Christoph Gröblinghoff appointed Chairman of the AGCO GmbH/Fendt Management Board
Ingrid Bussjaeger-Martin will become Head of Finance and IT at Fendt
Peter-Josef Paffen and Michael Gschwender to retire from the Fendt Management Board
Marktoberdorf, 10 November 2019. AGCO (Your Agricultural Company) today announced its long-anticipated changes in the AGCO GmbH/Fendt Management at Marktoberdorf. Peter-Josef Paffen (65), Vice President, Brand Head for Fendt and Chairman of the AGCO GmbH/Fendt Management Board, and Michael Gschwender (63), Vice President and Managing Director of Finance and IT, will step down from their roles as Managing Directors at AGCO GmbH at the end of December 2019.
The successor to Peter-Josef Paffen, who is retiring after ten years at the helm, will be Christoph Gröblinghoff (53), who has been the Vice President Distribution Management for Dealership Development in Europe and the Middle East (EME) for the last five years.
The successor to the long-standing Head of Finance, Michael Gschwender, will be Ingrid Bussjaeger-Martin (48), whose most recent role was Director of Controlling at Fendt.
Dr. Heribert Reiter, Vice President and Managing Director of Research and Development, Purchasing and Customer Service, and Ekkehart Gläser, Vice President and Managing Director of Production, will remain Managing Directors at AGCO/Fendt.
Martin H. Richenhagen, Chairman, President and CEO of the AGCO Corporation: "Together with his team, Peter-Josef Paffen has led the cutting-edge Fendt brand to new heights in the last ten years. With the Fendt 2020 Strategy and aggressive market share plans, Fendt has achieved very profitable growth, fully expanding the Fendt Full-Line product range and significantly driving forward the brand's progress in terms of globalisation."
Under Paffen's leadership, the Fendt team saw through strategic large-scale projects of the AGCO Group, such as extending the cab plant in Asbach-Bäumenheim into the AGCO Centre of Excellence for Cabs for multiple AGCO brands, migrating the production of sprayers from the Netherlands to Hohenmölsen/Saxony-Anhalt and building the AGCO Digital Centre at the Fendt headquarters in Marktoberdorf.
"Fendt is a great example of successful brand management. Peter-Josef Paffen has played a significant part in the success and brilliance of the Fendt brand, leaving us with great opportunities for future global growth. On behalf of myself, the AGCO Board, the Fendt Supervisory Board, the Works Council and every AGCO employee around the world, it is with the deepest sincerity that I'd like to thank Peter-Josef Paffen for his outstanding work. We wish him all the best for the future, with a great deal more downtime to enjoy his recently discovered passion for hunting, and other upcoming ventures," says Martin Richenhagen.
Michael Gschwender looks back on 48 years of Fendt and AGCO
When Michael Gschwender (63), Vice President and Managing Director of Finance and IT, leaves his office as Fendt Managing Director at the end of December 2019, he will look back on 48 eventful years at Fendt and AGCO. Gschwender made the very rare journey from apprentice to Managing Director in the same company.
Appointing Michael Gschwender in 2003 as Managing Director Finance and MIS, and later to Vice President Finance and MIS, was a great show of trust from the AGCO top management at the time in the purely German AGCO GmbH/Fendt Management Board. In his time at Fendt, Gschwender earned himself an outstanding reputation as a skilled manager for the entire division of Controlling and IT, as well as Managing Director in the many subsidiaries of AGCO GmbH and AGCO International GmbH in Germany and Europe.
Gschwender built a deep and international Controlling and IT team at all AGCO locations in Germany. He was instrumental in the implementation of SAP at all Fendt locations.
Martin H. Richenhagen: "Michael Gschwender has been extremely successful in managing and expanding the Finance and IT business unit in Marktoberdorf, leading with integrity and competence. Fendt is by far the most successful brand in the AGCO Group. On behalf of myself, all the AGCO shareholders, the AGCO Board and every AGCO employee, I'd like to extend our deepest thanks to Michael for his outstanding work, and we wish him every success in the future."
