- Elections for Executive Board held at annual meeting of SmartFactoryKL
- Prof. Dr. Martin Ruskowski elected Chairman; Prof. Dr. Detlef Zühlke named “Honorary member” of the Executive Board
Elections for members of the Executive Board of the technology initiative SmartFactoryKL were held at the Annual General Meeting on May 7, 2019. Prof. Martin Ruskowski was elected to be the new Chairman of the Executive Board. He succeeds Prof. Dr. Detlef Zühlke, the initiator and founder of SmartFactoryKL who has retired. Zühlke was awarded honorary membership on the Board. High ranking members of the long standing member-companies Bosch Rexroth, Harting, and Pilz were re-elected to the Executive Board.
“I thank all of the voting members and look forward to taking an active role in the future as Chairman of the Executive Board at SmartFactoryKL,” said Prof. Dr. Martin Ruskowski. “I will work to advance the goals of SmartFactoryKL just as energetically as my predecessor Detlef Zühlke. The continuous growth of our association proves the relevance of our work in the area of Industrie 4.0. Our vision for ‘SmartFactoryKL 2025′ represents a concrete plan of what we believe the factory of the future will look like”, he added.
Prof. Dr. Detlef Zühlke has been active as the Chairman of the Executive Board since the establishment of the association in 2005. He now passes the baton of office to Prof. Ruskowski, who just two years ago became the newly appointed Chairman of Machine Tools and Controls (WSKL) at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern and head of the research area Innovative Factory Systems at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Ruskowski studied electrical engineering at the Leibniz University of Hanover, where he obtained his doctorate in mechanical engineering. After holding several management positions in industry, he was responsible for global research and development at KUKA Industries Group prior to making the move to Kaiserslautern.
In appreciation for many years of service to the association, Prof. Zühlke was named an honorary member of the Executive Board and presented with a certificate. “I say thank you to all of the members for their collegial collaboration and untiring efforts over the years. The success of SmartFactoryKL can be attributed to the strong network of industry and scientific research. Although I will no longer be acting as Chairman of the Executive Board of the association, I would like to devote myself to a new vision of a European network of ‘Smart Factories’. In this way, I can stay in contact with the latest developments in the industry,” said Zühlke.
Dr. Thomas Bürger, Vice President Digital Platform at Bosch Rexroth, Andreas Huhmann, Strategy Consultant Connectivity and Networks at Harting, and Klaus Stark, Senior Manager Innovation Management at Pilz have been re-elected as members of the Executive Board for the next term of office.
The Technologie-Initiative SmartFactory KL e.V. holds elections to the Executive Board every two years. All regular members of the association are entitled to vote. The job of the Executive Board is to set and ensure the long-term strategic direction. It provides the scientific content, sets the technological roadmap, and determines the thematic priority of effort. The members of the Executive Board also represent the association to all major stakeholders in government, research and industry. The Board membership is composed of one representative from science and three representatives from industry.
The SmartFactoryKL association currently has a membership numbering 52, with 41 regular and 11 sponsoring members. The membership includes 46 commercial enterprises ranging from regional SMEs to DAX companies with global operations, while 6 of the members are scientific and research institutes from Germany and abroad. Thanks to the involvement of companies from Europe, USA, Japan, China, and Korea, SmartFactoryKL is now very well positioned internationally.
Prof. Dr. Detlef Zühlke receives a certificate of appointment as honorary member of the Executive Board. Photo: SmartFactoryKL/M. Schäfer
Photo download link: https://cloud.dfki.de/owncloud/index.php/s/JFwbMXJbAJtrnXC
