PVA TePla appoints new CEO, expands Management Board
May 14, 2020
PVA TePla AG, headquartered in Wettenberg, Germany, has announced that Manfred Bender will assume the role of CEO effective January 1, 2021. Alfred Schopf, the current CEO, is expected to leave the company at the 2021 Annual General Meeting when his contract expires. Additionally, the Executive Team will be expanded to include Dr Andreas Mühe as CTO and Jalin Ketter as CFO at the 2020 Annual General Meeting on June 26, 2020.
Bender has held various positions from the period of 1998–2017, including CEO of listed manufacturing group Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology AG. His latest role was as CFO of biotech company Brain AG, since December 2018, and he also sits on various supervisory and advisory boards.
Alexander von Witzleben, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of PVA TePla AG, stated that Schopf has been critical to PVA TePla’s success in recent years and laid the groundwork for the group’s growth.
He commented, “The new CEO of PVA TePla, Manfred Bender, is an internationally experienced executive from the region of Central Hesse, who used his expertise and leadership skills to transform a German SME into a global player as part of his role as CEO of Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology AG. “
“In recent years, PVA TePla – under the leadership of Alfred Schopf – has shown that stable growth based on leading technology is possible. Manfred Bender will now continue to drive this growth with the help of the excellent, enhanced executive team.”
In his role of CTO, Dr Mühe will head the new executive division for technology and will be responsible for advancing strategic technical and product development, chiefly in the areas of technology and innovation management. Dr Mühe is experienced in the semiconductor industry with many years of leadership experience, including roles at Siltronic and, most recently, as Managing Director of the subsidiary PVA Crystal Growing Systems GmbH.
Ketter, who assumes the role of CFO, is a certified tax consultant and auditor and joined PVA TePla AG in 2015. In addition to these roles, the Supervisory Board also resolved to renew Oliver Höfer, the current COO’s contract by another five years from the 2020 Annual General Meeting until the 2025 Annual General Meeting.
Schopf stated, “I am delighted to welcome Ketter and Dr Mühe, two experienced colleagues, to PVA TePla’s Management Board. As head of finance and a power of attorney, Ketter has been taking on management responsibilities ever since she started at PVA TePla. With Dr Mühe, we have gained an expert in crystal-growing and metrology – of whom there are only a handful worldwide.”
He continued, “Together with our long-standing COO Oliver Höfer, we are strengthening our company’s strategic development opportunities and improving our position as a leading provider of process and inspection systems for high-tech materials and their surfaces.”
