Bonnie Kern-Koskela

Chief Executive Officer Maxitrol Company

Last Reviewed: September 27, 2026

Executive Summary

Bonnie Kern-Koskela is chief executive of Maxitrol Company, the Southfield, Michigan manufacturer of gas pressure regulators, combination gas controls, electronic gas modulation systems, safety devices and filters. Maxitrol was founded by Frank Kern Jr. and has a European arm headquartered in Thale, Germany. She came to the business from commercial real estate rather than engineering, joining through its German affiliate after the acquisition of a former East German controls maker. She became chairman and CEO in a 2002 restructuring. A 2017 Michigan appellate opinion describes her as the board’s chair and chief executive and as a 50 percent owner of the company. Maxitrol’s current German imprint still lists her as one of the two representatives of its European general partner.

Career Highlights

• Appointed chairman of the board and CEO of Maxitrol Company in a 2002 restructuring, responsible for corporate policy, financial management and day-to-day supervision of all departments.
• Served at the same time as senior vice president of the German affiliate Mertik Maxitrol GmbH & Co. KG.
• Named by the Michigan Court of Appeals in 2017 as the board’s Chair and Maxitrol’s Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, and as owner of a 50 percent interest.
• Listed on Maxitrol’s imprint as a representative of Maxitrol Verwaltungs GmbH, general partner of Maxitrol GmbH & Co. KG in Thale.
• Managed a North American portfolio of commercial and industrial properties for General Motors in the early 1990s.

Professional Journey

Kern-Koskela studied urban planning, with a minor in civil engineering, at Michigan State University. She has said she expected to work on planned urban developments. Her first jobs were in commercial real estate, including one at a small commercial real estate firm. In the early 1990s she was based in Detroit, managing commercial and industrial properties across North America for General Motors. She has described that job as covering “a little of everything from contracts, finance, and management to corporate procedures”.

She moved into the family business by way of Germany. Maxitrol had just bought Mertik Regelungstechnik from the German government, and her husband, Larry Koskela, was responsible for managing the new company’s transition. A position opened on the new management team in Germany. The job, as she later described it, was converting “a former East German company to a capitalist-based enterprise” whose old customers and suppliers had largely ceased to exist, so both had to be rebuilt. Under the arrangement that followed, Maxitrol sold into the Americas and Mertik into the European Union, Eastern Europe and Asia, with the two cross-trading products.

Maxitrol announced a restructuring in July 2002 that divided the business among three executives. She became chairman of the board and CEO, with responsibility for corporate policy, financial management and day-to-day supervision of all departments. She also remained senior vice president of Mertik Maxitrol. Her brother, Frank Kern III, became president and chief technology officer, and Larry Koskela became executive vice president and chief operating officer and president of Mertik Maxitrol. By 2007 a trade interview described her as Maxitrol’s president and CEO.

In 2017 the Michigan Court of Appeals decided a suit that Frank Kern III had brought against her, Larry Koskela and others. According to the opinion, the two siblings each owned 50 percent of Maxitrol. She was the board’s Chair and the company’s Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, and Larry Koskela was Vice Chair, President and Chief Operating Officer. Most of the claims were dismissed. A jury heard only a derivative claim over a lease between Maxitrol and a company owned by the individual defendants, found the lease unfair to Maxitrol, and awarded $51,015. The appeals court affirmed.

Maxitrol makes gas regulators, combination gas controls and filters in the United States, and has run European operations since 1965. In 2024 it closed its original office in Senden, Germany, and moved the site’s original Maxitrol sign to its European headquarters at Thale. Its imprint lists Larry C. Koskela and Bonnie Kern-Koskela as representatives of the German general partner.

Education

Michigan State University

Urban planning, with a minor in civil engineering