The Management Board of the GKD Group is becoming younger, with a better balance of female executives, and is clearly focused on the challenges facing the global technical weave specialists. Ilonka von Bodman steps up as a CFO with extensive internationa l management experience and expertise from comprehensive sustainability projects. Lara Kufferath says, “Ilonka is a perfect fit for us both professionally and personally. She has more than 20 years of experience in the financial business, is experienced in cross border transactions and cooperations, and appreciates the corporate cultural characteristics of SMEs, such as a sense of family, responsibility, and decision making power. She also brings with her the background in all sustainability issues that i s so important to us.”

Ilonka von Bodman replaces Markus Kosel as Chief Financial Officer, who is retiring after more than 20 years with the company. She completes the Management Board with Dr. Stephan Kufferath, Lara Kufferath, and Dr. Daniel Holstein. Von Bodman comes from the Freudenberg Group, where she spent the last seven years as CFO of various subsidiaries. In the course of her career, she worked for ten years at Deutsche Bank Group in various positions in Frankfurt and London. At GKD, her task will be to ensure financial stability in the context of international growth and at the same time to promote innovation and digitalization. Von Bodman says, “Markets, supply chains, and technologies are currently changing at an as yet unseen rate. This is also a challenge for financ ial management within companies. We need to become more flexible and facilitate fast transformation.”

The generational change at GKD will finally be complete on July 1. Following his brother, Ingo Kufferath, Dr. Stephan Kufferath will also step down from the Management Board and pass responsibility for the company to his daughter Lara, who will assume the role of CEO of the company. GKD will then be headed by the Kufferath family in its fourth generation. Lara Kufferath has been at the company for five years already, and a member of the Management Board since 2021. To date, she has primarily been responsibl e for GKD’s digital and sustainable transformation as well as for managing the global locations.