter AG is an international company which is still closely connected with the south-eastern region of Lower Saxony. The Group is also an important partner for the local economy – in 2010 alone, orders in the amount of 500 million Euros were placed in the region.

A further goal connected with his leadership is commitment to education. The contact with numerous educational institutions is maintained – not least in order to generate interest in technology and to lay the foundations to ensure qualified personnel for the group in the future.

Prof. Fuhrmann attaches great importance to long-term commitments, covering trial work experience courses, internships and including seminar and examinations papers with in-depth supervision.

With the extensive investment programme of 1.7 billion Euros – „Salzgitter Stahl 2012“ – which is implemented in the companies, Salzgitter AG and Prof. Fuhrmann show their commitment to Germany as an industrial location, and in particular to Lower Saxony as a steel location.

In his many speeches as a guest speaker he likes to comment on current economic and social topics with clear words.

We are looking forward to the topic Prof. Fuhrmann has chosen for this speech.