Ralph Jakobs new Managing Director Technology of the Vaillant Group

Remscheid, 8 August 2019

The Vaillant GmbH Supervisory Board has appointed Ralph Jakobs as a managing director of the company with effect from 1 November 2019. Ralph Jakobs will be succeeding Dr.-Ing. Norbert Schiedeck as Managing Director Technology. Dr.-Ing. Norbert Schiedeck has been Managing Director Technology since April 2014 and has held this position in addition to his appointment as Chief Executive Officer in May last year.

Ralph Jakobs (50) is an internationally experienced manager with substantial expertise in the areas that are relevant to the Vaillant Group’s technology operations. Having studied mechanical engineering at Aachen Technical University (RWTH), he joined the Volkswagen Group as a trainee in 1996. His tasks at VW comprised a variety of areas, including production, quality management and project management. Later, he took over operational management functions in Germany and the United States. These functions covered a wide range of technical areas. From 2016 to May 2019, Ralph Jakobs headed as Vice President the research and development activities of a joint venture of the Volkswagen Group in China. There he was responsible for a workforce of 2,000.

About the Vaillant Group

The Vaillant Group is an internationally active company based in Remscheid, Germany, which operates in the fields of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technology. As one of the global market and technology leaders, the Vaillant Group develops and manufactures customised products, systems and services to provide a comfortable living environment. Its product portfolio ranges from efficient heating devices based on conventional energy sources to system solutions for using renewable energy. In the financial year 2018, the company, which has been family-owned since its foundation in 1874, generated sales of around 2.5 billion euros with its workforce of about 13,000.