April 2024 | Thomas Gangl will join Liberty on July 1, 2024 and will be responsible for all of Liberty’s European operations, including major sites Galati in Romania, Ostrava in the Czech Republic, Dunaújváros in Hungary and Częstochowa in Poland, as well as downstream operations in Italy , Belgium, Luxembourg and North Macedonia.
Together, Liberty’s European businesses employ 17,000 people. Gangl will focus on stabilizing business areas, optimizing production and achieving a green steel transformation by 2030.
Vienna: location of the European headquarters
Thomas Gangl’s appointment comes amid progress in restructuring Liberty’s European loans and is part of a broader plan to establish a new European holding company based in Vienna, which will also be Liberty’s European headquarters. Vienna is a central European location close to Liberty’s main offices with excellent financial and professional services sectors.
Theuns Victor, interim CEO for European Upstream, continues to play an important role in stabilizing European activities and will hand over to Thomas from July. Theuns will then return to his position as Head of Industrial Projects & Development to implement the group’s carbon neutral production ambitions.
Toker Ozcan, the current CEO of Green Steel EMEA, will now focus on running the UK Liberty business following the recent agreement with Greensill creditors. Toker has successfully led Liberty’s downstream business through a difficult period and will focus on delivering the UK strategy following the handover.
Professional positions at Borealis and OMV
52-year-old Thomas Gangl is currently CEO and Chairman of the Board of Borealis, one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and sustainable polyolefin solutions. At Borealis, Thomas was instrumental in advancing the 2030 strategy, which focuses on sustainability, and accelerated the company’s progress towards a circular economy.
Before joining Borealis, Thomas Gangl spent most of his career at OMV, the Austrian integrated oil and gas company, where he held various management positions in OMV’s refining business.
During his tenure, investment decisions were made for the electrolysis of green hydrogen and the development of a plant for the production of green biofuels at the OMV Schwechat refinery. From 2019, he was a member of the OMV Board of Directors as Head of Downstream Operations and oversaw the increase of OMV’s stake in Borealis to 75% before taking over the position of CEO in 2021.
Meaningful experiences
Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman of Liberty Steel Group said:
“With the appointment of Thomas, we continue our trend of attracting outstanding leaders to support the transformation of our group on its journey to green steel and climate neutrality by 2030.
Thomas’ experience in managing complex business environments and large capital projects will be critical to stabilizing our operations in Europe, attracting new capital and moving away from coal-based steel production.
The establishment of a new European group headquartered in Vienna will usher in a new chapter for our business, with a focus on the development of green steel in our neighboring Central and Eastern European locations.”
Looking forward to the new task
Thomas Gangl explained his appointment:
“Liberty has created an impressive range of assets across Europe that offer huge potential for sustainable developments and the transition to green steel. Like all steel companies in Europe, we face significant challenges in navigating market conditions and the to achieve the decarbonized future we all want as quickly as possible.
My priorities will be to complete the restructuring initiated by the team, increase productive utilization of our steel mills and advance our investments in electric arc furnaces to keep us on track to achieve green steel and carbon neutral production by 2030.
I look forward to working with Liberty’s dedicated workforce and stakeholders to achieve our shared goal of a sustainable and thriving steel sector in Europe.”