Sperzel holds a Master's degree in Corporate Finance from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and looks back on more than 10 years at Heraeus. In recent years, he has held various commercial positions in precious metals trading and chemicals, including Chemicals Sales Manager at the company's New York City, USA, site. Over the past four years, he was responsible as VP for global sales of the catalyst business of Heraeus Precious Metals as global head of Sales Heterogenous Catalysis.

Sperzel will be succeeded by Hendrik Spod. Spod holds a doctorate in technical chemistry from the Technical University of Darmstadt and has more than 15 years of experience in the field of process catalysis. He has been with Heraeus Precious Metals since 2016 and has driven development in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. Most recently, he was the global head of Innovation Chemicals. Under his responsibility, the team has made significant progress in the fields of green chemistry and ammonia cracking.