June 27, 2003 -- Würzburg. For Reinhart Siewert (65), KBA’s AGM on June 26 in Würzburg represents his last official act as company president, a position he has held at the world's oldest press manufacturer since 1995. On July 1 he will be succeeded by Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann (50), the sixth generation of the founding family. His brother Claus (47) has been appointed deputy president. Under Reinhart Siewert who joined the company as an assistant manager in 1965 and has headed up the company’s finances since 1979, KBA has doubled group turnover from €687.7m (1995) to €1353.8m (2002). Over the same period KBA’s payroll swelled from 6,245 to approx. 7,400. The most significant achievements in Siewert’s eight years as president were mergers with former subsidiaries Albert-Frankenthal in Frankenthal (1995) and KBA-Planeta in Radebeul near Dresden (1998), and the acquisition of longstanding Swiss security printing partner De La Rue Giori, Lausanne, in 2001. Group growth drove a continuous expansion of the global sales and service network. Subject to the approval of the annual general meeting on 26 June, Reinhart Siewert will join the supervisory board as a shareholder representative, where he will continue to place his invaluable experience at the group’s disposal. The new president, Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann, studied engineering at the Technical University in Darmstadt and started his career as project engineer at Mohndruck (Bertelsmann) in Gütersloh. He joined the design department at Koenig & Bauer in 1980 before switching to Albert-Frankenthal in 1983, where he was appointed vice-president for engineering and development in 1987. In 1991, shortly after Koenig & Bauer acquired an interest in Planeta Druckmaschinenwerke following German unification, Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann moved to Radebeul as president of the newly formed subsidiary, KBA-Planeta. He proved to be a perceptive, dynamic moderniser, downsizing the company from six press-related and non-related divisions with a total payroll of 5,500 and transforming it into a tightly run operation of less than 2,000 people. Still the biggest engineering company in east Germany, KBA’s sheetfed offset division posted double-digit growth rates every year between 1993 and 2002, upgrading the product range and steadily expanding into the previously neglected small-format sector. Now boasting the most modern technology on the market, KBA Radebeul has returned a regular profit since 1997 and last year helped cushion a drop in the group's web press orders on the back of the economic downturn. Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann, who has also been directly responsible for product development and human resources management in Radebeul since 1991 and was appointed deputy president of the expanded parent company following the merger of KBA-Planeta and Koenig & Bauer in July 1998, succeeds Reinhart Siewert not only as president but also as CFO. Claus Bolza-Schünemann, like his brother Albrecht a son of the long-serving president and current vice chairman, Dr. Hans-B. Bolza-Schünemann, also represents the principal shareholder on the management board at KBA, which is listed in the German mid-caps index. He began his career as project engineer at Brown Boveri & Cie (later ABB) in Baden, Switzerland, after graduating in electrical engineering from Darmstadt in 1985. In 1989 he moved to Koenig & Bauer as subdivision head for electrical planning and engineering, where he was appointed first deputy vice-president, in 1992, and then executive vice-president for engineering and project management two years later. In his extended capacity as deputy president, Claus Bolza-Schünemann will be concentrating on the web and special press division and expanding his executive remit of engineering and project management to include Reinhart Siewert’s function as head of human resources at KBA’s web press operations.