Name Thomas Limberger | ||
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Thomas Peter Limberger (22 July 1967 in Bad Homburg, Germany) is a German industrial manager, restructuring expert and investor.
Contents
Education
Thomas Limberger studied economics in France and in the United States. He holds a Bachelor of Science and Business Administration (B.S.B.A.) and in 1994 concluded his studies in “Finance and Strategic Management” with a Master of Business Administration. He is an alumnus of the French Grande Ecole Institut supérieur de gestion and Harvard Business School.
Profession and career
After his MBA Limberger began his professional career in 1996 at Fresenius AG. Following the takeover of National Medical Care in the USA, Fresenius Medical Care AG was formed, in which Limberger held various management roles until 2001.
In January 2001 he left Fresenius Medical Care AG and took a position on the management board of General Electric Germany. He was responsible for the Industrial business division. In 2002 he became CEO of General Electric Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Central Europe). In this role he was responsible for all General Electric’s activities in Central Europe with 11,000 employees. It was under his management, that the region’s revenues doubled to $6.5 billion and earnings tripled. He was also at the helm during the integration of Allbank (where he was Chairman of the Board until 2005) and the building of a Global GE Research Facility on the Technical University of Munich campus.
His engagement and economic position brought him into contact with the political scene in Berlin. (President of Germany) Johannes Rau mentioned Limberger in as speech to the German Foundation as an example of a businessman, who recognizes the significance of location and so invests successfully. In other discussions with the political leadership – including (German Chancellor ret.) Gerhard Schroder, (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel, (German Foreign Minister ret.) (President of Germany) Frank-Walter Steinmeier – he is always stating his opinion on European economical development and the importance of high-tech development in the region.
In May 2004, Limberger was elected by a general meeting to the board of OC Oerlikon AG. One year later, after a change in key shareholders, he became CEO and Vice President of the board. Limberger took on this position despite the stressful insolvency and led a successful restructuring of the firm. As part of his first initiative there was a centralisation of management, restructuring of the seven highly complex industrial business units, as well as a stringent cost management regime. He led the company out of the red (a loss of 340 million Swiss Francs in 2004) and had by 2006 already achieved a record profit of 320 million Swiss Francs. Due to these efforts and the surge in Oerlikon shares, the company won the Dow Jones EUROSTOXX 500 prize for the best stock in Europe. The business and tabloid press styled Limberger as part of a new generation of managers. German newspaper Handelsblatt described Limberger and his management style as “Jack Welch of the Alps”. The Financial Times Deutschland followed up with a portrait entitled “Zack, Zack” and shortly afterwards Die Zeit referred to him as a successful but somewhat different “Whirlwind”.
From 2007 until 2011, Thomas Limberger was President and CEO at Von Roll. With a company history of 204 years, Von Roll is a world leader in insulation products and systems for the electrical machinery industry as well as for composite materials and parts for various industrial applications. Limberger successfully turned the company into a market leader in the industry with a sales growth of 33% and an EBIT growth of 103% (CAGR 2006-2008). The share performance of the company increased by five times during this period.
In 2011 Thomas Limberger founded a private investment group, SilverArrow Capital Group, focusing on industrial growth sectors, real estate and infrastructure projects supported by a leading global advisory and operations team. With a deal flow of over $16 billion in recent years, Limberger has established himself as one of the leading activist players in the industry. Since 2014 SilverArrow Capital's Global Equities (Pluto Fund) achieved an Net Return of +56.1% (19% in 2016) outperforming all major indices within the past 3 years. In November 2016 Thomas Limberger's SilverArrow Capital received the "Best UK Private Equity" award.
Literature
Addition in: Made in Germany 21 - Innovations for a reasonable future by Frank-Walter Steinmeier (German Foreign Minister) and Matthias Machnig (Book – published April 2004)