Oliver Hermes

Chairman of the Board of Trustees

Oliver Hermes, President and Global Chief Executive Officer of Wilo Group, has been a member of the Executive Board since 2006 and in 2019 was named by Dr.-Ing. h.c. Jochen Opländer as successor of the business and thus also as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wilo-Foundation.

The shaper of the future

In recent years, Oliver Hermes, as President & Global CEO, has been consistently promoting the transformation of the Wilo Group towards becoming a digital climate protection pioneer of the industry. As part of the strategic realignment of the group, Oliver Hermes sped up the internationalisation of the business: He strengthened Wilo’s position as a leading global player by entering the markets of East, West and Central Africa and the countries of Latin America, strengthening the regional presence in Southeast Asia and the Middle East and establishing new plants in Russia, India, China, Korea, Turkey, the UAE and the United States. As a result, the Wilo Group has grown into a multi-billion business in recent years.

In his role as Global CEO he has played a key role in significantly increasing the brand performance through the modernisation of brand identity and development of the technology group from a “hidden champion” to a “visible & connected champion”. Moreover, he is consistently working to strengthen Wilo’s innovation leadership by pursuing the group’s shift from a component manufacturer to a provider of systems, solutions and services.

Today and in the future, we are making an important global contribution to shaping galloping urbanisation, countering energy shortages and water scarcity and accelerating climate change.

Oliver Hermes, President & Global CEO of the Wilo Group

Pioneer for climate and resource protection

As part of this mission, several future-oriented acquisitions were made, for example. He is also advancing the digital transformation of the Wilo Group along the four dimensions of products and solutions, processes, business models and people. In line with the motto “Climate protection is part of our DNA” Oliver Hermes is committed to ensuring that Wilo helps to improve living standards worldwide and, in particular, increase the efficiency of water management systems in times of climate change. The fact that Wilo received the renowned German Sustainability Award (DNP) 2021 in the “Climate” transformation field underlines Wilo’s credibility as a “climate protection pioneer”.

In 2024, the Wilo Group Executive Board, chaired by Oliver Hermes, took the Group's commitment to sustainability to a new level by declaring the Wilo Group's group-wide sustainability strategy to be the overarching strategy. Since then, all other functional corporate strategies have been subordinated to it without exception.

Oliver Hermes in December 2023 at the virtual ground-breaking ceremony for the new health centre (Health Cube) at Wilopark, together with Dortmund's Lord Mayor Thomas Westphal and founder and entrepreneur Dr.-Ing. h.c. Jochen Opländer. Photo: Roland Baege

Commitee activities and Awards

 

  • Since 2025: Member of the Board of Trustees of the Afrika-Verein der deutschen Wirtschaft

  • Since 2023: Member of the Executive Board of the Sub-Saharan Africa Initiative of German Business (SAFRI)

  • Since 2021: Honorary Consul for Kazakhstan in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia

  • Deputy Chairman of the German Near and Middle East Association (NUMOV), Berlin

  • Member of the Advisory Board of Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA (BVB), Dortmund

  • Member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Family Businesses, Munich

  • Member of the Executive Board of pro Ruhrgebiet e.V., Essen

  • Member of the Supervisory Board of RWTÜV e.V., Essen

  • Member of the Advisory Board of Initiativkreis Ruhr, Essen

  • Member of the University Council of TU Dortmund University

  • Member of the Rotary Club, Dortmund

  • Member of the Executive Board of the Afrika-Verein der deutschen Wirtschaft until 2025

  • Deputy Chairman of the Petersburg Dialogue, Berlin until June 2022

  • Chairman of the Executive Board of the German Eastern Business Association (Ost-Ausschuss der deutschen Wirtschaft e.V.), Berlin until June 2022

  • Member of the Board of Trustees of the German-Russian Forum e.V., Berlin until June 2022

  • Member of the Lions Club, Duisburg until 2021

The committee members of the Wilo-Foundation, from left to right: Evi Hoch (Board of Directors), Dr Hinrich Mählmann, Dr.-Ing. h.c. Jochen Opländer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Oliver Hermes, Lawyer Lars Roßner, Jan Opländer and Wolfgang Mertineit (Board of Directors). Photo: Roland Baege

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wilo-Foundation

In April 2019, Oliver Hermes took over as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wilo-Foundation, having already been appointed as his entrepreneurial successor by Dr.-Ing. h.c. Jochen Opländer at the beginning of the year. As the new Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wilo-Foundation, he succeeded Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Bullinger, the long-standing President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., Munich, in 2019.