08.11.2017

Ortner to leave Palfinger

Palfinger chief executive Herbert Ortner has announced that he will leave the company at the end of the year. His departure follows his notification to the supervisory board that he would not seek to renew his current contract which expires in December 2018.

The two parties reached an mutual agreement that he work to secure a smooth handover a year before the contract expires. The recruitment process to find a new chief executive is already underway. After he has stepped down, he will serve as a consultant/counsellor to the Palfinger family.

Ortner said: "I am happy to have developed Palfinger into a global leader of our industry. We achieved this in close cooperation with a professional management team and the supervisory board. I am convinced that the Palfinger group is in a perfect competitive position and that the professional management team will achieve a great performance in the years to come."
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Herbert Ortner

Chairman Hubert Palfinger said: "We are full of gratitude for Herbert's brilliant strategic and operational performance, for his unconditional commitment to our company and the family and we wish him fortune and success for his future activities."

Ortner joined Palfinger 16 years ago, and after almost two years was promoted to chief marketing officer, and then assumed responsibility for the hydraulic systems sector of the company. He was promoted to chief executive in 2008, at the time becoming the youngest chief executive of any industrial company in Austria.