Germany-based tool coating company CemeCon has announced a leadership change at the top, effective May 1, 2026. Dr.-Ing. Oliver Lemmer has stepped down as CEO, with Dipl.-Ing. Bernd Hermeler taking over the role. The transition keeps the company’s day-to-day direction largely intact, as all three incoming board members have spent significant parts of their careers at CemeCon.
Hermeler is not a new face at the company. He joined over 35 years ago, worked across virtually every department, and has been on the Executive Board since 2018, first as CMO and then as COO from 2022. His move into the CEO role is less a shake-up and more a handover to someone who has been in the room for most of the company’s major decisions over the past three decades.
Lemmer, who took over as CEO in 2022, had been with CemeCon since its early days alongside founder Dr.-Ing. Toni Leyendecker, driving the company’s organisational and technological development over many years. He leaves a company with a global workforce of 350 employees and a well-defined position in the tool coating market.
Christoph Feig steps into Hermeler’s former role as COO. A graduate engineer in materials science, Feig worked at CemeCon between 2004 and 2010 before spending the next several years managing large maintenance and technical operations in the steel and aluminium industries. He returned to CemeCon in 2024 and has since been working through a structured onboarding process to prepare for the COO position, so while the appointment is new, the groundwork has been laid for some time.
Dr.-Ing. Beate Hüttermann continues as CMO, responsible for sales, product management, and marketing. She has been with the company since 1987 and has built CemeCon’s global sales and marketing structure over the years, joining the Executive Board in 2022.
Commenting on the transition, Lemmer said personnel stability is itself a competitive asset, particularly in uncertain market conditions. Hermeler, for his part, pointed to the company’s people and its technology, specifically its Diamond and PVD HiPIMS coating systems for cutting tools, as the foundation the new board will work from. With all three board members having long histories at CemeCon, the company appears to be making a deliberate case for continuity over disruption.
