As of January 1, 2023 Manfred Stanek, previously CEO of the Greiner Packaging division, to become Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Greiner AG.
Jürgen Kleinrath, previously joint interim CEO of the foam group NEVEON to-gether with Greiner AG’s CEO Axel Kühner, became its sole CEO as of 1 July.
“We have laid important foundations for the future of Greiner,” said Axel Kühner (CEO of Greiner AG) at the announcement of changes in the management of Greiner AG and the foam group NEVEON today (Wednesday). Starting from January 1, 2023, Greiner AG will have a new, third Executive Board position. Manfred Stanek, the current CEO of Greiner Packaging, will become part of the Greiner AG Executive Board as Chief Operating Officer. In addition, Jürgen Kleinrath has been heading Greiner’s foam group NEVEON in the sole CEO role since July 1, 2022 already. Over the preceding three months, he had managed NEVEON jointly with Axel Kühner as co-CEO.
“We are delighted to be able to strengthen the Greiner management team at different levels with highly skilled and outstanding individuals. We are convinced that Manfred Stanek and Jürgen Kleinrath are the right people to lead Greiner and its divisions to further success and into a sustainable future,” say Greiner AG CEO Axel Kühner and CFO Hannes Moser in unison.
Following Manfred Stanek’s appointment to the Executive Board, Greiner will be managed by three Executive Board members for the first time in the company’s history. The newly created position focuses on the strategic further development of the Greiner Packaging, NEVEON, and Greiner Bio-One divisions. In his new role, Manfred Stanek will also monitor the performance of the three operating divisions. Stanek will also be responsible for IT and strategic purchasing at Greiner.
Since 2016, Manfred Stanek (53) has been the CEO of Greiner Packaging, which produces plastic packaging in the food and non-food sector and has more than 4,900 employees worldwide. Hailing from Vienna, he has more than 25 years of international management experience (including in the US and Brazil) with a focus on sales, marketing, and strategic business development. Before joining Greiner, Stanek worked in various different management positions at the US aluminum group Novelis. Prior to that, Stanek managed the zinc producer U.S. Zinc as CEO. The father-of-three holds a degree from the Vienna University of Economics and Business (MBA) and has completed an Executive Education Program at the French business school INSEAD.
“Manfred Stanek has excellent knowledge of Greiner, its values, and its divisions. As CEO of Greiner Packaging, he has impressively developed the company and made it more profitable over the past years He brings visions and ideas that fit just right with Greiner. For all of these reasons, he is the perfect choice for us to help us achieve the major challenges of the future and our sustainability transformation,” says Greiner CEO Kühner. It has not yet been decided who will take over from him as head of the Greiner Packaging division at the start of next year.
As of July 1, 2022 already, Jürgen Kleinrath took on the role of sole division manager of the foam group NEVEON. After the management of NEVEON had become vacant in mid-March this year, Group CEO Axel Kühner and Jürgen Kleinrath, previously Chief Commercial Officer of NEVEON, acted as its joint managers on an interim basis. On June 30, 2022, Kühner withdrew from operating business again and assigned sole responsibility for the management of the NEVEON division to Kleinrath.
Jürgen Kleinrath (49) has many years of experience in various industrial sectors. From 2014 to 2019, he served as Managing Director at the ink manufacturer Sun Chemicals, prior to which he held a management position at the packaging and paper company Mondi. From 2019 to 2021, Kleinrath was CEO of the foam company Eurofoam, which was fully acquired by Greiner in 2020. The father-of-two has completed an EMBA at the University for Continuing Education Krems. “Jürgen Kleinrath is an outstanding individual and a fantastic manager. And as the former CEO of Eurofoam, he also knows NEVEON’s foam business better than almost anyone. All of this has convinced me that Jürgen Kleinrath is the right person to develop NEVEON into a world-leading integrated foam company,” concludes Greiner CEO Axel Kühner.
