Management

Günter Pilarsky, born in Grünberg (Silesia) in 1937 is Founder and Managing Director of the CRONIMET Group.

It was during his work as a wholesale and foreign trade merchant with the Heinen Company in Karlsruhe he first came into contact with the raw material trade. He developed trading and business relations with European stainless steel works at Heinen up until 1980. At the end of 1980 he founded CRONIMET with headquarters in Karlsruhe. CRONIMET established itself within a very short period of time as a top supplier of European stainless steel producers. Under the management of Günter Pilarsky CRONIMET continued to develop up until the mid-90s into a leading European raw material recycler for stainless and special steels. Between 1995 and 2005 the internationalisation was systematically pushed in Europe and the USA with representative offices in Asia and Africa.

Following the entry into the primary raw material segment and the foundation of CRONIMET Mining AG in 2005, Günter Pilarsky set another milestone for the development of the CRONIMET Group into an integrated raw material group. As a raw material  provider the CRONIMET Group offers high-quality primary and secondary raw materials from one single source.

Günter Pilarsky became honorary consul of the Republic of Armenia in 2006. During the same year he set up the Jocelyn & Günter Pilarsky Foundation, which supports projects of children in need of help primarily in the Philippines and in Armenia. In 2010 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit and in 2012 the Culture Award for Understanding among Nations.  In the same year he became an Honorary Senator of the Karlsruhe Academy of Music. Furthermore he was awarded Stainless Steel Manager of the year 2013 in London.

Jürgen Pilarsky, born in Karlsruhe in 1960, is Managing Director of the CRONIMET Group and CEO of CRONIMET Holding GmbH.

Jürgen Pilarsky studied social work at the University for Applied Sciences in Bielefeld and completed his studies as a graduate social worker in the summer of 1988.

In September 1989 Jürgen Pilarsky joined the CRONIMET Company and worked in trade, procurement and sales.

Since 2001 Jürgen Pilarsky has been a member of the Executive Management and CEO of the CRONIMET Holding Group since 2012. He is in charge of the CRONIMET product portfolio and the supply chain management process. Jürgen Pilarsky has the operational responsibility for the Stainless Steel and Specialty Metals business units and the CRONIMET subsidiaries.

From 2011 until 2015, Jürgen Pilarsky was a member of the Supervisory Board of CRONIMET Mining AG.

Bernhard Kunsmann, born in Kandel in 1964, is the CFO of CRONIMET Holding GmbH.

Bernhard Kunsmann trained as a bank merchant with the Germersheim-Kandel Sparkasse followed by studies of business administration at the University of Mannheim from which he ultimately graduated with a Master of Business Administration in the summer of 1992.

After his studies Bernhard Kunsmann started his professional career as a trainee with Deutsche Bank AG in Frankfurt. He then received specialist credit training which served as a basis for his deployment as a Corporate Account Manager with Deutsche Bank AG in Karlsruhe from 1995-2007.

In 2007 he was appointed head of the corporate account business of the Region Albstadt-Tuttlingen and in 2010 for the Region Neckar-Alb, in the same position. From 2007 onwards Bernhard Kunsmann was a member of the Executive Management for Corporate Accounts, Region Württemberg, of Deutsche Bank AG.

In July 2011 he joined the Executive Management of CRONIMET Holding GmbH, where he is in charge of Finance and Legal.

Oliver Kleinhempel, born in Frankfurt am Main in 1982, is a member of the Management Board of CRONIMET Holding GmbH.

Oliver Kleinhempel studied business administration at the University of Cooperative Education in Mannheim and completed his studies as a qualified business economist in 2005. After that he received his Master of Science at the Mining Institute of the Technical University of Clausthal, Germany.

Mr. Kleinhempel has got many years of professional and managerial experience in Europe as well as in South America and Asia.

His professional career took him to Outotec Group after finishing his Master's degree. Between 2004 and 2012 he held various leading positions within the group.

In 2013 he started to work for Ferrostaal Group as a manager and was responsible for the business in Indonesia.

Since April 2016 Mr. Kleinhempel is part of the Executive Management of CRONIMET Holding GmbH where he is currently responsible for business in Asia as well as for the area of Corporate Development within the group.

Annette Gartner, born 1967 in Ottersweier, is member of CRONIMET Holding management.

After completing her general matriculation standard, Annette Gartner finished her degree in clothing technology at the university of applied sciences in Sigmaringen, which she completed as a graduate engineer for clothing technology (FH).

Her professional journey began in 1992 at CDV Software GmbH, where she was head of the distribution department, besides being assistant to the management. She continued her career path in 2000 as Operation Manager and project officer after parental leave of her two children.

Annette Gartner started at Flitsch & Bendayan GmbH Pforzheim as head of the commercial department in 2014 during her further education in Controlling (IHK).

She started as assistant to management with the focus on Controlling at CRONIMET GmbH in 2006 and took over responsibility of the project management of the SAP introduction four years later. In her following position as “Head of SAP Systems & Applications” she was responsible for numerous national and international SAP rollouts. She also takes care of 19 European subsidiaries as member of the Management Board.

In July 2017 Annette Gartner was appointed into the management of CRONIMET Holding GmbH, currently taking care of the areas IT & Organisation, SAP, HR and Service Point.