Thomas Appelt was appointed President and General Manager, Corning International in April 18, 2016. Thomas Appelt continues to be responsible for Corning’s business operations, strategy, and business development, and entity management in Emerging Markets such as India, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Russia, and portions of EMEA. In addition, Appelt assumes responsibility for CIKK-Japan.

Prior to his current position, he served as president, Corning International Emerging Markets.
Appelt joined Corning GmbH, Germany, in February 1990 as a sales manager, Industrial and Specialty Products group. He moved to the United States in October 1993 as sales and marketing manager, Diesel Products, Environmental Products division.

From April 1997 to December 1998, Appelt was product line manager for Worldwide Automotive Substrates. He became business marketing manager, Specialty Ceramics, Environmental Products division in January 1999 and was appointed business marketing director, Mobile Emissions Products in November 1999. In April 2001, Appelt was appointed director, Automotive Substrates, Environmental Technologies. Effective March 2003, Appelt was appointed president, Corning Frequency Control Europe. In this role, he assumed regional leadership for all business operations in Europe. In January 2005, Appelt was appointed general manager, Corning Shanghai Company Ltd., responsible for Environmental Technologies manufacturing and commercial operations within China. In July 2005, he was elected vice president and general manager, Corning Automotive Technologies. In July 2009, he was appointed vice president and general manager, Corning Life Sciences. In December 2010, he was appointed vice president and global business director, Environmental Technologies.

Prior to joining Corning, Appelt spent eight years in various sales, marketing, and application engineering positions within two German companies.

Appelt holds a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Siegen in Germany and successfully completed The General Manager Program (TGMP) at Harvard Business School.