Eberhard Liebherr is the new IHK President – Economy

The 52-year-old Auer had left office after ten years in accordance with the statutes. His successor, Liebherr, was elected on Thursday evening by the newly elected general assembly of the IHK in Freiburg in March. Of the 47 eligible voters, 41 voted for him, three against and three abstained. “I have a lot of life and work experience that I can bring to my new role,” said Liebherr at a press conference after his election.

“I am a doer.”Eberhard Liebherr

Born in Freiburg, who lives in Merzhausen, he and his brother Thomas run the Ketterer-Liebherr Group, which has around 250 employees and is headquartered in the Haid industrial park in Freiburg. Her father, Adolf Liebherr, founded the technical specialist trade and sales specialist for semi-finished plastic products, plastic piping components and floor coverings 65 years ago. Two of his four children, Juliane Illenseer and Clemens Liebherr, are now with the company. “You are in the starting blocks, so there will be a successor,” said the new President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

He does not see the fact that he is older than his predecessor at the top of the chamber as a problem. “I am a doer and still have so much energy that I can bring to the office.” Thanks to the active work of Steffen Auer, there are no issues within the chamber that need to be addressed immediately, “so I can concentrate on the members first”. Around 70,000 companies are members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which covers the districts of Offenburg, Emmendingen, Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald and the city of Freiburg.

Traditionally, representatives from the Freiburg area and Ortenau alternate at the top of the IHK. The Freiburg Liebherr follows the Lahrer Auer (head of the Black Forest iron trade). As a result, Liebherr’s first deputy comes from Ortenau: Andreas Truttenbach is the managing director of the RMA group of companies with locations in Rheinau and Kehl. The family-run company builds pipelines for oil and gas. The 51-year-old said he wanted to support the president “primarily in the Ortenau region”. The most pressing problem for companies is the shortage of skilled workers.

Liebherr also mentioned broadband expansion and digitization. Training is also very important to him. “We are a training company ourselves,” he emphasized. The aim must be to turn more entrepreneurs into trainers and create attractive training positions, but above all to win over more young people for vocational training. Liebherr announced that he would define the other priorities in a strategy paper with the Presidium within the next 100 days.

The president and the bureau were elected for a five-year term. All are volunteers. According to the IHK statutes, the Presidium determines the guidelines for the chamber’s work, unless the plenary assembly is responsible, and supervises the management of the general manager Dieter Salomon.