Klaus Hellmann, managing director and joint owner of Hellmann Group, will relinquish his role to take on a supervisory board position as the global logistics company continues a transition into a new corporate structure.
Klaus (pictured), 67, and his cousin Jost, 63, who owns the other 50% of the business, are the great grandsons of Hellmann Worldwide Logistics’ founder, Carl. Together, they have run the company for the past 40 years, placing it firmly in the world’s top 20 logistics entities.
The supervisory board was established as part of a new corporate legal structure as the company prepares for a generational transition and to modernise the business.
The management board will now just consist of the two managing directors, Jost Hellmann and Dr Thomas Knecht, who was appointed last year as the first non-family managing director.
“After approximately 40 years of active and successful collaboration, it is time to introduce a younger management team and to hand over the leadership,” said Jost Hellmann earlier this year. “It is nevertheless important for us to play an active role as members of the management board for the transition in the coming years.”
Klaus Hellmann will also take on the role of MD of the group’s two German sister companies, Hellmann Internationale Spedition and Hellmann Spedition (formerly known as Honold and Kunze).
Knecht is speaker of the management board and is leading the reorganisation of the Hellmann Group, along with the executive board.
