Max Kley, Chief Executive Officer

Max joined Tark Thermal Solutions (formerly Laird Thermal Systems) in April 2025.  Max brings a wealth of international leadership experience, having successfully led and developed businesses across the USA, Europe, and Asia. With a distinguished career spanning multiple industries—including medical, industrial, automotive, consumer goods, and energy, —Max has held key leadership roles, most recently serving as CEO of Freudenberg e-Power Systems. He has also chaired various international businesses and has a deep background in Strategy, General Management, Business Development, Project Management, Operations, Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Legal. His experience with leading global brands such as Freudenberg and Mannesmann strengthens his ability to drive Tark Thermal Solutions forward.

Ingo Peper
Chief Financial Officer

Before joining Tark Thermal Solutions (formerly Laird Thermal Systems) in 2019, Ingo held several major positions in financial management. His career started at Blaupunkt GmbH, Bosch Group where he progressed to Head of Finance Controlling, IT and Commercial Services. When Blaupunkt GmbH was acquired by Aurelius Group, he was responsible for restructuring and separating the financial control, IT infrastructure and ERP systems from the former owner. Ingo served as Global Finance Director at Kathrein Automotive, a fast-growing antenna supplier for car manufacturers. His ability to strategically manage financial resources and drive digitization across all functions is highly valuable for Tark Thermal Solutions. Ingo holds Masters’ degrees in Computer Science/Business Administration and Mechanical Engineering/Business Administration from Technical University Braunschweig, Germany.

Christoph Bauckhage
Chief Sales Officer

Christoph joined Tark Thermal Solutions (formerly Laird Thermal Systems) in 2014. With his diverse background in sales, research & development, project management and business development, Christoph brings a valuable understanding of the business technology interface and meeting customer needs. Christoph is experienced in building global leaders in highly engineered components and turnkey systems that provide thermal management solutions to various markets.

David Stephenson
Human Resource Director

Before joining Tark Thermal Solutions (formerly Laird Thermal Systems) in 2018, David had held a wide variety of senior roles in many different sectors, also working internationally in China, USA, and across Europe. He started his career in the Royal Navy, then operational roles with P&L responsibility as GM, before moving into HR and organizational change roles. This included HRD Asia for Volvo, VP HR Europe for Iron Mountain and Change Director for Royal Mail Group.

Zeijko Spika
Chief Operations Officer

Before joining Tark Thermal Solutions (formerly Laird Thermal Systems) in April 2023, Zeljko held multiple operations executive roles as CEO, CTO, Vice President Manufacturing & Operations, and Plant Manager at Siemens, Osram Opto-Semiconductor, Osram, and Joint Venture Osram-Continental. Zeljko was driving various due diligence and post-merger integration operations projects and has vast experience in company reorganization and transformation of global operating companies. His industry breath includes Automotive, Electronics, Semiconductor, Lighting, Entertainment, Medical, and Telecommunication. During his stay in China from 2007 until 2014 as CEO OKDO, CEO OKSP and CTO APAC for Osram he transformed the regional operations footprint from classical light bulb to LED based business. Zeljko holds a PhD in Physics from the Philips-University Marburg, Germany.