LIBERTY Steel Group (“LIBERTY”) has appointed international sustainability leader Thomas Gangl as the Chief Executive Officer of its European business, and confirms Vienna as the location for its European headquarters.

Thomas will start at LIBERTY on 1 July 2024 and will be responsible for all of LIBERTY’s European plants including its major operations at Galati in Romania, Ostrava in the Czech Republic, Dunaújváros in Hungary, Częstochowa in Poland, and downstream operations in Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and North Macedonia. Together LIBERTY’s European businesses employ 17,000 people. Thomas will be focussed on stabilising the businesses, optimising production and delivering green steel transformation by 2030.

The appointment of Thomas Gangl follows progress with LIBERTY’s European debt restructuring and is part of a broader plan to establish a new European holding company registered in Vienna, which will also become LIBERTY’s European headquarters. Vienna offers a central European location close to LIBERTY’s major plants with excellent financial and professional service industries.

Theuns Victor, interim CEO for European Upstream, continues to play an important role in stabilising the European businesses and will manage a handover to Thomas from July.  Theuns will then return to his position leading Industrial Projects & Development to deliver the group’s carbon neutral ambitions.

Toker Ozcan, the current CEO of Green Steel EMEA, will now focus on leading Liberty’s UK operations following the recent agreement with Greensill creditors. Toker has adeptly steered our downstream businesses through a challenging period, and following the handover, he will concentrate on executing the UK strategy.

Thomas Gangl

Thomas (52) is currently CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Borealis, one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and sustainable polyolefin solutions. At Borealis Thomas was instrumental in refining its Strategy 2030 with sustainability at its core and accelerating the company’s progress towards a circular economy.

Prior to joining Borealis, Thomas had served for most of his career with OMV, the Austrian integrated oil and gas company which operates across Europe, holding various management positions in OMV’s refining business. During his tenure, investment decisions were taken for the electrolysis of green hydrogen and the development of a plant for the production of green biofuels at OMV’s Schwechat refinery. From 2019, he was a member of the OMV Executive Board as Chief Downstream Operations Officer and oversaw the increase of OMV’s shareholding in Borealis to 75% before taking over as its CEO in 2021.

Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman, LIBERTY Steel Group said:

“Thomas’s appointment continues our trend of attracting top class leadership talent to support the transformation of our group in its pursuit of green steel and carbon neutrality by 2030.  Thomas’s experience in managing complex business environments and major capital projects will be vital as we stabilise our businesses in Europe, seek to attract fresh capital and transition away from coal-based steel production.  The establishment of a new European group headquartered in Vienna will mark a new chapter for our businesses with its core focus on leading the development of green steel in our neighbouring Central and Eastern European locations.”

Commenting on his appointment Thomas Gangl said:

“LIBERTY has built up an impressive set of assets across Europe with huge potential for sustainable developments and green steel transformation.  Like all steel companies across Europe there are major challenges in managing market conditions and delivering the decarbonised future we all want as soon as possible.  My priorities will be to complete the restructuring work the team has started, boost productive utilisation of our steel mills and deliver our electric arc furnance investments so we remain on track to deliver green steel and carbon neutral production by 2030.   I look forward to working with LIBERTY’s committed workforce and stakeholders to deliver our mutual goal of a sustainable and thriving steel sector in Europe.”