Austrian cellulose fiber producer Lenzing AG has elevated its chief operating officer to CEO: a continuity call made as a 200 million euro cost program delivers its first quarterly profit since late 2025.
Austrian fiber maker Lenzing AG has appointed its chief operating officer (COO) Dr. Georg Kasperkovitz as chief executive officer (CEO), effective June 1, 2026. The three-year mandate runs to May 31, 2029. Kasperkovitz retains his COO responsibilities alongside the new role.
An internal bet on operational credibility
The supervisory board ran a search that covered both internal and external candidates before landing on Kasperkovitz, who joined the executive team in June 2025. In the COO role he oversaw the fiber division – covering sales, production, and supply chain – alongside the group’s performance improvement program. What tipped the decision was the board’s assessment that plant economics had improved in concrete, measurable ways under his watch, and that the existing executive team was functioning well enough to make continuity the lower-risk choice.
Why the timing matters for the materials supply chain
The leadership decision lands at a highly complex inflection point for Lenzing. On the surface, the company’s recent earnings look like a setback: first-quarter net profit landed at 24 million euros, down from 31.7 million euros in the same period a year earlier. Furthermore, shareholders are still feeling the sting of a completely scrapped 2025 dividend, and the stock has shed roughly 11 percent over the past year.
However, looking at the trajectory, this “difficult moment” might actually be the first sign of a turnaround.
The 24 million euro profit represents a vital milestone: it is Lenzing’s first positive quarterly net income after three consecutive quarters of heavy losses in late 2025. While the year-over-year dip and the erased dividend highlight the severe hangover of last year’s energy and raw material spikes, the return to profitability signals that Lenzing’s aggressive 200 million euro cost-cutting measures are finally biting.
Board unchanged, program intact
The executive board retains its existing three-person structure: Kasperkovitz as CEO, Mathias Breuer as chief financial officer (CFO), and Christian Skilich as chief product and technology officer (CPO/CTO). The six-member executive committee is also unchanged.
Kasperkovitz holds a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the Vienna University of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Before joining Lenzing, he served as business unit CEO at packaging and paper group Mondi plc (2016–2019) and as chairman of the board at Rail Cargo Austria AG (2012–2016), with earlier experience as a partner at McKinsey & Company.
