Schnelle comes from a family of millers. It was always clear to him that he would be the third generation to carry on the family tradition, do a miller’s apprenticeship and then attend the DMSB like his father before him. But then things turned out differently. Two years after graduation, the family-owned mill received an attractive takeover offer. The Schnelle family agreed. They sold and son Alexander’s career headed in a different direction.
“I always found Bühler an interesting company and I knew from my time at the DMSB that they are keen on hiring former DMSB students. So, I sent off a speculative application and was accepted,” says Schnelle. That was in 2009. Today, he heads the cereals milling division in the regions of Germany and parts of Eastern Europe for the global mill construction market leader. “65 percent of the world’s cereals are milled in Bühler mills,” says Schnelle proudly. Mill construction is the nucleus of the 150-year-old group and still its core business today.
Without his DMSB qualifications, this career would not have been possible. On the one hand, professionally, because in addition to milling, Schnelle also gained a plant engineering qualification from the DMSB, which enabled him to switch to Bühler in the first place. On the other hand, it was the deep insights into milling and the contacts in all segments of the industry that raised his awareness of its sensitivities and made him so successful. “I didn’t expect that I would one day be responsible for the whole division,” he remarks. “The feeling for and understanding of the milling industry and therefore for our customers was key. I know our customers’ day-to-day business and priorities from my own experience and can ensure that their experience of the exceptional circumstances involved in plant construction is as comfortable as possible.”
He comes into contact with his DMSB network every day: as a supplier, customer, or competitor. The milling industry is friendly and meets any time, any place – great networking is a basic prerequisite for successful business. “Former milling students know each other or someone from the same year. You are immediately on common ground with another DMSB student. In a way, the same heart beats in every chest,” is how Schnelle describes this special network. In Braunschweig, graduates acquire more than “just” their qualifications.
