After 51 years: Gisela Bernstein retires

We are talking about Gisela Bernstein. She is the daughter-in-law of the company's founder Hans Bernstein and wife of the long-standing Managing Director and Chairman of the Board Hans-Joachim Bernstein, who is now passing on the baton to the third generation, her children Achim and Nicole Bernstein.

As one of the world's leading suppliers of industrial safety and enclosure technology, BERNSTEIN employs more than 500 people in 10 countries. The company's headquarters are located in Porta Westfalica in eastern Westphalia.

In 1970, Gisela Bernstein started working for the company for the first time as a "clerk for foreign customers". The aim was to establish new pan-European business relations for BERNSTEIN. After Gisela Bernstein met this challenge very successfully, she took over the management of the export department in 1988. Together with her staff, she succeeded in significantly expanding the total turnover at that time with the help of exports. The subsidiaries in France, Austria, Great Britain (1985), Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, the USA (1985), China, Hungary (2005) and Switzerland (2006), which were newly founded by Hans-Joachim Bernstein at that time, also contributed to this. Gisela Bernstein played a major role in the establishment of these worldwide subsidiaries. The Wuppertal-born Bernstein also took over the management of the BeNeLux sales company in 2006.

In 2008, Gisela Bernstein was appointed to the Board of Directors, which she has chaired since 2010.
It was also during this time that her husband Hans-Joachim Bernstein was no longer able to manage the company due to illness. With entrepreneurial expertise, a sure instinct, an open ear for the concerns of her employees and a great deal of sympathy, Gisela Bernstein has led the company very successfully to this day - since 2014 together with her children Achim and Nicole Bernstein. They are also the ones who will now take over the baton from their mother and manage the company together in the future. "I look back on a very eventful and exciting time and am grateful for all the experiences, encounters and successes I have had over the decades. Now it is time for something new - for the company and for me personally. I wish Nicole and Achim much success and a happy hand in all their decisions," says Gisela Bernstein.

However, the senior boss is not completely turning her back on the company: As a member of the supervisory board, she will remain with BERNSTEIN with her rich entrepreneurial experience.