Dr. Sollinger studied mechanical and process engineering at the University of Stuttgart from 1974 to 1979 and received his doctorate from the Technical University of Aachen in 1983. In 1979, he was an engineer at Continental Forest Industry, USA. In 1982, he began his career at Voith AG and was Managing Director of Voith Sulzer Papiertechnik GmbH from 1994 to 2000. From 2000 to 2014, he was a member of the Board of Management of Voith AG and CEO of the Voith Paper Division.

From 2013 to 2019, Dr. Sollinger was a member of the advisory board of Carl Edelmann GmbH & Co. KG and from 2014 to 2020 he was on the supervisory board of Leipa Georg Leinfelder GmbH. From 2017 to 2022 he was a member of the board of directors of Bartholet Maschinenbau AG and a member of the advisory board of Montratec GmbH. In 2019 and 2020 he sat on the supervisory board of ISRA Vision AG. He has been a senior advisor at Rantum Capital Management GmbH since 2015.