Bernhard Simon family entrepreneur of the year
Dachser management spokesman honoured with prestigious German Family Entrepreneur of the Year award
The “Family Entrepreneur of the Year” prize, awarded for the fifth time jointly by the INTES-Akademie für Familienunternehmen (INTES Academy for Family-Owned Companies) and the business magazine “IMPULSE”, honours family entrepreneurs whose forward-looking leadership geared towards profitable growth and sustained viability as a family-owned enterprise has secured their company a pole position in the market. In 2008, the prestigious award has been conferred on Bernhard Simon, spokesman for the Dachser management.
The jury chairman, Prof. Peter May, explains this year’s choice: “Bernhard Simon is one of the outstanding entrepreneurial personalities of the younger generation. Over the past few years, he has moved Dachser as a family-owned company a big step forward in terms of both corporate and family strategy.”
In his acceptance speech, Bernhard Simon stressed that he was receiving the prize on behalf of the owning families, his management colleagues and all members of staff, who themselves act as entrepreneurs within the enterprise. This, he pointed out, expressed his own personal philosophy and that of Dachser as a company.
Born in 1960, Bernhard Simon took over the position of management spokesman for the internationally active transport and logistics company, Dachser, with head office in Kempten, on 1 January 2005. As the grandson of the company’s founder, Thomas Dachser, he is thus a member of the third generation to take over at the helm. A member of the management since 1999, he is today in charge of the Corporate Development, Human Resources, Marketing & Sales department. The award ceremony was held according to tradition on the evening before the Entrepreneurial Success Forum at Schloss Bensberg near Cologne. Previous award winners are: 2004: Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler (INA Schaeffler); 2005: Michael Stoschek (Brose); 2006: Dr Peter-Alexander Wacker (Wacker Chemie); 2007: Dr Jürgen Heraeus (Heraeus Holding GmbH).
In 2007 Dachser generated total sales of EUR 3.5 billion. 17,100 staff working in 297 profit centres worldwide handled 39.1 million consignments weighing a total of 25.8 million tonnes.
