Sidel names new president

After two years working side by side, Mart Tiismann succeeded Gérard Stricher as president and CEO of Sidel on January 1, 2008.

Swedish-American Mart Tiismann, 51, joined Sidel in 2005 as executive vice president. At the time, he took over industrial operations and product R&D activities at Sidel after holding a variety of posts with Scania, Eaton, Ingersoll-Rand, and Esab in Europe and the United States.

Gérard Stricher is officially passing the baton after working alongside Tiismann for over two years.

Stricher joined Sidel in 2001 and has led the Group since 2002. He has been the catalyst for Sidel’s transformation into a complete bottling solutions provider for beverages in plastic and glass bottles as well as cans. Most notably, the successful merger between Sidel and Simonazzi that began in 2005 was completed on Stricher’s watch.

Stricher is retiring in April 2008 at the age of 60. Until then, he will continue to assist Sidel’s new president as he assumes his duties.

Tiismann explains, “Under Gérard Stricher’s leadership, Sidel turned into a global company and dramatically increased its competitiveness to satisfy mainstream demand for complete bottling lines. We will continue to reinforce our strategy of proximity to customers on all levels, from personalized, local relationships to tailor-made products and services, available worldwide.”