Linde announces new chairman, names Sanjiv Lamba CEO
October 25, 2021
The board of directors of Linde, a global industrial gas specialist headquartered in Guildford, Surrey, UK, has appointed Sanjiv Lamba to succeed Steve Angel as Chief Executive Officer, with Steve Angel to succeed Wolfgang Reitzle as chairman, effective March 1, 2022.
Lamba was named Linde’s Chief Operating Officer in October 2020. Throughout his more than thirty-year tenure with Linde, he has served in various leadership roles including executive vice president APAC, Head of Regional Business Units (South & South East Asia) and Managing Director, India. In addition to his appointment as CEO, Lamba will now join Linde’s Board of Directors.
“I am truly honoured to lead this outstanding company into the future,” stated Lamba. “Linde is exceptionally well-positioned to capitalise on profitable growth opportunities in several end markets, including electronics, healthcare and clean energy. I look forward to working with the talented Linde team to continue driving our high-performance culture and create sustainable value for Linde shareholders.”
Angel was named Chief Executive Officer of Linde in 2018, having successfully led the merger of Linde AG and Praxair into one of the largest global industrial gases and engineering companies. Under his leadership, the company was said to have implemented a culture of operational excellence and capital discipline which, when combined with industry-leading growth, generated 100% total shareholder return over three years. Prior to his role as Linde CEO, Angel had served as chairman, president and CEO of Praxair, Inc. since 2007.
“It has been a privilege to lead Linde to become the best performing industrial gases and engineering company in the world,” Angel commented. “As chairman, I look forward to working with Sanjiv as we further strengthen Linde’s reputation for excellence. I’m confident that under Sanjiv’s leadership, Linde will maintain our high-performance culture, aggressively implement our new sustainability goals and leverage the many growth opportunities we have in front of us to create significant shareholder value.”
Reitzle retires from Linde after nearly two decades with the company, during which he served as president and CEO of Linde AG and chairman of the Supervisory Board of Linde AG. Angel commented, “I want to thank Wolfgang for his partnership in enabling our highly successful merger and his leadership as chairman.”
“It was an honour to work with Linde’s outstanding board members and senior management throughout my tenure as chairman,” added Reitzle. “I’m pleased to know Steve will now lead the board of directors, and Sanjiv will be at the helm of the company. Linde could not be in better hands.”
