Management

started his professional career in the cold rolling mill of today's Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH in 1992 after studying metallurgy and materials engineering at RWTH Aachen University. There he gained his first operational experience as plant engineer and plant manager. As part of his dissertation, he developed a galvanic texturing process for rolls used in the production of thin sheet. As superintendent from 1998, he was responsible for the final operations and thus also for the technology interface with customers. In 2002, he took over responsibility for the entire cold rolling mill and surface finishing as plant director and reorganized both operations in a wide-ranging change process to form today's cold-rolled flat product department. He was also responsible for numerous development projects and major investments.

In 2009, Benedikt Ritterbach took over as Managing Director of Salzgitter Mannesmann Forschung GmbH and at the same time as Head of Research and Development at Salzgitter AG. With the two research locations Salzgitter and Duisburg, he is responsible for steel research within Salzgitter AG, which he also represents in numerous committees and associations. The focal points of his work to date have been comprehensive changes to innovation management and the realignment of the structural and process organization, the modernization and supplementation of the research laboratories, efficiency and effectiveness improvements in research and development, e.g. through digitalization and the integration of numerical simulation, the realignment of the product portfolio in the Group's steel divisions and the introduction of advanced analytics/AI, as well as the expansion of the extensive national and international research network. Benedikt Ritterbach reports directly to Gunnar Groebler, the CEO of Salzgitter AG.