Stefan Borgas, CEO of RHI Magnesita, emphasizes: “Rajah Jayendran has proven in and outside our company that he is an excellent operations manager, holding the reputation of a reliable and accurate partner. His track record and experience make him the right choice to follow Gerd Schubert as Chief Operations Officer (COO). Gerd will withdraw from the Executive Management Team but continue to work for RHI Magnesita, driving initial Projects until he takes his welldeserved retirement. I want to thank Gerd for 30 years of passionate engagement on behalf of our company.”
Born in 1969, Rajah Jayendran is a German national who holds an engineering degree from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Mr. Jayendran began his career in 1995 as a Senior Project Manager at multinational conglomerate Thyssen-Krupp Uhde GmbH. In 1999 he moved to Bayer MaterialScience AG, where he last held the position of Senior Vice President Site Operations in Shanghai, China. This was followed, in 2009, by a two-year stint as Executive Vice President Strategy and Business Development at ChemChina-Bluestar Group Co in Beijing, China. In 2011, Mr. Jayendran assumed the position of Senior Vice President Strategic Projects at Lonza AG, a Swiss multinational chemicals and biotechnology company, before moving on, in 2013, to Linde Gas Asia in Singapore as Senior Vice President Commercialization. From 2014- 2016 he joined the Stora Enso Group Co., a global provider of renewable solutions in packing, biomaterials, wooden construction, and paper, as Senior Vice President MD China Investments & Operations.
This was followed by a role with the Linde Group in Munich as Senior Vice President Performance Management in 2016-2017. Since 2018, Mr Jayendran has been a key team member at RHI Magnesita, the global leader and driving force of the refractory industry, holding the position of Senior Vice President Operations Europe/CIS/Turkey. Effective October 1st, he will replace Gerd Schubert in the company’s Executive Management Team as Chief Operations Officer.
RHI Magnesita is the leading global supplier of high-grade refractory products, systems, and solutions critical for hightemperature processes exceeding 1,200°C in a wide range of industries, including steel, cement, and non-ferrous metals and glass. RHI Magnesita intends to build on its leadership in revenue, scale, product portfolio and diversified geographic presence to expand further in high growth markets. The Group maintains a premium listing on the official list of the London Stock Exchange (symbol: RHIM) and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 index, with a secondary listing on the Vienna Stock Exchange (Wiener Börse).
