Dr Klaus Endress to leave the Supervisory Board by the end of the year; Matthias Altendorf named as successor; Dr Peter Selders will become CEO

Changes will take place at the top of the Endress+Hauser Group at the beginning of 2024. As previously announced, Dr Klaus Endress will give up his responsibilities as president of the Supervisory Board. He is to be succeeded by CEO Matthias Altendorf. The new CEO of the Group will be Dr Peter Selders, the present head of the center of competence for level and pressure measurement technology. Steven Endress, currently managing director of Endress+Hauser UK, will become the second member of the family to sit on the Supervisory Board.

Klaus Endress (born 1948) has put his stamp on the development of Endress+Hauser for nearly 45 years. It was in 1979 that he joined the company his father founded. He then took over the management of the Group in 1995. In 2014, he handed over day-to-day operation of the company to Matthias Altendorf and became president of the Supervisory Board. Much of the company bears his signature to this day. He also focused in recent years on ensuring a smooth generational change within the shareholder family.

New management for the group of companies

Matthias Altendorf is slated to take over as president of the Supervisory Board on 1 January 2024. He will be proposed for election at the Annual General Meeting on 3 April 2023. According to Klaus Endress, the shareholders believe he is right person for this position: “He has known our company for 35 years and has led the Group with prudence and success for nearly a decade. Mr Altendorf also embodies the Endress+Hauser culture in an exemplary manner and stands for the values that distinguish our company.”

Dr Peter Selders will take over the reins as CEO. The 53-year-old executive, who holds a PhD in physics, joined Endress+Hauser in 2004 and has led the center of competence for level and pressure measurement technology based in Maulburg, Germany, since 2019. “As head of Endress+Hauser Level+Pressure, he has demonstrated that he can lead and inspire people, that he lives and breathes our culture and that he is capable of successfully growing a large organization,” says Klaus Endress.

Family remains closely linked to the company

Considerable thought and extensive discussions among the shareholders, the family and the Supervisory Board went into making these decisions. “It goes without saying that the family will continue to be closely connected with the company,” emphasizes Klaus Endress. As before, it will be represented by two members on the Supervisory Board. In addition to Sandra Genge, Steven Endress will join the board on 1 January 2024. The 44-year-old grandson of the company’s founder has worked for Endress+Hauser since 2012 and served as managing director in the UK since 2016.

Even though Klaus Endress will no longer have an active role at Endress+Hauser, he will remain chairman of the Family Council, which decides on all important issues in the relationship between the family and the company. For years, a family charter has governed the shareholders’ interaction and their relationship with the company. Established institutions and regular meetings strengthen solidarity within the family and provide a path for members of the younger generations to become involved in the company.

Further succession arrangements in place

Peter Selders will be succeeded at the top of the center of competence for level and pressure measurement technology by 49-year-old Dr Dirk Mörmann, currently director of technology and member of the board of directors. The fortunes of Endress+Hauser UK will be in the hands of Iain Cropper (51) as of 1 May 2023. As a member of the board of directors, to date he has been responsible for the sales center’s operations.

Dassault Systèmes and IBM announced an extension of their long-standing collaboration with the signature of a memorandum of understanding combining their technologies to address the sustainability challenges affecting asset-intensive industries.

In 2022, sustainability was identified by 58 percent of Energy and Resources CEOs as their greatest challenge, with 51 percent of them also considering it as a business opportunity that will drive growth. At the same time, 44 percent of CEOs cited a lack of insights from data as a problem. (Source: IBV 2022 CEO – Energy & Resources insights)

Today companies are confronted with not only rising energy prices but also supply chain and operational disruptions. These disruptions are due to multiple factors including geopolitical situations, an aging workforce, and climate-related risks. In response to these challenges, deploying new infrastructure quickly and efficiently as well as optimizing the operations of existing assets and extending their lifecycle is crucial.  A company’s ability to harness actionable, data-driven insights is key to accelerate the transformation of assets that are safer, more efficient and more sustainable.

To help companies ensure business continuity while achieving their sustainability goals, Dassault Systèmes and IBM have decided to combine Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform and virtual twin experiences with IBM’s solutions for Asset Management, Resources Optimization, Environmental Risk Management and ESG governance.

Any organization including consulting firms or engineering companies will be able to better understand existing assets and therefore provide the transformational roadmap to modernize and optimize energy grids, wind farms, airports, water distribution systems, transportation and mobility, cities and datacenters.

A virtual twin experience of an asset is a data-enriched, evolving 3D model that replicates reality with scientific accuracy and is used to test and improve the asset’s performance virtually before doing so physically.  Combining virtual twin experiences of equipment, infrastructure, value networks and territories with solutions for optimizing meteorological and green IT data, for example, will help to:

• Improve collaboration and knowledge sharing between system engineering, manufacturing, and operations teams.
• Make faster, safer, and more sustainable operational decisions for assets, people, and processes.
• Integrate compliance considerations with respect to industry and environmental regulations from the engineering phase to the maintenance phase.

Over the coming months, Dassault Systèmes and IBM will work together to structure the details of their joint offering. Both companies will first target owners and operators of water / energy distribution and energy transmission projects, wind farms operators, airports and IT infrastructure projects that focus on datacenters.

Examples use cases that benefit from this collaboration in Energy and Civilian Infrastructure markets include:

• Compute and optimize global carbon footprint during datacenter operations by automating the actions that proactively deliver the most efficient use of compute, storage, and network resources.
• Enhance airport operations by leveraging asset health and maintenance information, along with global meteorological and forecasting data
• Combine optimization and simulation capabilities to improve the placement of physical assets for wind farms.
• Optimize utilities operations and renovations including electrical transmission, water supply and sanitation

“There is no better time to revitalize the IBM Dassault Systèmes long-term Partnership, as solving sustainability challenges requires collaboration across an advanced ecosystem of business partners. We are convinced that enriching virtual twins with real world data will enable companies to improve their operational efficiency and reduce their environment impact especially in asset intensive industries,” commented Ana Paula de Jesus Assis, Chair & General Manager, EMEA, IBM. “Throughout our own history, IBM has sought to be at the forefront of making our world a better place and our 2030 Net-Zero ambition confirms our commitment. We are developing a comprehensive and differentiated portfolio of sustainability software and consulting services, in concert with our ecosystem of partners.”

“IBM has long been a valued partner of Dassault Systèmes, and we share a deep commitment to accelerating the sustainable transformation of industries.  This next step aims to help our customers reduce their environmental footprint in sectors that are urgent priorities in the context of today’s energy crisis,” said Florence Verzelen, Executive Vice President, Industry, Marketing and Sustainability, Dassault Systèmes.  “The combination of IBM’s sustainability software and expertise with our 3DEXPERIENCE platform, sustainability portfolio and virtual twin experiences can offer unparalleled ways to address systemic challenges in achieving net zero ambitions and driving the circular economy.”

Dassault Systèmes today announced that it achieved the top scores in the leading global environmental, social and governance ratings in 2022, capping a year of milestones and improvements in the company’s ESG performance. 

For the second consecutive year, Dassault Systèmes was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), placing in the top 1 percent of rated companies in the software sector and ranking fourth out of 332.  This performance in one of the world’s foremost assessments of the sustainability practices of global companies in terms of ESG and economic criteria marked an eight-point gain over 2021, with the greatest progress in the innovation management, environmental policy and management systems, and human capital development topics.

In addition to its ranking in the DJSI, Dassault Systèmes received an MSCI ESG “AAA” rating for the first time, recognizing it as a “leader” in the software and services industry.  MSCI ESG Ratings aim to measure a company’s resilience to long-term ESG risks.  The AAA rating, upgraded from AA in 2021, was achieved based on the company’s robust business ethics framework and its focus on talent retention and development.

Other 2022 achievements include a “Platinum Medal” rating from EcoVadis based on an assessment of environment, labor and human rights issues, and ethics and sustainable procurement criteria.  The company also maintained its inclusion in the Euronext Eurozone ESG Index (Large 80) based on its sixth place ranking in the software sector by Vigeo Eiris, as well as in the FTSE4Good Index.

“ESG reporting is a key area of focus for Dassault Systèmes. We recognize its importance for our ambition to become the trusted and leading partner for reinventing a sustainable economy through our own business practices and human resources, as well as through the virtual twin experiences we enable for more than 300,000 customers in 12 industries worldwide,” said Florence Verzelen, Executive Vice President, Industry, Marketing and Sustainability, Dassault Systèmes. “We will further this year’s achievements by continuing to drive sustainability awareness, solutions and engagement inside our company with our employees at the core as well as at our customers and among our global ecosystem.  Every action we take aligns with our corporate purpose to harmonize product, nature and life.”

In addition to its ESG achievements, Dassault Systèmes reaffirmed its commitment to sustainability in 2022 by launching its life cycle assessment solution on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to enable customers to measure the environmental impacts of their products and processes; by appointing Philippine de T’Serclaes its Chief Sustainability Officer, and by signing the Action Declaration on Climate Policy Engagement and the “All In” statement during COP27.