Andreas Förster takes over as Executive Director of DECHEMA

The DECHEMA Office will be reorganized with two new divisional heads

05-Jul-2021 - Germany

Dr. Andreas Förster, previously Deputy Executive Director, will take over as Executive Director of DECHEMA Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie e.V. (Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology) on July 1. He succeeds Prof. Dr. Kurt Wagemann, who had held this position since 2010. The Board of DECHEMA unanimously appointed Andreas Förster at its meeting in June 2020. Dr. Andreas Förster had been Deputy Executive Director of DECHEMA since 2001. Prior to that, he headed the Research Promotion and Conferences Department. Since 2009, Förster has also been General Manager of ProcessNet, the joint initiative of DECHEMA and VDI-GVC.

As the new leader of the scientific society, Andreas Förster has formulated a clear strategic direction. Thus, the core of DECHEMA, namely the content-related work and the networking of the members, is to be strengthened, the financial basis is to be secured and new business fields are to be developed. In order to achieve these goals, the DECHEMA Office is being given a new structure. All essential activities will be bundled in two divisions.

Dr. Kathrin Rübberdt will take over the management of the "Science and Industry" division. At the same time, she will succeed Andreas Förster as General Manager of ProcessNet, the joint initiative of DECHEMA and VDI-GVC. The "Science and Industry" division encompasses all of DECHEMA's content-related activities, which are handled in topical units. Thus, offers for members and the community will be even more transparent in the future and activities can be more closely interlinked. The division also includes the expansion of existing or development of new business fields such as databases, contract studies or consulting services. Kathrin Rübberdt will remain Head of Communications at DECHEMA on an interim basis.

The new "Services" division is headed by Dirk Rühl. His area of responsibility covers all services and supporting functions from human resources management to finance, IT, building and event technology, and event organization. This is intended to further improve cost transparency and service orientation in order to optimally position DECHEMA as a professional service provider for scientific societies, both internally and externally.

DECHEMA Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie e.V. (Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology) brings together experts from a wide range of disciplines, institutions and generations to stimulate scientific exchange in chemical engineering, process engineering and biotechnology. We identify and evaluate emerging technological trends and facilitate the transfer of research results into industrial applications.

DECHEMA has over 5,800 members - individuals, institutions and companies. Together with DECHEMA Ausstellungs-GmbH we are the organizers of ACHEMA, the world forum for the process industry.