Porta Westfalica, 4 March 2025
Gisela Bernstein, long-standing CEO of BERNSTEIN AG and a formative entrepreneurial personality, is celebrating her 80th birthday this year. With her tireless commitment, entrepreneurial vision and exceptional leadership, she and her husband Hans-Joachim Bernstein have helped to shape the success story of BERNSTEIN AG over the decades.
From clerk to Chairwoman of the Management Board
In February 1970, Gisela Bernstein began her career at BERNSTEIN as a ‘clerk for foreign customers’. Her task: to expand the company's international business relationships. With strategic skill and assertiveness, she made a significant contribution to internationalisation and became head of the export department in 1988. During this time, Hans-Joachim Bernstein founded the subsidiaries in France, Austria, Great Britain, the USA, China, Switzerland and the Netherlands with her support.
In 2008, she was appointed to the Management Board and took over its chairmanship in 2010 - a position she filled with determination and sensitivity. Even during a challenging phase, when her husband had to hand over the management of the company due to illness, she showed great strength and successfully continued to lead the family business. Since 2014, she has been at the helm of the company together with her children Nicole and Achim Bernstein. Even after her retirement from the operational business in 2021, Gisela Bernstein will remain closely associated with the company: She will continue to contribute her experience as a member of the Supervisory Board.
Entrepreneurial foresight and family tradition
Gisela Bernstein not only shaped the economic development of BERNSTEIN AG, but always championed the values of a family-run company. Under the leadership of Hans-Joachim and Gisela Bernstein, BERNSTEIN AG grew into a global supplier of industrial safety and enclosure technology. Today, the company is managed by Nicole and Achim Bernstein in the third generation.
BERNSTEIN AG congratulates its former CEO on her 80th birthday and honours her achievements as an entrepreneur, leader and person.
