Generational change in the management

The management of RJ Lasertechnik GmbH has been restaffed. Alongside Ralf Risters, Helge Schaper has been appointed as an additional managing director. Schaper succeeds Jürgen Jannsen, who is leaving the management team after 30 years and retiring. Helge Schaper has been with RJ Lasertechnik for eight years and most recently held a responsible position in the company as Production Manager.

Industrial material processing using laser technology has only been practiced since the end of the 1970s. The two graduate engineers Ralf Risters and Jürgen Jannsen had been working on this new and pioneering production method at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology FhG ILT in Aachen and together they took the plunge into self-employment at the end of 1991 with the founding of RJ Lasertechnik GmbH. As one of the founders, Jürgen Jannsen played a key role in establishing RJ Lasertechnik as an international laser precision processor and manufacturer of customized laser processing systems. Jürgen Jannsen has now retired from the company management. 

"We are delighted that we have been able to recruit Helge Schaper, a long-standing employee, as a successor to the management team, so that stability and continuity are guaranteed," explains Ralf Risters, Managing Partner. 

Helge Schaper completed vocational training as a mechatronics engineer and then went on to study the same subject at Aachen University of Applied Sciences, graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering. 

After working as a development engineer and production manager in a steel construction company, he moved to RJ Lasertechnik in 2014, where he was responsible for the entire production process. He has now been promoted to management and has also taken over shares in the company.