Klaus Geißdörfer: Der Mann, der die EBM-Eigner zu Milliardären macht

Klaus Geißdörfer, the man who turned EBM shareholders into billionaires, led the ventilator specialist EBM-Papst since the end of 2021. On Monday, the US company Madison Air acquired the specialist for an estimated €5.1 billion. Geißdörfer, a manager with no familial ties to the company, dismissed reports that the deal was prepared from the start to facilitate a sale.

However, it is clear that Geißdörfer had been closely involved in the company from a certain point in time. He had no problems supporting the industrial logic of the deal, which was decided within just ten weeks. The owner families were advised by Goldman Sachs, the investment bank that had been mandated in the sale of Viessmann.

No leaks of the deal were reported beforehand. Ultimately, the three owner families McCracken, Philippiak, and Sturm decided to receive €5 billion. None of them are involved in the operational leadership of the company based in Mulfingen, Baden-Württemberg. Geißdörfer's strategic orientation therefore plays a decisive role. Without his strategic focus, the families would never have achieved such a purchase price, double the turnover, and 17 times the Ebitda.

One industry insider stated, "That's a very proud price. But the buyer Madison Air will know why it was willing to pay such a high price." The timing was perfect for the seller. Geißdörfer's contract was recently extended, and he remains at the helm, now facing high return expectations from a publicly traded US company. This will not surprise him.

He has already increased his growth targets. Geißdörfer, born in Neustadt an der Aisch, always had a clear plan for EBM. He sold the industrial drive technology to Siemens. In a Handelsblatt interview in 2022, he said that he no longer wanted to supply fans to the automotive industry and household appliance manufacturers due to low margins: "We cool clouds instead of cars."

It took a lot of courage to both forgo ten percent of the turnover and also to stand up to the powerful automotive industry. Earlier, Geißdörfer saw more lucrative business opportunities with operators of data centers, which don't need to worry about every cent like the automotive industry. "Fans are a downstream C-component in comparison to the chips, accounting for only a fraction of the investments of hyperscalers," says an industry insider.

Because of the boom of data centers, there is not enough demand for fans, which drives up prices. EBM now generates about a third of its revenue from data centers. This focus played a significant role on the way to the offer to Madison, according to a consultant. Madison Air was a long-time customer of EBM. Geißdörfer proved himself as a stroke of luck for the world market leader from the provinces after several leadership changes, bringing calm and clarity to Mulfingen.

Geißdörfer's career suggests that he is accustomed to thinking in larger dimensions. He studied chemical engineering with a focus on process technology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. After an MBA at Insead in Fontainebleau, he obtained a doctorate at EBS on the topic of "Total Cost of Ownership." After his initial professional positions, including at Siemens, Geißdörfer began as an assistant to the CEO of the Schaeffler Group in 2002.

That was then Jürgen Geißinger. He later transferred Schaeffler to the DAX conglomerate Continental and shaped a global conglomerate. Geißdörfer served for 13 years in various functions at Schaeffler. In 2016, he moved to ZF Friedrichshafen and led industrial engineering. He also experienced the rise of a somewhat authoritarian conglomerate from acquisitions to the second-largest automotive supplier in Germany firsthand.

He also witnessed how dangerous it could become to spread too thin during a transformation phase. At least at EBM, he needed little time to shed peripheral activities and eliminate unprofitable businesses. Geißdörfer sees himself as a veteran of AI. In 2021, he was Managing Director at One Logic, a leading company in data science and artificial intelligence, where he closed the Series-B financing round last.

These experiences helped him massively advance digitalization and AI at EBM. According to his own assessment, he created the next era of air, climate, and refrigeration technology with the digital ecosystem Neixaira, which combines state-of-the-art fan technology with cloud-based, AI-supported services and elevates the efficiency, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness of ventilation and cooling systems to a new level.

He sends his AI experts to the Heilbronn Innovation Center Ipai for regular further education. He himself describes himself as an AI veteran, having simulated and optimized flow boiler reactors with neural networks in his diploma thesis. Even though he has met OpenAI CEO Sam Altman personally, he knows the importance of computing power since more than 30 years.

He didn't have to be told that the boom of data centers will be driven by AI. For Geißdörfer, AI is a lasting trend, not a bubble: data consumption will increase, energy demand will rise. Europe must invest in this to avoid being left behind by the USA, Geißdörfer says. Madison Air uses the acquisition to win market shares in Europe with the equipment of data centers. €400 million for the community of Mulfingen, home to 3,633 inhabitants, is initially a benefit for the community. Since EBM-Papst is a privately held company, there is no need for external investment.