Meet the Team
Managing Directors
KahlWax is led by a team of two managing directors and the advisory board. Dr. Matthias Seemann’s main focus is the company’s strategic direction, the optimization of sales and innovation processes, and its competitiveness. Before joining KahlWax 2017 as managing director, becoming CEO in 2018, he worked as CEO at Capol GmbH (Freudenberg Group) for many years. Tanja Tegner is in charge of finance, human resources, IT, and general administration. Before joining KahlWax in 2015 as CFO, and becoming managing director in 2018, she collected over 20 years of experience in finance and general management after starting her career in 1994.
Management Team
The managing directors are complemented by three department managers in guiding the company. Martina Heldermann joined KahlWax in 2013 and became Technical Director having the responsibilities of the application lab, technical customer support, product and innovation management, marketing, regulatory affairs and sample shipping. Karsten Fries (on the far right) entered KahlWax in March of 2019 as Production Director and is responsible for production and warehouse. Michael Elsner (on the far left) started at KahlWax in June of 2019 as Sales Director, being in charge of the sales departments for the global and DACH region as well as the customer service.
Quality Management
Our Quality Management is responsible for documenting and monitoring compliance with all processes and procedures so that our customers can be guaranteed consistent quality of our goods.
Accounting/HR
Led by Tanja Tegner, the accounting department takes care of all incoming and outgoing payments. They are also responsible for human resources and travel expense management. Also included in this team is general administration, responsible for the reception, catering of guests, and taking care of incoming mail and telephone calls.
Technical Department
The team of Martina Heldermann is responsible for a variety of different tasks. Marketing designs all print materials and advertisements and is furthermore in charge of digital media, press, and event organization, including trade fair participations. Technical support answers customer questions regarding products and is responsible for customer seminars, trainings, scientific presentations at congresses, and publications. The development and production of sample formulations with our products (prototypes) and formulation support takes place in the application lab. The innovation department is seeking new manufacturing methods for new products and process optimization. Product management is responsible for the existing product portfolio and its documentation. In the regulatory affairs area, a wide variety of customer enquiries about products are answered, with particular emphasis on compliance with legal requirements, guidelines and specifications of various certification bodies.
Sample Shipping
Under the management of Martina Heldermann Sample Shipping is responsible for entering and shipping shipments of product samples, formulation prototypes, and marketing materials to customers and business partners.
Production
Under the supervision of Karsten Fries, our high-quality products are manufactured from raw materials in several production steps in two-shift operation. The planning is partly carried out in connection with incoming orders, but also takes care that the most popular products are kept in stock. Our warehouse team is in charge of the storage and preparation of the shipment products and raw materials.
Sales DACH
The Sales department is the first point of contact for all customers and distributors. Both potential new customers and existing customers are intensively looked after here by telephone, email and on-site support. The team under the guidance of Malte Bakschis is focusing on the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region.
Sales Export
The Sales department is the first point of contact for all customers and distributors. Both potential new customers and existing customers are intensively looked after here by telephone, email and on-site support. The team under the leadership of Michael Elsner is focusing on global customers.
Customer Service
Our Customer Service is responsible for order processing and logistics. This includes picking and preparing the ordered goods, providing the necessary documents and coordinating transport.
Purchasing
The purchasing department is responsible for the procurement of raw materials, including the exploration of new sources and maintaining contact with our existing suppliers and partners overseas.
Laboratory
Led by Dr. Nicolai Nagorny, who joined KahlWax in 2010, the laboratory is in charge of quality control and research and development. This includes developing and ensuring compliance with our product specifications and monitoring quality requirements in the event of changes in raw materials or production steps. When new products are introduced, the laboratory checks manufacturability and prepares test plans, recipes and production instructions.