Michael Mohr Joins Heliatek as VP Production

After being able to win over Dr. Andreas Rückemann as CEO in November 2008, Heliatek has now filled another key position with an industry experienced top-class specialist – since January 2010, Michael U. Mohr is working for Heliatek as VP production.

Having received his Ph. D. in organic chemistry at the Max-Planck-Institute in Heidelberg, Dr. Rückemann held several management positions at the multinational company Evonik for about 15 years. Having gained experience on corporate development and investment planning, he became operations manager of the production line. Then he was engaged several years in the reorganization of the Evonik GmbH within mergers and acquisitions. In recent years, he was leading a subsidiary company abroad and was additionally responsible for the global electronics-business of a business unit of the Evonik GmbH in Frankfurt/Main.

Within the first year of his function at Heliatek, Dr. Rückemann has successfully completed the series B financing round with a volume of €18 million together with Dr. Martin Pfeiffer, main founder and CTO of Heliatek. Heliatek was thereby able to win RWE Innogy and other investors in addition to the already involved shareholders Wellington Partners, BASF VC and Bosch.

Dr. Rückemann has taken over the position as CEO from Dr. Harald Eggers at that time. Dr. Eggers, who gained excellent international reputation with the buildup of the whole semi-conductor industry in Dresden, supported Heliatek as a business-angel during the start-up phase. Unfortunately Harald Eggers died in January this year.

Mohr has completed his engineer studies in system technology with specifics in material engineering. Mohr has more than seven years production experience in thin film technology. Lately, he worked at Oerlikon Solar AG as department chief production technology on technology transfer, integration and ramp-up. His experiences on silicon-based thin-film photovoltaic are particularly valuable for Heliatek’s challenges in organic photovoltaics (OPV).

Mohr is responsible for the technology transfer from R&D to production as well as for the further ramp-up to mass production, thus creating a basis for Heliatek’s prospective success as provider of innovative, light-weight and long-lasting PV-modules on flexible substrates.

“With Michael Mohr, we could hire a top-class, experienced leader for our production and perfectly fill a central vacancy in our company. This shows that Heliatek is established in the forward-looking area of OPV and is highly attractive for such successful specialists due to its tremendous growth potential. We are looking forward on this cooperation,” Dr. Rückemann commented.