Bad Soden, Germany,
01
January
2023
|
09:30
Europe/Amsterdam

Virginia Esly is new Management Board member at Messer

Effective January 2, Virginia Esly has been named to the Management Board of Messer, the world’s largest privately run industrial gases specialist. This makes her the first female member of the Management Board of the family company, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year.

Alongside Stefan Messer, CEO and shareholder in the third generation, Bernd Eulitz as Deputy CEO and Helmut Kaschenz as CFO, Virginia Esly takes over as Chief Operating Officer Europe. Among other responsibilities, she is tasked with the further development of the Messer Group’s European national subsidiaries as well as their Safety, Sales Support, Production and Logistics organizations.

“Virginia Esly is an inspiring, dedicated and very positive leader,” explains Stefan Messer. “The shareholder family, the Supervisory Board and the Management Board are pleased to have her fulfill this operative role, which is so future-oriented and of such key importance to the industrial gases business.” Bernd Eulitz: “Virginia Esly’s entrepreneurial thinking and her experience in sales, marketing and e-commerce will help shape Messer’s future development.”

Messer has been advocating for greater diversity in the company for many years now. Women such as Nathalie von Siemens, Heike Niehues, Member of the Executive Board at Webasto Thermo & Comfort, and Sabine Scheunert, Vice President Digital & IT Sales/Marketing Mercedes-Benz Cars at Mercedes-Benz AG serve on Messer’s eight-person Supervisory Board. “Virginia Esly will assume an important role model function in our Management Board,” says Stefan Messer.

Virginia Esly brings more than twenty years of experience in the industrial gases business: most recently, she was in charge of Sales and Marketing for Western Europe at Linde in Munich, Germany. Before having helped manage the merger between Linde and Praxair for two years, the business economics graduate held global responsibility for sales channel optimization and successfully expanded the digital sales and marketing operations of her former employer.

Virginia Esly succeeds Ernst Bode, who leaves as planned after six years on the Management Board and resumes his responsibilities as General Manager of Messer in Serbia. Ernst Bode has been working for Messer in a number of different functions since 1988. Having served abroad in various leadership positions and countries for more than twenty years, he assumed the role of COO Europe.