Klaus Endress Turns 75
January 5, 2024
Long-time CEO and Supervisory Board president of the Endress+Hauser Group celebrates his birthday
Dr Klaus Endress, CEO of the Endress+Hauser Group for many years and president of the Supervisory Board since 2014, is celebrating his 75th birthday. As previously announced, he will end his active involvement in the family-owned business at the end of the year. However, he will remain closely associated with the Group as a shareholder and chairman of the Endress Family Council.
Klaus Endress was born on 9 December 1948 as the second of eight children for company founder Dr Georg H Endress and his wife Alice. After studying industrial engineering and working in the United States, he joined his father’s company in 1979. In 1995, Klaus Endress took over as CEO and shaped the Endress+Hauser Group’s development for almost two decades. In 2014, he moved to the Supervisory Board.
Shaping the structure and culture of the Group
To this day, much of the company bears the signature of Klaus Endress. His time as CEO saw the separation and focusing of sales and production, the introduction of uniform IT structures, the internationalization of the business and the establishment of global production based on the principle of ‘From the region, for the region’. The successful development of the Group is based on all of these factors.
Klaus Endress always paid great attention to the corporate culture. Responsibility and loyalty are core values. For him, value-based corporate management is the cornerstone of sustaining economic success. He also upholds these principles within the entrepreneurial family. Today, a family charter defines the relationship between the family and the company, introduces the younger generation to the business and strengthens the cohesion and unity of the 75-plus family members.
Involvement in many public functions
Klaus Endress was also actively involved in politics, education, culture and business. He was engaged in the liberal FDP party in his home municipality of Reinach for almost three decades. From 2005 to 2018, he represented the interests of the canton of Baselland on the University Council of the University of Basel. In 2019, the Faculty of Economics awarded him an honorary doctorate for his commitment; in the same year, he was recognized for supporting the development of the Basel region.
From 2008 to 2017, Klaus Endress chaired the WVIB, an industrial association of more than 1,000 small and medium-sized companies in southwestern Germany. On his retirement, the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg, Germany, made the Swiss entrepreneur an honorary senator. He also received the German Federal Cross of Merit.
Still closely associated with the company
At the end of the year, Klaus Endress will no longer be actively involved in the company. In future, the family will be represented on the Supervisory Board by Sandra Genge and Steven Endress, two members of the third generation.
Klaus Endress will remain closely associated with the company as a shareholder and chairman of the Family Council – and is looking forward to spending more time with his wife and two grown-up children. In addition, the passionate horse rider and mountain biker regularly heads outdoors and into nature, usually accompanied by Maya, the family dog.
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Endress+Hauser Initiates Generational Change
As previously announced, Dr Klaus Endress will give up his responsibilities as president of the Supervisory Board. He is to be succeeded by CEO Matthias Altendorf. The new CEO of the Group will be Dr Peter Selders, the present head of the center of competence for level and pressure measurement technology. Steven Endress, currently managing director of Endress+Hauser UK, will become the second member of the family to sit on the Supervisory Board.
