Chairperson of the Supervisory Board, Cathrina Claas-Mühlhäuser, praised Mr Kriszun’s contribution to the company. “Lothar Kriszun has achieved a lot for our company,” she says. “He has been a crucial driving force in the successful development of CLAAS. We are filling this position with Hermann Lohbeck, who is a dynamic personality with a track record of almost 20 years’ outstanding work in management.”

Mr Lohbeck joined CLAAS in 1999, initially as business unit director for accounting and taxation, as well as controlling and commercial managing director. Until 2014, he was commercial director of the company’s self-propelled forage harvesters division.

He joined the Group Executive Board in 2014 with responsibility for the company’s forage harvesting division. As speaker, he will also have responsibility for corporate communications and corporate development portfolios. He has a diploma in business management and initially worked as a tax consultant and chartered accountant.

Founded in 1913, CLAAS employs around 11,300 workers worldwide and had a reported a turnover of 3.6 billion euros in the 2016 financial year.

The family-owned business manufactures a range of industry-leading grain and forage harvesters, advanced technology tractors, forage harvesting technology and state-of-the-art agricultural information technology.