Egon Strehl

Members of his family, friends and associates remembered Clark Europe GmbH's Egon Strehl for his many achievements during a 5 February funeral service in Germany.

"Egon was a man of strong character, high integrity and a strong loyalty to his Clark team members," says longtime associate Robert Quinn of Lexington, Kentucky. "Egon loved his work; his passion was to grow a business, and he was a man who understood that friendship did, in fact, transcend business."

Strehl was born on 20 April 1955 in the northern German town of Elmshorn, near Hamburg. His family moved to Duisburg when he was about three, and he went to school there, including the University of Duisburg, where he majored in business studies.

He began working at Clark in Mülheim an der Ruhr in the early 1980s, dealing with the parts business and related technical support. He was a key developer of the Parts Pro program for Clark's Mülheim parts group.

He became the general parts manager at Clark Mülheim in the late 1990s, prior to Clark's 1999 filing for insolvency and bankruptcy protection from creditors. He joined Intrupa Nederland BV in Nijmegen, the Netherlands as a regional sales manager and, in 2001, moved to an operation of Toyota Material Handling Group with responsibility for distributor operations in Germany.

In 2004, Quinn recruited him, and Young An Hat Co Ltd hired Strehl as the managing director and chief executive officer of Clark Europe.

Strehl strongly advocated the importance of business reliability, stability and innovation.

Strehl was an avid sportsman, with soccer being his sport of choice. He experienced health issues recently but remained active in business decisions until his death in late January.

Strehl's survivors include three daughters - one who works in the Clark Europe marketing organisation; a grandchild; a brother, Rainer, in Munich, Germany; and a sister, Angelika, in Oberhausen, Germany.