42-year-old Esther Lind from Upper Austria has been working for SAG in a dual function as General Manager Sales and Innovation since the beginning of February. In this dual function, the experienced key account manager and graduated mechanical engineering is responsible for worldwide sales activities throughout the Group and heads the international sales team, which operates at 11 locations in Europe and Mexico. At the same time, as General Manager Innovation, Esther Lind will open up new business areas for SAG and drive forward projects in the areas of product and technology development. Previously, Lind worked for more than 16 years in the voestalpine Group in various management functions and as an independent transformation consultant in Austria and Germany. As a member of the presidium of the womenUniverse alumni network at TU Graz, she volunteers her time to promote career opportunities for women in technology and business. In her private life, Lind lives in Vienna and is an enthusiastic world traveller and nature lover in her free time.
After studying mechanical engineering and economics at Graz University of Technology, Esther Lind started her career at voestalpine Aerospace GmbH in Kapfenberg in the R&D department. This was quickly followed by promotion to Product & Development Manager and, from 2011, a move to Sales Management as Key Account Manager Aero Engines.
From Kapfenberg, the engineering graduate moved to voestalpine High Performance Metal GmbH in Vienna, where she held management positions as Corporate Strategy & Business Development Manager from 2015 and Head of Transformation from 2017.
In 2021, she switched to self-employment and worked as a Transformation Consultant at Forum Alpbach and Bluegain GmbH in Frankfurt. In addition, she completed an executive programme for global management at IMD Lausanne. Esther Lind then started at the Salzburger Aluminium Group in February 2022.
“I am very pleased to contribute my experience in both the production and sales and innovation areas in a variety of ways at SAG. The company is currently in a very exciting phase and is developing from a tank manufacturer into a holistic solution provider for cryogenic tank systems and lightweight components for sustainable mobility. So you could say I’m in the right place at the right time to make a lot of progress and actively accompany the change. An exciting task in an innovative company with a long tradition,” says Esther Lind about her plans at SAG.
SAG: Global player with a local footprint in nine countries and at 12 locations
The Salzburger Aluminium Group is an Austrian family-owned company with 1100 employees worldwide at 12 locations in Europe, Mexico, the USA and Canada. The headquarters of the company, which goes back to Salzburger Aluminium founded in 1898, is in Lend/Salzburg. Other SAG locations in Austria are Schwarzach/Pongau and Vienna. SAG has subsidiaries in Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Mexico, the USA and Canada. As the market leader for aluminium tanks for trucks, SAG is a global supplier to all well-known OEMs. Other products include lightweight components, air reservoirs, compressed air tanks and special components for the commercial vehicle, railway and special vehicle industries. The company is the technology leader in the field of cryogenic tanks for LNG & LH2 (liquid natural gas & liquid hydrogen) and was the first company to bring rheocasting (special casting process for aluminium components) to series maturity. The export quota is over 90 percent. The company supplies major truck and car manufacturers as well as OEMs in the rail and special vehicles sectors. The turnover of the entire group of companies was around 207 million EUR in 2021.
As part of the GreenTech Awards 2020/21, SAG was awarded a special prize as “Leading Innovator”. This was prompted by the company’s numerous patents for innovations that make a significant contribution to greater sustainability and climate protection.