Thomas Walkenhorst takes over as CEO of TÜV SÜD Chemie Service GmbH, succeeding Dr Hans-Nicolaus Rindfleisch. Walkenhorst will be supported by the recently appointed chief operating officer, Hans Joachim Machetanz. Dr Rindfleisch will retain responsibility for management of the Chemical, Oil and Gas business unit of the TÜV SÜD Group until the end of May 2017.
Walkenhorst studied business management at the University of Regensburg, ESCP EAP in Paris and Leipzig Graduate School of Management. From 2005 to 2011, he was engaged in mergers and acquisitions at financial institutions in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and London. He joined TÜV SÜD’s M&A Unit in April 2011, overseeing transactions including the acquisition of U.S.based RCI Consultants, consulting specialists in the development, construction and installation of petroleum and natural-gas drilling and pipeline systems. After being appointed to the board of management of TÜV SÜD Chemie Service GmbH in January 2015, Walkenhorst was responsible for activities at the company’s Frankfurt location and for the North American activities of the TÜV SÜD Chemical, Oil and Gas business unit.
After completing an integrated degree studies at Bayer AG and graduating in industrial mechanics and process engineering, Machetanz began his career in 1996 as an operating engineer at a Bayer AG company in Leverkusen. In 2000, he moved to the owner’s inspectorate at Bayer AG, which merged with TÜV SÜD in 2005 to form the new TÜV SÜD Chemie Service GmbH. Machetanz was responsible for numerous projects for key accounts including Bayer Material Science, Wacker AG and Celanese (Ticona). He joined the engineering division of Lanxess in 2012 as head of quality assurance for global procurement of plant parts and returned to TÜV SÜD Chemie Service in 2015, where he oversees the Plant Safety and Inspection department in Leverkusen.
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