Management change at the top of the Kirchdorfer Group
19.05.2025
Michael Wardian and Joao Paulo Pereira da Silva
Figure: Kirchdorfer Gruppe
After more than 30 years with the company and 21 years at the helm, including 18 years as sole Managing Director and 3 years together with Michael Wardian, Erich Frommwald is retiring from the management.
Since January of this year, he has managed the Group together with Joao Paulo Pereira da Silva and Michael Wardian as a team of three. Pereira and Wardian are now taking over the management of the internationally active group of companies as a dual leadership team.
A piece of history with major milestones
Erich Frommwald, a native of Upper Styria and graduate of the Karl-Franzens University of Graz, began his career in 1994 as an assistant to the then shareholder Max Machanek. After his death in 2004, the shareholders entrusted him with responsibility for the further expansion of the group. Under his leadership, the Kirchdorfer Group developed from a traditional regional company into an internationally active building materials group with over 50 companies in 14 countries and around 1,700 employees. Today, the Group is one of the leading suppliers in the industry and generates an annual turnover of over 370 million euros.
During a festive gala on May 15, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Kirchdorfer Zementwerk and all shareholders, Governor Thomas Stelzer and numerous companions honored the achievements of the Kirchdorfer Group.
Thomas Stelzer about Frommwalds retirement:
"Entrepreneurial foresight, strategic thinking and integrity - this is how Erich Frommwald not only developed the Kirchdorfer Group into a leading industrial company, but also helped shape Upper Austria as a business, employment and innovation region.
He distinguished himself not only through his economic competence and entrepreneurial consistency, but also through his ability to create sustainable structures, promote innovation and assume long-term responsibility. I would like to thank him for his commitment and his successes and am delighted that he will continue to make his expertise available in the business representation".
Frommwald will remain associated with the Kirchdorfer Group as a consultant and in a number of supervisory board functions. The new dual leadership guarantees continuity, innovative strength and sustainable development - both for the Group's regional roots and its international competitiveness.
On leaving, Frommwald said:
"At the age of 64, the time has now come for me to hand over responsibility for our group of companies. The Kirchdorfer Group and the Kirchdorfer Löwen have always been a matter close to my heart and I am grateful for the joint struggle and the joint success. I wish my successors many good decisions and all the best for the company in the future."
CONTACT
Kirchdorfer Gruppe
Kirchdorfer Platz 1
2752 Wöllersdorf/Austria
+43 5 7715 100 0
