APM Terminals appoints Olaf Gelhausen as chief operating officer

Olaf Gelhausen will be joining APM Terminals as chief operating officer as of November 15, 2023, and he will be responsible for all COO functions, including global operations, asset management, automation, project execution, asset design and engineering, LEAN, decarbonization, and procurement.

Gelhousen joins APM Terminals from the automotive supplier Brose where, as member of the executive board, he was responsible for the companywide transformation, including organizational development and project management, HR, LEAN and the business service centers.

“I look forward to welcome Olaf Gelhausen to our team at this important time for APM Terminals. With his experience from both industrial and technology industries, he is the perfect fit to take APM Terminals to the next step in our goal to be the World’s best terminal company,” says Keith Svendsen, CEO of APM Terminals.

Prior to his tenure at Brose, Olaf Gelhausen was COO of Thyssenkrupp Bilstein, in charge of manufacturing plants, product and process development, supply chain and quality management, operations, IT and HSSE. Under his leadership a new digitization and automation strategy was implemented, introducing machine learning applications, collaborative robots, big data analysis and additive manufacturing.

Olaf Gelhausen also served as general manager for Hella in China and brings very relevant experience from Operations, Procurement and Supply Chain leadership roles with Infineon Technologies, having worked in the US, Singapore, and Germany.

Gelhausen is a German national, born and raised in Berlin. He has earned a PhD in physics from University of Technology Sydney, Australia as well as Master’s degrees both in Physics and Business in Germany.