Mohali, November 9, 2015 – In course of long-term succession planning, Freudenberg´s 50:50 Joint Venture TrelleborgVibracoustic has announced changes at its Management Board level. From 1st of January 2016 on Dr Jörg Böcking (49) will assume the position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Stefan Eck (46) will take over the position of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at the leading supplier of automotive vibration technology. The current CTO Jim Law (59) and CFO Norbert Schebesta (66) will act as senior advisors before their retirement in 2016.

Dr Ing Jörg Böcking currently holds the position of Group CTO at Freudenberg & Co, being responsible for corporate R&D, innovation strategy and new business development. He joined Freudenberg in 1997 after his degree in mechanical engineering and a PhD specializing in vibration technology at Darmstadt Technical University. From 2001 until 2007 he worked for TrelleborgVibracoustic's predecessor Vibracoustic as Director System Development and Technologies and headed the Business Area Engine Mounts. From 2008 to 2012 he was in charge of Freudenberg New Technologies as General Manager.

Stefan Eck joins TrelleborgVibracoustic from his function as CFO of the automotive supplier Hilite International. From 2008 to 2011 he held the position as CFO at Honsel Group, a supplier of light metal components to the automotive industry, where he worked in various leading positions since 2003. After his Master's degree in economics at Regensburg University and his exam as Certified Public Accountant in Delaware (US) he started his career as associate and senior manager at the auditing firm BDO Deutsche Warentreuhand AG in Chicago (US) and Munich (Germany).

“We are convinced that, together with the company's CEO Frank Müller, Dr Jörg Böcking and Stefan Eck will drive the further profitable growth of TrelleborgVibracoustic, based on their comprehensive expertise in automotive and finance and their leadership skills,” said Dr Mohsen Sohi, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of TrelleborgVibracoustic and CEO of the Freudenberg Group.

Jim Law and Norbert Schebesta have led TrelleborgVibracoustic as members of the Management Board since the creation of the joint venture in 2012. Jim Law had worked in various leadership positions for Trelleborg Automotive and its predecessors since 1989. From 2000, Norbert Schebesta had held the position as CFO of former Vibracoustic. Between 1996 and 2000 he had served as CFO of Freudenberg Sealing and Vibration Control.

“We are very thankful to Jim Law and Norbert Schebesta for their achievements and longstanding service to TrelleborgVibracoustic as well as the two prior companies. It is due to the excellent leadership of the founding Management Board that this joint venture is one of the few really successful mergers in the industry. They laid a solid basis to extend the leading position of the Company in the automotive AVS market,” underlined Dr Sohi.