OREANDA-NEWS. Christoph Peternell is to assume the role of Chief Operations Officer (COO), managing all the HOCHDORF Group's production plants and becoming a full member of the senior management team. He assumes Dr Karl Gschwend's current responsibilities for plant management. Dr Gschwend will continue to implement strategically important projects within the group prior to his retirement.

Christoph Peternell (50) will assume the role of operations management from 1 June 2015, succeeding Dr Gschwend as part of an early handover agreement. In his role as Chief Operations Officer (COO), Mr Peternell will be responsible for all the HOCHDORF production plants and will serve as a full member of the senior management team. Mr Peternell has a degree in food engineering and many years of managerial experience as Head of Production in both domestic and international companies. He was Head of Production and a member of the extended senior management team at Molda AG (Germany) between 1994 and 2005. Mr Peternell then worked for three years at Fresh Start Bakeries, which is headquartered in California, USA, as Head of Plant Operations at its German Duisburg site. Since 2008, Mr Peternell has worked as an independent interim manager for business operations with various domestic and international companies in the food industry.

Dr Thomas Eisenring, CEO of the HOCHDORF Group: "In Christoph Peternell we have found the ideal person to take over the management of the HOCHDORF production plants. He has a proven track record in solving problems and implementing decisions. He also has the knowledge, experience and leadership skills to run an international, multi-site company."

New responsibilities for Dr Karl Gschwend

The current Managing Director of Operations Dr Karl Gschwend (62) will assume responsibility for strategically projects and remain a member of the Senior Management team in this new role. With a wealth of experience in manufacturing processes for milk powders and infant formula, he is ideally placed to develop the challenging area of whey processing, as well as the restructuring of the Prenzlau plant, Germany. The HOCHDORF Group will produce infant formula at this plant for the Latin American and European markets from mid 2016. "The Prenzlau infant formula project is extremely important for the HOCHDORF Group and I am very happy that a colleague of Karl Gschwend's stature is looking after it for us," says Thomas Eisenring.

A photograph of Christoph Peternell is on our website.