WITTENSTEIN AG
As already announced in October last year, the Management Board was expanded with four new members, all of them internal appointees with effect from April 1, 2016: Dr. Anna-Katharina Wittenstein, Dr. Dirk Haft, Erik Roßmeißl and Dr. Bernd Schimpf. This completes the first step in the generational change in leadership, for which the way has been paved over the last few years. Karl-Heinz Schwarz, long-time member of the WITTENSTEIN AG Management Board, left the company on March 31, 2016, and Professor Dieter Spath likewise plans to step down from his position as Chairman of the Board and CEO on October 1.

WITTENSTEIN alpha GmbH: New “twin peaks” leadership recruited in-house
After exactly two years as Managing Director of WITTENSTEIN alpha GmbH, Dr. Bernd Schimpf is handing over his overall responsibility to Philipp Guth and Michael Müller, the firm’s two former General Managers. Parallel to this Guth, a mechanical engineer, and Müller, a mechatronics engineer, will continue to fulfil their present roles as Managing Directors of WITTENSTEIN bastian GmbH. They are both longstanding WITTENSTEIN employees and were appointed General Managers of WITTENSTEIN alpha GmbH in May 2014.

Philipp Guth (born in 1977) began his career in 2001 as a development engineer at WITTENSTEIN bastian GmbH after graduating in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart. In 2008, he was charged with setting up and running the Technology Management department. He has been joint Managing Director of gearing specialist WITTENSTEIN bastian with Michael Müller since 2012.

Michael Müller (born in 1980) embarked on a degree course in Mechatronics in 2001 in cooperation with WITTENSTEIN AG. Following several different positions in Development, Product Management and International Sales at WITTENSTEIN AG, he was promoted to Director Industrial Systems at WITTENSTEIN motion control GmbH in 2010. He gained international experience during a product management assignment at the Group’s Japanese regional office. He also completed an Executive MBA Programme at the University of Würzburg.

Whereas Müller is mainly responsible for marketing, sales and internationalization, Guth oversees product management and development. The two new Managing Directors have set themselves an ambitious objective: “We want to build on Dr. Schimpf’s achievements with the help of the international WITTENSTEIN alpha team. Our aim is for the oldest – and traditionally the biggest – subsidiary to move onward into the future as a world class global partner for our customers and a pioneer for mechatronic components and systems”.

attocube systems AG: Generational change in Munich too
Dr. Dirk Haft and Professor Khaled Karraï, who founded attocube systems AG and established it as the technology leader for complex drive and measurement systems in nanotech applications, will now transfer the running of the company to Dr. Martin Zech after 15 years at the helm. Alongside his new function on the Management Board of WITTENSTEIN AG, Dr. Haft will carry on shaping and guiding the success story of attocube systems AG as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Professor Karraï will continue to support the company as Scientific Director. In his future role, he will steer the development of ideas as Innovation Manager and accompany the development processes for new products as Scientific Mentor.  

Dr. Martin Zech (born in 1979) will take over as Managing Director of attocube systems AG after seven years at the company and a long track record of collaboration with its founders. He graduated with a doctorate in Physics from the University of Konstanz in 2007. Following two years as a research assistant at Harvard University in Cambridge (Massachusetts), he joined attocube systems AG as Product Manager and Head of Product Management in 2009. From 2011 to 2016, he was the firm’s Chief Technical Officer.

His experience as a scientist and as a product and technology manager means he is ideally equipped to keep attocube systems AG on course for success in the coming years.

Pictures:
1. The new Managing Directors of WITTENSTEIN alpha: Philipp Guth (right) and Michael Müller
2. The new Managing Director of attocube systems AG: Dr. Martin Zech