Kick-off event for the anniversary year in the Pioneer Cube at the Wilopark
Dortmund, 4 February 2022
For a festive start to the anniversary year, Dr.-Ing. E.h. Jochen Opländer and Oliver Hermes invited guests to a company kick-off event in the foyer of the Pioneer Cube last Friday. In addition to the Wilo management team, Ullrich Sierau, former mayor of the City of Dortmund, along with his successor, Thomas Westphal, were also among the guests.
The evening opened with a journey back in time with Oliver Hermes through the company’s 150-year history.
“We are proud to have fostered the entrepreneurial values and inventiveness of the founding family throughout the 150 years of the company’s history”, said Hermes, Chairman and CEO of the Wilo Group and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wilo-Foundation. “In this way, we have developed solutions for the emerging technological and social challenges of our time, providing clean water to millions of people around the world, and helping to equip buildings of the future intelligently. This is how we will continue to make an important global contribution to shaping galloping urbanisation, countering energy shortages and water shortages, and decelerating climate change. Always with the aim of making people’s lives easier and better.”
During one of the highlights of the evening, Dr.-Ing. E.h. Jochen Opländer was presented with two chronicles about the company and the pioneering spirit of Wilo.
“What drove my father in 1927 was not just to develop a circulator. He wanted to replace unhealthy stove heating with hygienic central heating and, in doing so, improve people’s living conditions. Acting in a future-oriented manner also means assuming responsibility for the common good. And it makes me proud that Wilo has been doing this for 150 years now”, emphasises Opländer, shareholder and Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board of WILO SE as well as founder of the Wilo-Foundation.
The musical accompaniment for the evening was provided by the trio ClariNoir. Ivo and Ilja Ruf and Nikolai Gast provided varied entertainment with different pieces from the jazz and classical genres. The culinary close of the evening was the traditional event of cutting the anniversary cake.
