A quarter of a century for DQS: 25th anniversary of the Managing Directors
Both Managing Directors of DQS Holding have served DQS and Quality for 25 years
Stefan Heinloth, trained engineer and MBA, served in various management tasks as an officer in the German military and project tasks in the aviation industry. In 1994 the founder of DQS, Joachim Pärsch, hired Stefan Heinloth as a quality manager on May 1st, 1994 and initially sent him to DGQ for an in-depth auditor training, In October 1994, Stefan Heinloth started his job at DQS.
Michael Drechsel, trained lawyer, started his professional career in 1992, when he was hired by the German-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in São Paulo. A contract between DQS and the German-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the initiation of contacts with interested companies led DQS President Wolfgang Hansen and DQS Managing Director Joachim Pärsch to São Paulo. After exploratory talks, they decided to establish the first international DQS office. Michael Drechsel signed on as Managing Director of the new DQS do Brasil on August 1st, 1994.
First Quality Manager - then pioneering work in the U.S.A.
As quality manager, Stefan Heinloth fundamentally redesigned the QM system of DQS and systematized auditor trainings. In 1996, the graduate engineer and MBA was given the task to set up and manage the second international DQS subsidiary – DQS Inc. in the United States. American industry was largely unaware of ISO standards at that time. Stefan Heinloth and his team, including his wife Christine, had pioneering work to do - making the ISO 9000 standards known and to generate interest in the recently published environmental management standard ISO 14001. The US business was continuously developed into a success.
Building up DQS do Brasil
As the country's leading industrial and financial region, Sao Paulo has long since become a magnet for international corporations and German companies such as Volkswagen, Bosch, Bayer and BASF.
Michael Drechsel recruited employees and auditors, established partnerships with national certifiers, build networks, and won major well-known German customers. He acquired local accreditations for DQS do Brasil and thus paved the way for Brazilian customers. DQS do Brasil increasingly gained the confidence of the domestic Brazilian economy.
Stefan Heinloth succeeds Joachim Pärsch as Managing Director in 2000
After the DQS subsidiary in the US was developed into a smoothly operating company, Stefan Heinloth returned to Frankfurt am Main. On the 1st of Oct 2000, he was appointed as DQS Managing Director and succeeded Joachim Pärsch on 1st April 2001. DQS became progressively more international in scope in the following years, and its product portfolio increasingly covered all areas of entrepreneurial activity.
Michael Drechsel succeeds Dr. Klaus Petrick as Managing Director in 2004
In 2004, Michael Drechsel handed over the baton in Sao Paulo to Dezée Mineiro, who had successfully managed the marketing department of DQS do Brasil for many years, and joined the management of DQS GmbH in Frankfurt am Main as successor of Dr. Klaus Petrick.
One of his first projects was driving the digitization of the then still physical customer files, laying the foundation for today's process structure. Many years later, he is one of the initiators of the Audit Manager software, which is now used worldwide. He is on a plane for more than a third of the year, helping to set up new offices or develop them worldwide. He conducts internal audits and establishes new partnerships. For more than 15 years, he has also represented DQS on the Board of Directors of IQNet, including four years as Chairman of the Constitution and Policy Committee and seven years as President.
Creating one of the world´s largest certification bodies for management systems
Since 2004, Michael Drechsel has been running DQS together with Stefan Heinloth. In 2008, they seized the opportunity to integrate UL MSS, the management system certification division of Underwriters Laboratories Inc. into DQS. In 2008, the DQS-UL Group became one of the world's largest certification bodies for management systems.
Perspective for culture, markets and the brand
From the beginning of April 2009, Stefan Heinloth concentrated on his duties as Managing Director of DQS Holding GmbH, which was founded as part of the DQS-UL merger. Michael Drechsel remained at GmbH until January 2013, when he moved completely to DQS Holding in a dual role as one of three Managing Directors of DQS Holding and Managing Director of DQS GmbH. DQS remained on an expansion course after the merger: today, the DQS Group is represented by more than 85 international offices in more than 60 countries.
Double duty as managing directors of DQS GmbH and DQS Holding
In November 2017, Stefan Heinloth took over the management of DQS GmbH together with Michael Drechsel (until March 2018). During his dual role as managing director of GmbH and Holding, Stefan Heinloth improved structures and processes at DQS in order to prepare the company for future market requirements. After Markus Bleher joined the management board of DQS GmbH in April 2018, Stefan Heinloth is now shifting his focus back to DQS Holding.
Keeping and expanding DQS' global position as one of the leading certification bodies
And what is their vision for the future of DQS? "We are in a strong position as a certifier of classic quality and environmental management systems; this is where we have to stand up to changing conditions and, based on this, offer new audit services in the fields of sustainability, IT and digitalization as well as food and consumer goods. Due to the high complexity and rapid change of global markets, we expect growing demand for independent and competent certification services. As our success comes from people, we will continue to find and develop talents and experts for DQS”, state Stefan Heinloth and Michael Drechsel.
We congratulate Stefan Heinloth and Michael Drechsel very warmly on their company anniversary and wish them all the best, both privately and for their continued leadership of DQS!
Information and photos provided by Stefan Heinloth and Michael Drechsel, DQS GmbH and DQS do Brasil