Human Resources « Henkel Diversity Blog

The first woman on Henkel’s Management Board / Die erste Frau im Henkel-Vorstand

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten

Yesterday, Henkel employees had two good reasons to be happy: On September 26, 1876, that means 135 years ago, Henkel was founded in Aachen, and since yesterday there is also the first woman in the Henkel Management Board since the company foundation: Kathrin Menges, previously Corporate Senior Vice President and Head of Human Resources will take over the Human Resource responsibility as a board member of Henkel, starting at October 1.

“We are pleased to announce the appointment of Kathrin to the Management Board. As with the previous changes in our Board, we have been able to develop the next generation of leaders from within the company. With her longstanding professional experience in human resources, her skills and her leadership qualities she will be a perfect fit for this challenging role”, said Henkel CEO Kasper Rorsted, who was responsible for HR in the Management Board to date.

Kathrin Menges started her professional career in human resources in 1990 at Bankgesellschaft Berlin AG. In 1999, she joined Henkel, initially at Schwarzkopf in Hamburg, and later on from 2005 at the corporate headquarters in Düsseldorf. In 2009, she was appointed Corporate Senior Vice President and Global Head of Human Resources.

“As a global company, Henkel competes for the best talents around the world. We enjoy an excellent reputation as an employer who develops talents within the company. I am looking forward to contributing with a strategic human resources management to the continued success of Henkel”, said Kathrin Menges.

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Kathrin Menges: one of the 100 most influential women in Germany / Kathrin Menges: eine der 100 einflussreichsten Aufsteigerinnen

Monday, July 26th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Recently, the Handelsblatt introduced the 100 most influential women in Germany. Among them are three Henkel-women! We already introduced our head of the shareholder’s committee Simone Bagel-Trah and Tina Müller, the Corporate Senior Vice President. Today we devote our daily post to our third Top 100 woman: Kathrin Menges, Corporate Senior Vice President Global Human Resources.

Since November 2005 she manages more than 50.000 Henkel employees worldwide. Kathrin Menges has the reputation of being a calm and fair manager. Her background is exceptional what makes it particularly interesting. She has a master’s degree in education and worked as a teacher before she stepped in the Human Resources sector. First she worked as Human Resources Manager at the Bankgesellschaft Berlin. Later she was responsible for the Human Resources Region North at KMPG. She joined Henkel in 1999. Before her nomination as Corporate Senior Vice President Global Human Resources she was Corporate Key Account Manager responsible for employees who work for the management board and the IT department.

All good things come in threes but in this case we would not be sad to make a role-modeled exception. [DE]

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Barbeque with the top management / Grillfest mit Führungskräften

Friday, July 16th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

At a barbeque for the apprentices at Henkel in Düsseldorf last week, Kathrin Menges, Corporate Senior Vice President Global Human Resources, took the chance to meet the young people and talk with them about their apprenticeship, career in general and, of course, soccer. Besides soccer, the internationality at Henkel was a big topic.

The apprentices in the different apprenticed occupations deal with many nationalities in their every day work-life. In her conversations with the apprentices, Kathrin Menges also found out, why they chose Henkel as their apprenticing company. It became evident, that Henkel has a very good reputation among young people. The apprentices agreed that the vocational trainers at Henkel are friendly, sincere, attentive and willing to help them with every problem that might occur.

One question was particularly interesting for the apprentices: How do you become Corporate Senior Vice President Global Human Resources? Many of them were surprised to hear that Kathrin Menges started her career as a teacher. The Head of Training, Loert de Riese-Meyer was thankful for the opportunity of bringing together apprentices and top management. This day was clearly one of the highlights in the first year of training, he explained. [DE]

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