Professional qualifications, personal development, entrepreneurial skills and a robust network covering a variety of different plants are all factors that, put together, can pave the way for a successful career. Which is why the REMONDIS Group has created RE:MOT (short for ‘REMONDIS: Manager of Tomorrow’), a Germany-wide development programme for future technology leaders. The goal of this programme: to prepare young talent from its own ranks to take on a managing director position at one of its waste-to-energy plants.
The first twelve months of this programme have shown that this concept is not only having a positive impact on the participants. It has also already created added value for the plants taking part in the programme as well as for the whole of the Group.
“As far as I am concerned, RE:MOT is more than simply a further training course. The programme provides the opportunity to play an active role in shaping topics that will affect our company in the future, to take on responsibility and to work with dedicated colleagues on developing solutions that will have a long-term impact on the REMONDIS Group.”
Matthias Thäder, a RE:MOT participant & operations manager and authorised signatory at REMONDIS Thermische Abfallverwertung GmbH Staßfurt
In October 2025, the participants and the steering group met in Lünen to mark the start of RE:MOT’s first year together
From the idea to the launch
How can future technology managing directors be prepared for their tasks – systematically and well ahead of time? This was the question that was on the table at the beginning of RE:MOT. The discussions held with REMONDIS Group company managers in 2024 made it very clear just how big the need was for a qualification programme for young talented technology specialists that involved all of the Group’s plants. Working together with FW Management Consulting GmbH, the company then developed a three-year programme that was launched for the first time in October 2025. Josephine Frey (managing director of FW Management Consulting GmbH) has headed the RE:MOT programme since then. She is also responsible for the ongoing management and further development of the programme together with the steering committee – of which Jörg Wirtgen (managing director of FW Management Consulting GmbH) is also a member.
The focus is currently on ten young talents – all of them technicians and engineers from seven of the REMONDIS Group’s waste-to-energy plants – who are being carefully prepared as part of the programme to take on future technology leadership and managing director tasks. A deliberate decision was made here not just to teach technological expertise. Being a successful technology leader not only requires technological know-how. Having an entrepreneurial spirit, leadership and communications skills, an understanding of business and regulatory contexts and the ability to shape change and manage transformations are also important.
And so this is precisely what the programme has been designed to deliver. Seminars, workshops and training courses are combined with personal reflection, industrial and network events and operational work in technology projects. At the same time, the participants are given the opportunity to get to know different plants and viewpoints within the REMONDIS Group. They are given support from experienced technology managing directors and coaches from the plants throughout the three years.
Three years, three key areas
The content of the RE:MOT programme also follows a clear line of development. Each year of this three-year programme focuses on one key subject: from ‘Sharing information’, to ‘Growing entrepreneurship’, through to ‘Shaping the future’. As a result, the participants can gradually learn the professional, interdisciplinary and personal skills needed for their future technology leadership tasks.
The range of subjects is varied right from the start, with the first year addressing themes such as group dynamics and project management, the waste market and waste law, and leadership topics. The participants also visited the IFAT 2026 together. In addition to this, they worked together on a technology project involving several plants.
The young talents believe it is precisely this combination that is one of the programme’s main strengths. Heike Balmer (project engineer at REMONDIS Energy & Services GmbH & Co. KG) is one of the participants and describes the programme as being “an exceptional opportunity to hone both professional and personal skills in a targeted way while also benefiting from a strong network and diverse perspectives”.
A particularly significant moment for Heike Balmer was when the programme kicked off: what began as a group of participants from different business locations has developed into a close-knit circle over the last twelve months that provides the space for personal development and for them to step out of their comfort zones. The different viewpoints and feedback that they get from both the other young talents and the technology coaches have also proven to be very valuable.
The programme included, amongst other things, a joint visit to IFAT 2026
Matthias Thäder (operations manager and authorised signatory at REMONDIS Thermische Abfallverwertung GmbH Staßfurt) has also been part of the programme from the start. He singled out the way that the different development opportunities are connected: “RE:MOT is a development programme that unites technology expertise with entrepreneurial thinking and brings together people, ideas and business locations on a long-term basis.”
One thing, in particular, that changed for Matthias Thäder during his first year was the way he looks at technology questions. In addition to taking technology aspects into account, he now also focuses more on business, organisational and strategic contexts. It is precisely this holistic view that is key to being able to make good decisions as a technology leader.
Learning and simultaneously creating tangible benefits
One special feature: the close ties between development and practical business experience. During the programme, the participants get to collaborate on technology issues that are relevant to several of the REMONDIS Group’s plants. During the first year, for example, the group worked on developing a uniform system of technology KPIs for waste-to-energy plants with the help of their technology coaches Frank Nachtsheim (managing director of GMVA Gemeinschafts-Müll-Verbrennungsanlage Niederrhein GmbH) and Markus Weiler (managing director of AVG Service GmbH & Abteilungsleiter RMVA at AVG Abfallentsorgungs- und Verwertungsgesellschaft Köln mbH). Looking ahead, the results of this project should provide a basis for comparing the different plants and enabling a more objective assessment of the plants’ performance.
Frank Dohmen (Head of HR at the REMONDIS Group) from the steering committee, which is in charge of supporting, managing and implementing the programme as the central governing and decision-making body, believes that this is one of the main strengths of the concept. The programme, he said, is based on three closely linked pillars: the young talents get a more detailed look into the Group’s operations and hone their professional and personal skills. At the same time, the plants benefit from the technology projects that are carried out during the course of the programme as they focus on practical subjects pertinent to multiple plants. And, lastly, the steering committee and the technology coaches benefit from the sharing of information and viewpoints with their next generation of managers.
Plant visits, such as this one at AVG Cologne, link theoretical knowledge with practical operational processes
Thanks to this concept, targeted measures can be taken during the RE:MOT programme to integrate the different experiences, technologies and viewpoints from the plants taking part. These interactions enable know-how to be shared, different problem-solving approaches to be discussed and networks of contacts to be extended to include people from all the plants.
“As far as I am concerned, these interactions are one of the main strengths of the programme,” Matthias Thäder remarked. The different experiences and plant technologies lead to new ideas and enable those taking part to learn from one another. At the same time, this creates a network that will last long after the actual programme finishes.
Promoting collaboration, strengthening unity
Which is why the way that collaboration work is carried out also plays a key role alongside professional and methodological proficiency. Dr Markus Sänger (operations manager at MHKW Müllheizkraftwerk Frankfurt am Main GmbH), deputy chair and member of the steering committee, summed up this aspiration: “I am really pleased that we got together and initiated this special programme. It unites the development of future managers with networking among our plants – and all this against a backdrop of a genuine culture of unity.”
The feedback from the young talents underlines just how well this approach was pursued during the first year. They were particularly positive about the variety of the programme’s content, the opportunity to see beyond their own plant operations, the intensive sharing of information within the Group and the openness to them contributing their own ideas as to how the programme could be further developed.
Heike Balmer summarised the benefits gained accordingly. It is, she said, not one specific seminar or module that makes RE:MOT stand out. It is the combination of project work, information sharing and different viewpoints. Each module enables different learning experiences and helps everyone to enhance their skills.
This path will continue to be followed as the course moves into its second year. The focus over the next twelve months will be on ‘Growing entrepreneurship’ – something that will see the participants looking at, for example, company management and economics, the rights and obligations of senior managers as well as other topics relevant to the future. At the same time, the technology projects, the sharing of information between plants and the personal support will all be continued.
As a result, RE:MOT is not just training people to potentially become tomorrow’s technology managing directors. The programme is already strengthening the sharing of information between the plants, bringing together experiences and expertise within the REMONDIS Group and creating a space in which the next generation of technology leaders can take over responsibility for the future of the Group together.
Image credits: image 1: Adobe Stock: Robert Kneschke; image 2, 3, 4: © REMONDIS; image 5, 6: Magnific: starline
