Hans Ferkel takes over as CEO of the new SMS Innovation Hub for future technologies.

On its mission to develop a climate-neutral and sustainable metals industry, SMS group is driving its innovations forward and establishing an Innovation Hub for future technologies. The new unit of the organization is to accelerate tomorrow's technologies and develop them to market maturity.

As part of this, there will be new responsibilities in the management as of May 1, 2023: Hans Ferkel, CTO and member of the Managing Board since 2019, will lead and build up the new SMS Innovation Hub as CEO. His successor as CTO on the Managing Board will be Thomas Hansmann, who was most recently responsible for the metallurgy business of SMS group as well as CTO of SMS subsidiary Paul Wurth.

‟With the establishment of the Innovation Hub we will give selected technologies the focused attention and acceleration that we need to be successful in the market”, says Edwin Eichler, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at SMS. ‟Hans Ferkel is the ideal person to use his broad know-how for this. Thomas Hansmann will bring his longstanding technological and metallurgical experience to the Managing Board.”

SMS group is renowned worldwide for its future-oriented technologies and outstanding service for the metals industry. The company applies its 150 years of experience and its digital know-how to provide the industry continuously with innovative products and processes – even beyond its core business – and generates worldwide sales of around 3.1 billion euros. SMS is the right partner for challenging projects, and supports its customers throughout the lifecycle of their plants, enabling profitable and resource-efficient value creation chains. Paving the way for a carbon-neutral and sustainable metals industry is the company’s stated goal. As a global player with German roots, SMS takes responsibility for its 14,400 employees.