Ronald Bekker

Ronald Bekker has spent his career doing the kind of work most folks never see—but depend on every single day.

He's a global manufacturing leader in the HVACR industry who understands that behind every cold storage facility, every food processing plant, every data center, every industrial operation trying to keep its product—and its promise—intact… there's a cooling system that has to work. No excuses. No downtime. No second chances.

Today, Ronald serves as Vice President and Managing Director of LU-VE North America in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, where he is leading the construction of a 220,000-square-foot production facility for industrial cooling systems. That investment isn't just square footage—it's a signal. A commitment to building advanced manufacturing capacity right here in Texas while upgrading the processes, teams, and systems required to compete on a global stage.

Before bringing his leadership to North America, Ronald held managing director roles across Germany, the UK, Benelux, and Italy—guiding multinational operations through restructures, market entries, and strategic turnarounds. At Thermowave, he helped drive the business from double-digit negative EBIT to profitability in just one year, delivering 80 percent revenue growth and a 50 percent increase in productivity along the way.

That kind of transformation doesn't come from spreadsheets alone.

It comes from leading cross-cultural teams through real change. From understanding how to bring new industrial refrigeration products to market across fragmented distribution networks. From building differentiated sales structures that align distributors, integrators, and contractors around a shared outcome.

From Whirlpool to GEA Group to BITZER and now LU-VE, Ronald's work has taken him from the Netherlands to Germany to the UK and beyond—launching products, restructuring go-to-market strategies, implementing trade finance programs, and turning struggling business units into profitable, growth-ready operations.

Challenge and results are what drive him.

And now, like so many manufacturers featured on the Gone to Texas Podcast, he's part of the story of companies choosing to expand their footprint in the Lone Star State—not just because of cost or policy, but because this is where complex, future-focused industry can build, grow, and win.

Because when it comes to advanced manufacturing, keeping things cool is serious business. And Ronald Bekker is helping lead the way.