PARTNERS, owners
Klaus Harste is a metallurgist who received his doctorate in 1989 from the Technical University of Clausthal.
He began his professional career in 1989 with AG der Dillinger Hüttenwerke. With his metallurgical competence he introduced the so-called soft-reduction technique and designed the biggest heavy slab caster world wide to enable most advanced heavy plate applications.
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In 2001 Klaus Harste became board member at Saarstahl AG in Völklingen with responsibility for production, quality management and technology (CTO). In 2009 he was appointed CEO of Saarstahl AG while retaining the responsibility for technology. Based on in-depth analysis of all aspects of the different business units in terms of market position, product offering, productivity and future potential an aggressive investment strategic has been realized.
From 2012 to 2016 he was CEO of Max Aicher GmbH & Co KG in Freilassing.
Klaus Harste served on the technical committee work of the German Association of Iron and Steel (VDEh) for more than 20 years. From 2005 to 2015 he was chairman of the Committee 'metallurgical fundamentals' within the VDEh). Since 2001 he was member of the board of the Steel Institute VDEh and the German Steel Federation.
Since 2011 Klaus Harste is deputy chairman of the Economic Council of the CDU in Saarland.
Dr. Peter Schäfer
Peter Schäfer studied Law and Economics in Munich, Freiburg and Glasgow and received his doctorate in law in 1995 at Munich University.
He started his professional career with Preussag Stahl AG in 1993 as a lawyer followed by a number of occupations in the sales organization of the Salzgitter Group. In 2007 he was appointed to the Board of Saarstahl AG responsible for sales, marketing and down stream processing. His experience in sales and markets for steel occupies a wide range of products, sectors of steel manufacturing as well as regional markets in Europe and abroad. His responsibility was for the sales of flat and long products into Automotive, Mechanical engineering, Piping and Construction.
Between 2004 and 2013 he served as Managing Director for various medium seized companies such as Salzgitter Bauelemente, Drahtwerke Köln and Secosar S.A..
As Managing Director of GlobalSteelConsulting he acted as Senior Consultant for Max Aicher North America.
Peter Schäfer in 2006 was appointed Chairman of the „Confederation of Producers of Roofing and Cladding“ (IFBS) and later was member of the Board of "Deutsche Edelstahlvereinigung" (ESV) and "Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl" (WIV).