When asked what he does now, the former CEO of RWEST has two answers – and neither of them involves retirement (of course!).
“I am focusing on my work on supervisory boards, for example at Trimet Aluminium SE in Essen. And I look after my private investment portfolio”, the 61-year-old tells us. After 16 years with the company that he helped to build in the early 2000s, Judisch left his position as RWEST CEO 10 years ago, in March 2015.
And “build” is the term that best describes his involvement with the company. He considers putting in place the best possible organisational structure for RWEST to be the biggest success of his career. The achievement by the team that set the company on the right course during the early years was combining trading with asset optimisation.
According to Judisch, RWE is currently the only European energy supply utility with a result-relevant trading business. For him, it is not a contradiction that a successful trading organisation was built by a non-trader.
“I have never traded in all my life, because I am really not a good trader at all. I brought the right people together in the team and managed them. It is just the same as in football. A good coach does not necessarily need to have been a good player.”
In this case, the coach is a golfer, but he still does not get much time to work on his handicap. New tasks soon took over the time that was freed up after leaving RWEST. “At the moment, I am spending a good bit of my time looking into proteins, because we will see a lasting revolution in this area of food production over the coming years”, says Judisch.
Talking to him it soon becomes clear that diet and the future of the food industry is one of his new major hobbies. This field is also reflected in his financial investments, for example in a macadamia nut farm in Malawi or a gourmet restaurant in Berlin specialising in sustainably produced food.
Naturally, Stefan Judisch also continues to observe the activities of RWE and RWEST – albeit from a distance. “Nobody needs to get advice from me at this stage. It would not be a good idea for the old boss to think the place cannot operate without him. Every generation needs to learn from their own experiences.”