24/04/2020 | Press release

Responsible for the high-tech group’s Automotive unit

Jörg Grotendorst, 50, has been appointed a Member of the Executive Board of Rheinmetall AG. Grotendorst, who currently heads the E-Mobility division of ZF Friedrichshafen, will in future have special responsibility on the Executive Board for the high-tech group’s Automotive unit. In his new role at Rheinmetall, he succeeds end of this year Horst Binnig, who retired at the end of 2019.

In the words of Ulrich Grillo, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Rheinmetall AG, and Armin Papperger, Chairman of the Executive Board, “In Jörg Grotendorst we have gained a strong and talented leader with longstanding experience in the automotive industry and outstanding technical expertise. We are convinced that with him at our side, we can press ahead with the innovative renewal of our product portfolio, tightly oriented to the needs of our customers.”

After graduating in Electrical Engineering, Regulation and Control Technology, Jörg Grotendorst embarked on a career that first included stops at DaimlerChrysler and Ford, where he was responsible for developing electronic applications for chassis. After moving to Continental AG, he headed (among other things) the auto parts supplier’s Hybrid & Electric Vehicle business unit before taking charge of strategy and development in the Powertrain division. Following a stop at Siemens where he served as CEO of the Inside eCar business unit, in 2015 he moved on to ZF Friedrichshafen AG, where he headed the company’s newly founded Electromobility unit, with some 10,000 employees at over twenty locations worldwide, three of them in China.

Listed on the M-Dax, the high-tech Rheinmetall Group serves the twin modern imperatives of mobility and security. Aggregate sales in 2019 came to €6.3 billion. The Group has around 30,000 employees at 130 locations worldwide. Its globally operating Automotive unit is synonymous with sustainable mobility. Offering an array of products relating to alternative drive technologies and others for reducing fuel consumption and emissions, Rheinmetall Automotive generated sales in 2019 of €2.8 billion. A world-leading maker of military systems and equipment – including vehicle systems and electronics as well as weapons and ammunition – Rheinmetall Defence had sales in 2019 of around €3.5 billion.