From apprentice to managing director. A rather unusual career path today, isn’t it?

During my apprenticeship as an electromechanical engineer, I learned to build and commission generators and large electric motors. I know the practical side of the working world from my own experience. I benefit from this to this day. This experience helps me evaluate practical issues, even at the management level. The apprenticeship was the starting shot: Energy has shaped my life ever since – first the apprenticeship, then the studies, now my profession.

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You run a chemical park. How exactly does that work?

At the Leuna site, 130 companies are based, including 30 chemical companies. These chemical companies are closely interconnected. Technically via a pipeline system, but also economically and personally. Sometimes productions depend on each other. One company produces the raw material that another requires for its production.

As InfraLeuna GmbH, we provide the complex technical infrastructure. This includes the supply of electricity, heat, compressed air, cooling water, but also rail logistics and shipping, as well as plant security, plant fire brigade, and occupational medicine.

But that's not all. We want potential synergies between companies to be maximally utilized. We offer networks and working groups, including a managing directors' roundtable. The stakeholders on site often have similar problems. Why shouldn't they work together on a common solution?

One of these topics is likely climate protection. How do you see your industry positioned in this regard?

The chemical industry is particularly energy-intensive. In Leuna, we need as much electricity as 60 percent of all private households in Saxony-Anhalt combined. Our heat demand is twice as large as the heat deliveries of all district heating providers in the state combined. With these dimensions, the companies are primarily concerned with reliability and competitiveness. But, of course, we also want to make a contribution to climate protection, regardless of the current political debate.

In Leuna, we certainly have advantages here. For example, we can convert the waste heat of one operation into usable heat for another operation through the connection of individual companies. This is cost-effective and sustainable. We were also the first location in Germany to join the "Energy Efficiency Networks" initiative.

The DIHK Committee is also very present on this topic. Companies not only need to be competitive within Germany or Europe but worldwide. Besides EU emissions trading or the Fuel Emissions Trading Act, they are affected by numerous other regulations on climate protection, energy efficiency, or renewable energies. Often, we deal with extensive and complex bureaucratic requirements. As a committee, we want to provide support but also advocate for a pragmatic approach in politics.

Supervisory board member, board chairman, cathedral canon: You are involved in many voluntary activities. What drives you?

As a managing director, my first task is, of course, to lead the company successfully and to create and secure future-oriented jobs. Without attractive jobs, a region has no perspective.

The people in the region, including our skilled workers, also want to be able to continue their education and must feel comfortable privately. That's why I get involved at the Merseburg University of Applied Sciences and support association structures for dual training. Our area also has a lot to offer touristically, such as the Merseburg Cathedral, which celebrates its 1,000th consecration anniversary this year. My connection to the Central German region is strong. And getting up from the desk in the evening and then shaping the environment outside the company is worthwhile and fun!