RATIONAL AG

Siegfried Meister; born 1938, is the founder of RATIONAL AG. He has acted as Chairman of the Supervisory Board since December 1998.. As a qualified electrical engineer, in his early years he carried out management tasks in a number of large and medium-sized companies in the electronics, controller and kitchen technology fields. 1969 saw the start of Siegfried Meister’s career as an entrepreneur when he established companies in Munich and Landsberg am Lech. From the mid-1970s, he systematically built up the Landsberg location to be the centre of his global large-scale kitchen technology company. As the Managing Director and Chairman of the Board, Siegfried Meister oversaw conversion of the RATIONAL Group into a limited liability company in December 1998. As well as acting as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board since then, he has remained committed to the company and ready to lend it his extensive experience.

Dr. Günter Blaschke, born 1949, is the Chairman (CEO ) at RATIONAL AG. The business studies graduate who specialised in industrial business started his professional career as an Assistant Marketing Manager at Procter & Gamble GmbH. At 3M Deutschland and 3M Europe he oversaw the Marketing, Product Management and Sales departments for video products. At Joh. Vaillant GmbH & Co. Kg, Dr. Blaschke was responsible for sales, marketing, production and development both nationally and internationally. In March 1997 he joined RATIONAL GmbH as CEO, and he has been Chairman of the Board since September 1999.

Peter Wiedemann, born 1959, is the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at RATIONAL AG. He joined RATIONAL GmbH immediately after qualifying as a mechanical engineer. Here he worked as a product manager from 1990 to 1993, then he helped with setting up the American subsidiary company. Since 1996, Peter Wiedemann has been responsible for the technical department. It was in this position that he was invited onto the Board in September 1999.

Erich Baumgärtner, born in 1954, is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at RATIONAL AG. He studied business administration and worked at Messerschmidt-Bölkow-Blohm GmbH in a number of commercial positions. His last position was section manager for equipment tendering. Before he moved to RATIONAL GmbH in October 1998, Erich Baumgärtner worked as Commercial Director at Digital Equipment GmbH. Since February 1998, he has been responsible for the commercial department and investor relations on the RATIONAL AG Board.

Reinhard Banasch, born in 1961, is the Chief Officer Marketing and Sales (CSO) at RATIONAL AG. After graduating in business administration and working in a range of sales and product management positions at Nixdorf Computer AG, Mr Banasch then remained for 11 years at Mars Incorporated in a number of different international sales and general management functions. In 2002 he moved to Pilkington as Sales Director Europe and Regional CEO Southern Europe. Since 1 April 2008, Reinhard Banasch has been responsible for Marketing and Sales on the RATIONAL AG Board.