Hartwig Härtel, CEO and owner of Böllinghaus Steel was born in 1947. After a training in the wholesale and foreign trade business he successfully completed a one-year training at a bank in order to learn more about the banking business. After that he worked for four years in the export department of Salzgitter Stahl with the focus on the regions of middle East and Asia. In 1971 he changed over to the German office of the 400-years old Japanese trading company Okaya, that mainly dealt in steel. As sales manager Europe he sold Japanese stainless steel in Germany and Europe and frequently travelled to Japan. In 1977 he joined the family-owned company Böllinghaus. He worked in various positions and gained more and more responsibilities until he in 1991 became CEO of Böllinghaus. In 1996 Hartwig Härtel purchased a rolling mill in Vieira de Leiria, Portugal, and relocated there his entire production. Headquarters and administration remain until today in Hilden near Düsseldorf.