Otto Happel
Otto Happel (born February 9, 1948 ) is a German entrepreneur .
Life
Happel is the son of Otto Happel senior. and Elisabeth Happel. His father founded the GEA company for dedusting systems in Bochum in 1920 , and after his death on December 26, 1948, Elisabeth Happel took over the management. In 1974 the management of the company, which at that time had a turnover of around 100 million euros, was handed over to the son Otto Happel junior. He studied engineering at RWTH Aachen University and graduated with a doctorate.
Over the next 25 years, Otto Happel transformed GEA as CEO and later as Chairman of the Supervisory Board into a global system provider and developed machines and systems for the food industry as well as for the energy, air conditioning and refrigeration technology sectors. In the course of the establishment of many foreign branches and more than 70 acquisitions, he globalized the group of companies comprehensively with more than 200 subsidiaries in 60 countries. In 1989 Happel listed the company on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, but kept the majority of the common shares in the family.
By 1999, GEA had increased its sales to more than 2.5 billion euros, proportionally also its profit. In 1999, Happel first merged its majority stake with MG Technologies and thereby became its largest shareholder. After MG was absorbed into the new GEA Group AG, in 2006 it sold its key block of shares to institutional investors. GEA is now the largest German listed mechanical engineering company and is broadly diversified. In 2018, GEA had sales of 4.8 billion euros and employed around 18,600 people.
From May 1993 to April 2013 he was a member of the Commerzbank - Supervisory Board .
On the Forbes list of the world's richest people in 2019, Happel was ranked 838th with a net worth of about $ 3 billion.
Happel is also the owner of the Seychelles island of Frégate .
literature
- Bernd Ziesemer: Pioneers of the German economy: What we can learn from the great entrepreneurs . Campus-Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 978-3-593-38121-3 .
- Inga Michler: Economic miracle 2010: Germany's family entrepreneurs conquer the world markets . Campus-Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-593-39005-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Portrait in Handelsblatt , accessed on October 15, 2015
- ↑ Annual Report 2018. (PDF) In: gea.com. GEA Engineering for a better world, accessed on April 16, 2019 .
- ^ Forbes List , Forbes.com
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Happel, Otto |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German entrepreneur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 9, 1948 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bochum |