Michael Drolshagen is the new head of WashTec. The Supervisory Board appointed him both as CTO and CEO, effective May 1. He succeeds Ralf Koeppe, who left the German car wash company prematurely last week. 

Michael Drolshagen comes from Thyssenkrupp Presta Aktiengesellschaft, where he was Managing Director/CEO of the Steering division since 2018. Before that, he worked for Porsche AG a long time.

Drolshagen started his career at the automotive supplier Hella, where he worked as a project manager from 1998 to 2000.

“Michael Drolshagen combines all the requirements we need to dynamically drive forward the implementation of the strategy for the WashTec Group,” says Ulrich Bellgardt, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of WashTec AG in a press release.

Unexpected departure

A week ago former CEO Ralf Koeppe suddenly left WashTec. Both parties agreed to ‘prematurely terminate’ his contract. The tone around the unexpected farewell remained friendly on both sides.

Koeppe had held the position of CTO at WashTec AG since July 2019. Half a year later he also became the CEO. While he was steering the ship of the German car wash supplier, Koeppe successfully led the company through the most challenging times of crisis, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions.

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