A graduate in Business Administration, Mr. Roßmeißl, aged 42, takes over as Head of the Service Centre from Klaus Spitzley, who has stepped down from the Management Board at his own request following more than 46 years at WITTENSTEIN. His previous position, which he has now relinquished, was General Manager of WITTENSTEIN bastian in Fellbach.

After graduating from the University of Stuttgart with a degree in Technical Business Administration, Erik Roßmeißl began his career in 1997 as Assistant to the WITTENSTEIN Group's Board of Management in charge of overseas sales at alpha getriebebau GmbH (today: WITTENSTEIN alpha GmbH). In January 2001, he transferred to the Executive Management of WITTENSTEIN bastian GmbH, the group's Fellbach subsidiary, which specializes in gearing technology. Under his leadership, the former "gear factory" was transformed into a highly innovative partner for novel and customized gearing solutions. Mr. Roßmeißl is married with two children.

To coincide with the start of the new WITTENSTEIN AG fiscal year, Erik Roßmeißl has assumed responsibility for the five departments assigned to the Service Center: Finance & Controlling, Legal & Contracts, Human Resources, Information Management and Marketing & Communications. Against the background of new record sales in the year just ended on March 31, 2012 – around 230* million euros (* provisional figure) – he faces a daunting challenge: "In the last few years, we've laid a few important foundations that will help us gain an even stronger foothold worldwide. The WITTENSTEIN group is up among the cream of the world's drive engineering manufacturers. We've now set ourselves an ambitious target, namely to realize our vision of becoming a global mechatronics corporation." Klaus Spitzley will retain close links with the WITTENSTEIN group as Senior Consultant.