Obituary: Karl-Heinz Funke

We grieve deeply for our company founder and senior director Karl-Heinz Funke. "His passionate commitment and his dedication to the quality of his heat exchangers let Funke master the challenges...“ Born in Alfeld on 12 April 1930 Karl-Heinz Funke led an active and successful life. After the war with much determination he started working as an apprentice toolmaker and achieved a diploma in engineering. After several steps in his professional career he founded with entrepreneurial ambition and high personal commitment, FUNKE Wärmeaustauscher Apparatebau GmbH and subsequently led it to be one of the most successful enterprises in the local region. His passionate commitment and the belief in the quality of his heat exchangers helped him to master the challenges he encountered during almost 40 years of company's history. He started with 820 m² production area and 30 employees. Today, the production area has grown to 25.000 m² and every day more than 290 employees come to work at FUNKE in Gronau. It was this central headquarter Karl-Heinz Funke focused on. The latest investment was the new administration building with his new office he inaugurated last autumn. Supported by 13 subsidiaries worldwide and a dense network of national and international sales partners he carried the name of his hometown Gronau all over the world. Despite all the international esteem his actions were always characterised by strong bonds to his home region with which he always shared the company's success as he did with the employees on site and the international subsidiaries. This enterprise to which he was fully dedicated was his purpose in life and it is to his personal commitment that today FUNKE is one of the leading producers of heat exchangers worldwide. As managing partner Mr. Funke put his heart and soul in his enterprise and sat at his desk every day until the very end. The loss of the founder hit the management and employees hard, but business will continue unchanged.

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