Wilfried Eberhardt (below), Chief Marketing Officer and Member of the Advisory Board of KUKA AG in Augsburg, Germany, has been elected Chairman of the VDMA Robotics + Automation Association for a three-year term.

He succeeds Dr Norbert Stein, Managing Director of VITRONIC. At the Members’ Assembly of VDMA Robotics + Automation held in Wiesbaden recently, Dr Stein was honoured for his contributions and dedicated service to the industry for more than two decades.

“Our industry is on course to record growth. Robotics and automation are important topics for the future: We supply the technologies to make industrial production worldwide fit for tomorrow’s requirements”, Eberhardt stated in his inauguration address.

Frank Konrad, Chief Marketing Officer of HAHN Automation in Rheinböllen, Germany, has been elected Deputy Chairman.

The new Board consists of:

• Wilfried Eberhardt (Chairman)
  Chief Marketing Officer and Member of the Advisory Board, KUKA AG, Augsburg, Germany
• Dr Heiko Frohn
  Chief Technology Officer, VITRONIC GmbH, Wiesbaden, Germany
• Dr Horst Heinol-Heikkinen
  Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner, Asentics GmbH & Co. KG, Siegen, Germany
• Dr Jürgen Hohnhaus
  General Manager Products, Güdel AG, Langenthal, Switzerland
• Dr Klaus Kluger
  General Manager Central East Europe, Omron Electronics GmbH, Langenfeld, Germany
• Frank Konrad (Deputy Chairman)
  Managing Director, HAHN Automation GmbH, Rheinböllen, Germany
• Dr Dietmar Ley
  Chief Executive Officer, Basler AG, Ahrensburg, Germany
• Dr Olaf Munkelt
  Managing Director, MVTec Software GmbH, Munich, Germany
• Cornelia Püschel
  Managing Partner, PÜSCHEL Automation GmbH & Co. KG, Lüdenscheid, Germany
• Stefan Roßkopf
  President and CEO, teamtechnik Maschinen- und Anlagen GmbH, Freiberg, Germany
• Helmut Schmid
  General Manager, Universal Robots (Germany) GmbH, München
• Gottfried Schumacher
  Director Product Management Assembly, Bosch Rexroth AG, Stuttgart, Germany
• Henrik Schunk
  Managing Partner and CEO, Schunk GmbH & Co. KG, Lauffen am Neckar
• Volker Spanier
  Head of Factory Automation Division, EPSON Deutschland GmbH, Meerbusch, Germany