Reinhold Pohl

Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG
Chaiman of the board

Reinhold Pohl (born 1952) studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University Darmstadt with focus on general engineering and design. His thesis dealt with the topic “Information systems at the engineers workplace” including a pilot development within a CAD system at the chair.

Since 1981 he has been working in several positions at Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG. He started as a constructing engineer in product development brake operation and later on has been head of the CAD division. 1986 he changed to “technical data processing” and 1988 he took responsibility for the development of a technical information system, a predecessor of today’s PDM/PLM solutions. From 1993 on he has been head of the division CAD and database development within product development, responsible for Europe. From 2000 until 2002 he has been project manager for the global roll out of SAP PLM. At present he is “Head IT Engineering Systems” with global responsibility for all IT tools relevant in development in the field of Mechatronics. 

Alfred Katzenbach
DaimlerChrysler AG

Alfred Katzenbach (born 1954) studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Technology in Darmstadt with the key field Design Theory. He works for DaimlerChrysler AG since 1980. Right now he is “Director Information Technology, IT Processes and Standardization” at Mercedes Benz Car Group Development.

He is director of the EDM Competence Center und of the standardization areas for the corporate group (DCAG). He represents the automotive manufacturer within the ProSTEP iViP Association. Besides that Mr. Katzenbach is a visiting lecturer at the University of Stuttgart regarding the topic “IT and Knowledge Engineering within Product Development”.

Ulrich Ahle
Siemens Business Services

After an apprenticeship for Instrument Mechanic at Hella KG, Ulrich Ahle (born 1962) studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Paderborn. Firstly he was a design engineer in the field Printer Development at Nixdorf Computer AG, later team leader Technical Processes and responsible project manager for the implementation of Metaphase.

From 1996 on he was supervisor at Siemens Business Services for the setup of the PDM business. After that he became General Manager for e-Business Practice Business Information Management in the area Knowledge Management, product Lifecycle Collaboration and Business Intelligence. Since 2002 Mr. Ahle is Director Business Development at Siemens Business Services in Germany.

Prof. Dr. Martin Eigner
Technical University of Kaiserslautern
 
Martin Eigner is a worldwide renowned expert for Product Lifecycle Management and CAD/CAM. After graduating in 1980 at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) in the area CAD, Prof. Eigner was head of Technical Data Processing in a division of Robert Bosch GmbH. In 1985 he founded EIGNER + PARTNER LLC, which was sold to the US company Agile in 2003.

Since 1984 Martin Eigner has been lecturing at universities and authored/co-authored seven textbooks and several technical papers on CAD/PDM/PLM. In 1985 he received the VDI ring of honour and in 1999 was granted an honorary professorship at the University of Karlsruhe.

At present Martin Eigner holds the chair in virtual product development at the University of Kaiserslautern. In addition to his professional and academic activities he volunteers his time on advisory boards of various professional and trade associations.