Professional background
Ludger Schlüter is a graduate process engineer with more than 30 years in international large-scale plant engineering, having moved from process and mechanical engineering into project management, engineering leadership and general management. He studied process engineering in a dual programme with BASF at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Mannheim and later earned a further degree in process engineering and thermodynamics at the University of Stuttgart alongside his work. He is a certified International Welding Engineer (IWE) and, since 2024, a certified ESG Implementation Manager.
His career began in 1992 at BASF in Ludwigshafen, where over nine years he worked as process engineer, engineering manager and project manager on investment projects in Germany, Belgium, Korea and the USA, including an assignment in Louisiana for the engineering and technology transfer of an agro active-ingredient plant. In 2001 he joined Lurgi, later Air Liquide, in Frankfurt, leading its static-equipment and mechanical departments, before moving to Beijing in 2009 as Managing Director for China, where he reorganised the joint venture and grew order intake from zero to over €80 million within two years. From 2011 to 2015 he held director positions at Alstom Thermal Power — first in Beijing, building the technology, engineering and project-management organisation for CO₂ capture and storage in Asia, then in Paris as Director Industrialisation for Nuclear Products, restructuring the global nuclear thermal business across France, Switzerland and China.
In 2015 he joined thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions (Uhde) in Dortmund, leading the Balance of Plant & Mechanical department and later the global discipline, responsible for mechanical equipment and infrastructure in large EPC lump-sum turnkey projects. From 2018 to 2023 he was Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Engineering at Bayer in Leverkusen, heading an organisation of some 200 engineers and an annual capital portfolio of around €1 billion, and driving restructuring, digitalisation (BIM) and modularization. In 2023 he founded EUSTRATEGO GmbH & Co. KG, an interim-management and consulting firm which he leads as Managing Director. In interim and advisory mandates he has served as Chief Operating Officer of a hydrogen project developer and producer, led the task force that resolved the hydrogen-compressor interfaces of one of the world’s largest green-hydrogen plants in Sweden, managed the FEED of a 100 MW fuel-cell power plant for a data centre, and advised on contractor selection for an LNG terminal.
Practical experience and special expertise
- ›Over 30 years in international large-scale plant engineering and EPC projects (chemicals, oil & gas, energy, pharma and agro)
- ›General management and P&L responsibility (Managing Director, COO), including business turnaround
- ›Building, leading and developing global engineering organisations and matrix teams across Europe and Asia
- ›Large cross-functional investment projects from development and engineering through to commissioning (portfolios up to €4bn, single projects up to €3bn)
- ›Transformation, change management, restructuring and cost reduction of 25–30 %
- ›Damage, claim and crisis management, including negotiations with clients, suppliers and insurers
- ›Mechanical and static-equipment engineering, compressors, utilities and steam systems
- ›Digitalisation (BIM) and plant modularization
- ›CO₂ capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen and energy investment projects
- ›ESG and EU-taxonomy implementation
