The dental and medical device company Ivoclar is strengthening its sales organization with the appointment of Mirco Stiehle to the position of Chief Commercial Officer High Growth Markets. He will join the Corporate Management at the turn of the year. Ivoclar also announces a change in its Finance Division. As of 1 December 2023, Michael Bickel will succeed Franz Berger, who will ensure a smooth transfer of responsibilities during a joint transition period.
“Going forward, we will divide our Sales Division into ’Mature Markets’ and ‘High Growth Markets’ to foster closer integration among the sales areas and support them more effectively,“ explains Markus Heinz, who has been at the helm of the Ivoclar Group as CEO since March.
As of 1 January 2024, Mirco Stiehle, Head of LATAM (Latin America) will join the Corporate Management team, and in his position as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) High Growth Markets he will assume responsibility for the APAC sales organizations (Asia and Pacific) in addition to the LATAM region. Furthermore, in his new position as Chief Commercial Officer Mature Markets, CCO Christian Brutzer will focus on the established markets, including North America, Europe & Middle East.
Mirco Stiehle studied International Management with a focus on Marketing and Finance in the USA and Germany. Subsequently, he worked for various companies in the medical device and dental industry in Germany, Japan and the USA, before joining Ivoclar in December 2019.
New Chief Financial Officer
Michael Bickel has been appointed as new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Ivoclar Group. He will assume his role as of 1 December 2023. The Swiss national is returning from Jardine Schindler Holding LTD in Hong Kong to Europe, where he previously gained experience at Ernst & Young and the Baloise Insurance Group after completing his studies in Economics in Berne/Switzerland. Since 2005, Mr Bickel has been with the Schindler Group, holding various leadership positions in Finance, Risk Management & Internal Audit, Supply Chain, IT, and Business Service Centres in the USA, China and in Southeast Asia. In many of the positions he had, he assumed the responsibility of CFO.
With this appointment, the Financial and Operations Officer with long-standing global experience will succeed Franz Berger, who will leave the Ivoclar Group after twelve years of CFO at the end of June 2024 to take on new challenges. “I would like to thank Frank Berger for his significant contributions. Under his tenure as CFO, Ivoclar has not only completed strategically important acquisitions and the implementation of the Integrated Performance Management but also established and expanded areas such as Global Tax Management, Treasury, Compliance, Risk Management and Data and Cyber Security,” says Markus Heinz. “The joint transition period from Franz Berger to Michael Bickel ensures continuity for Ivoclar in ongoing projects, for example also in the challenging regulatory tax and reporting projects such as BEPS 2.0,” the CEO concludes.
Expansion of the existing management team
The two new members Michael Bickel as Chief Financial Officer and Mirco Stiehle as Chief Commercial Officer High Growth Markets will complete the existing Corporate Management team, consisting of Markus Heinz (Chief Executive Officer), Franz Berger (outgoing Chief Financial Officer), Christian Brutzer (Chief Commercial Officer – with new responsibility for Mature Markets), Patric Frank (Chief Marketing Officer), Dr Thomas Hirt (Chief Technology Officer) and Alexandra H. Machnik (Chief Digital Officer).
