Wolfgang Drees, Partner since 2012

Wolfgang Drees was CEO of Rieter Automotive Systems (Winterthur, Switzerland), leading partner of the automotive industry around the globe in the areas of Vehicle Acoustics and Thermal Management. Under his leadership, Rieter Automotive was successfully developed and listed as an independent company at the Zurich Stock Exchange after positive completion of the turn around.

He is member of the Board of Directors at different companies as well as member of the Advisory Board of a well-known private equity company.

Prior to joining Rieter Automotive he was a member of the Board of Management of Robert Bosch GmbH in Stuttgart, Germany, from 2002 through 2005, with responsibility for the divisions Chassis Systems, Power Tools, Thermal Technology and Metals Technology as well as for the regions France, Spain and Portugal.

During the years 1999 through 2001, Wolfgang Drees was President of Bosch Body Electronics respectively Bosch Chassis Systems and as Executive Vice President Manufacturing, he expanded the global production network of Bosch Power Tools during the period from 1996 until 1999.

From 1994 through 1995, he assumed the responsibility of Vice President Manufacturing at Scintilla AG (Solothurn, Switzerland), a stock listed subsidiary of Bosch Power Tools.

During the years before this assignment (from 1991 through 1993), he was heading important projects as Vice President Corporate Controlling in the fields of benchmarking, M&A etc. in the Stuttgart based headquarter of the Bosch Group.

In the period 1988 until 1991, Wolfgang Drees established a Joint Venture company in South Carolina, USA, between Robert Bosch Corporation and a Japanese automotive supplier in order to provide US-subsidiaries of Japanese OEM`s with locally produced electronic control units. Before that time (since 1977), he had different responsibilities within the Bosch Group (from Trainee to Director Manufacturing Engineering at the Salzgitter plant in Northern Germany).

Wolfgang Drees was born in 1953 in Hamm/Germany, and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering ("Dipl.-Ing.") at the Technical University of Hannover, Germany. In order to enhance his competence in the areas of Finance and Controlling, he attended various training programs, among those the Bosch INSEAD Senior Executive Program in cooperation with Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.