Rüdiger Andreas Günther appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Francotyp-Postalia Holding AG

The Supervisory Board of Francotyp-Postalia Holding AG has appointed Mr Rüdiger Andreas Günther as Member of the Management Board, CEO and CFO with effect of 11 January 2016. Born in 1958 Günther succeeds Mr Hans Szymanski whose appointment was terminated effective immediately in best mutual agreement.

After his bank apprenticeship and business administration studies at the Universities of Göttingen and North Carolina at Chapel Hill / USA Günther began his career in 1985 at today's Bank of America in Chicago / USA. With the experience gained, he took over the finance department at Metro AG and initiated the expansion of the company from wholesale into retail. In 1993 he moved to the Claas KGaA. During his 13 years as CFO and CEO, Claas developed from a small mid-sized mechanical engineering company to Europe's largest agricultural machinery manufacturer with multi-billion in revenues and a global presence.

After Board positions within Infineon and Arcandor Günther joined Jenoptik AG in 2012 and changed the organisation into a leading international high-tech company with a corresponding share price development. Günther is married with two children. The Supervisory Board is pleased to have Günther, an experienced manager, on board for the implementation of the strategy FP 2020 and for the transformation of FP. In his previous role Günther has repeatedly accomplished similar results.

Szymanski joined Francotyp-Postalia Holding AG as CFO on 1 December 2008. On 1 November 2011, Szymanski has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer. During his term, major positive changes occurred within FP. A completely new line of business with digital document solutions was developed successfully. Hence, FP was accredited for innovative De-Mail as the first company in Germany. Today the new divisions generate a significant share of total revenue of the FP. In addition the core franking business has developed remarkably under Szymanski. Thus, FP has the most modern franking machines in the market, resulting in improving market share in the world market. At the same time the share price of the company has quadrupled. Furthermore, the restructuring program “Aufbruch 2015” was successfully implemented under his leadership which increased the financial strength of the Group significantly. "The Supervisory Board would like to thank Mr Szymanski for his continuous hard work and outstanding improvement of FP," says Klaus Roehrig, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Francotyp-Postalia Holding AG.