March 20, 2026: Florian von Steinkeller has announced his departure from Glencore after a 17-year career.

Von Steinkeller most recently served as CEO of metallurgical assets for the UK and Germany and is the chairman of the International Lead Association.

He said in a LinkedIn post on March 7 that his first order of business would be to take a short break “to recharge” — but signalled he would still be a presence in the industry because of his passion for the commodities world.

He said it had been a privilege to work with some of the most inspiring, entrepreneurial and dedicated individuals in the industry and singled out the team at Britannia Refined Metals, part of the Glencore group, for demonstrating that “lean operations are safe operations”, achieving over seven years with no lost-time injury.

“I could not be prouder of the cultural change we accomplished and with the newly-commissioned electronic scrap recycling plant, we have laid the foundation for the future of the company.”

Von Steinkeller also praised achievements at the firm’s German operations, where he said a long-term vision for operations had been developed leading to a far-reaching restructure and where a comprehensive investment program is now underway.

Battery industry analyst and CTO and CCO of Zero Carbon Technologies, Farid Ahmed, said von Steinkeller had shown tremendous leadership, not just as chairman of the ILA, and would be a hard act to follow.