After conclusion of his studies in mechanical engineering as a certified engineer and subsequently getting his doctorate at the Technical University in Munich, Lothar Pfalzer initially worked as Project Manager at Wacker Chemie, afterwards as a trainee at Unilever and then at 4P Rube in Göttingen. In 1976, he began his career at Voith in the department of Paper Research & Development in Heidenheim. Soon he took over direction of sales at Heidenheim's Stock Preparation Division, and in the course of the fusion of Voith and Sulzer in 1994, he was appointed Director of the Fiber Systems Division at the Ravensburg location and member of Voith Paper’s executive board. In this function, Lothar Pfalzer played a substantial role in the successful integration of the former competitors Voith and Sulzer.

In his farewell address, Dr. Hans-Peter Sollinger, Chairman of Voith Paper Holding, praised Lothar Pfalzer’s achievements, which have also visibly manifested themselves to the outside world in the market leadership worldwide in recycling systems.

He especially emphasized Lothar Pfalzer’s sense for new technologies that today are being launched as very promising new areas of business, such as Fiber Loading. “Lothar Pfalzer leaves to his successor a well-tended inheritance,” said Dr. Sollinger.

Since June 1, 2007, Dr. Lothar Pfalzer’s successor as CEO of Voith Paper Fiber Systems in Ravensburg and member of the executive board of Voith Paper Holding in Heidenheim is Stephan Bocken. After his studies in chemical engineering in Cape Town, South Africa, he began his professional career in 1987 at Ciba-Geigy. He passed through several stages there. From 1999 to 2006, he worked at Ciba Specialty Chemicals, lastly as Global Project Manager, and then switched over to Voith in January 2007.

Dr. Pfalzer will work for Voith Paper until April 2008 as Executive Vice President Key Customers.

Voith Paper is a division of Voith and one of the leading partners to the paper industry. Through steady innovations Voith Paper optimizes the paper production process. More than a third of worldwide paper production is produced on Voith Paper machines.

Voith sets standards in the paper, energy, mobility and service markets. Founded on January 1, 1867, it has a current workforce of approx. 34,000, sales of EUR 3.7 billion and over 250 locations worldwide, and is one of the largest family-owned enterprises in Europe.

Voith is the official partner to the initiative "Germany - The Land of Ideas".