Podcast „Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum“
Episode #51 | Stephan Schnabel: Ukraine War, Pandemic – Challenges for Which There Are No Textbooks
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Podcast episode 51
Stephan Schnabel: Ukraine War, Pandemic – Challenges for Which There Are No Textbooks
Stephan Schnabel, CEO at HELM
Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Episode description
Shortly after the war, the grandfather bought a trading company for 3000 Deutsche Marks, and the father turned the chemical trader into an international billion-dollar corporation. Today, Stephan Schnabel leads Helm AG in the third generation. The company is not only in the chemicals business but also in sectors like fertilizers and lithium recycling. The Hamburg-based company employs 1,600 people and generated around six billion euros in revenue in 2023.
In the podcast, Schnabel talks about the crisis in the German chemical industry, the biggest challenges of recent years, and personal key moments. The Ukraine war caused sleepless nights for the entrepreneur. Helm AG had sourced a product from the refinery in Schwedt, which is mainly owned by the Russian oil company Rosneft. "How do you handle such a situation? There’s no textbook for that, no one teaches you," says Schnabel. It was similar at the beginning of the pandemic. "One day, I thought I was perfectly prepared, took over the company – and then came Corona, and I realized: I was not prepared for anything," says Helm.
Germany, according to the entrepreneur, needs to regain momentum. Schnabel also talks about his similarities with former BASF CEO Martin Brudermüller, his years in Turkey, and a strength that is also a weakness – in the podcast "Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum" with Tobias Rappers, Managing Director of Maschinenraum, and Capital editor Katja Michel.
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Stephan Schnabel
Stephan Schnabel has been with HELM AG for more than 20 years. After completing training as a business economist in foreign trade, he worked in Turkey and held various positions at HELM in Hamburg before being appointed to the board in 2012. With Stephan Schnabel, the third generation of the Schnabel family takes over the position of CEO of HELM AG.
About the Podcast
How can the origin and future of Mittelstand companies be courageously united? What are the challenges facing family businesses and what experiences do they gather in digital transformation? These questions are answered by “Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum“, the interview podcast for German Mittelstand*. Once a month, Tobias Rappers, Managing Director of Maschinenraum, and Nils Kreimeier, Senior Editor of the business magazine Capital, talk to thought leaders and makers from the heart of the German economy and focus on the personalities and their motivation. *The podcast is in German.
For more episodes of “Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum“ please click here!
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