from left to right: Prof. Dr. Rainer Stark (TU Berlin), Tomohiko Adachi (Mazda Motor Corporation), Philipp Wibbing (UNITY), Dr. Henrik Weimer (Vorstandssprecher prostep ivip | AIRBUS), Jens Poggenburg (AVL), Thomas Kamla (Volkswagen).

 

Strategic reinforcement for the prostep ivip Association

Darmstadt/Stuttgart, 7 June 2022
The prostep ivip Association is strategically realigning itself with the aim of providing its member companies with more efficient support for their digital transformation. The objective of the association’s newly elected board and the management team is to fine-tune its vision for digitalization, place greater focus on topics such as software in the product and data engineering, and attract new target groups. The association will also continue to drive its internationalization forward. A first step in this direction is the expansion of the board, which will safeguard and speed up the strategic realignment.

At the most recent annual general meeting, held on the eve of the prostep ivip Symposium in Stuttgart, the association's member companies elected Jens Poggenburg, executive vice president at AVL, as the board’s new representative of the automotive suppliers. He replaces Armin Hoffacker from Bosch, who did not stand for re-election. They also confirmed Dr. Henrik Weimer (AIRBUS) as the representative of the OEMs, Philipp Wibbing (UNITY AG) as the representative of the IT vendors and service providers, and Prof. Dr. Rainer Stark (TU Berlin) as the board member representing universities and research institutes.

Jens Poggenburg

Poggenburg brings with him a great deal of expertise in the areas practical application of model-based development and digitalization. The growing proportion of software and electronics in smart products means that these areas are becoming increasingly important to the association's members. "I decided to spend time working on the association’s board because the need for collaboration in disruptive transformation is changing and growing significantly," said Poggenburg. "I want to be actively involved in shaping the association's new strategy and achieving concrete results for members."

Thomas Kamla

To ensure that greater focus can be placed new strategic topics, the annual general meeting also confirmed the board's proposal to add two special mandates holders to the ranks of the board members. Thomas Kamla, who as senior director reports directly to Volkswagen's executive board member responsible for development, will ensure that the role the association plays in the fields of systems engineering and software in the product receives greater attention. As Kamla points out: "The automotive industry is being driven to an increasing extent by software; it is no longer alone, but rather part of a wider ecosystem. That's why collaboration is becoming increasingly complex."

Tomohiko Adachi

The expanded board will also strengthen the association’s international expansion. Tomohiko Adachi of Mazda Motor Corp. is taking on the task of boosting the association's international profile and attracting new cooperation partners. He will deal with quality assurance issues at board level and is also chairman of JAMBE’s (Japan Automotive Model-Based Engineering Center) planning committee. "I’m proud that we are moving our relationship to a new level and that I can help shape the future of the association," Adachi says.

The newly re-elected chairman of the board, Dr. Henrik Weimer, gave the new board members a warm welcome as he presented the new strategic action areas at the symposium: "They are a welcome addition and will help us to implement our strategic realignment more quickly.”

Dr. Henrik Weimer

Dr. Henrik Weimer (born 1971) studied Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. After graduating, he pursued a career in academic research at Rice University in Houston, Texas. His work there was related to the efficient modeling of shapes, with application projects in the biomedical industry and geophysical exploration.

After graduating with a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rice University, he joined the IT for Engineering group at Daimler AG with a focus on Knowledge-Based Engineering and Design. Henrik joined Airbus in 2002 and pursued various roles of growing responsibility in Customer Services, Engineering Process Methods and Tools, and Aircraft Program Management. 

He currently serves as Airbus’ Senior Manager for PLM Architecture, Innovation and Plan. His responsibilities cover the architecture and integration of Airbus’ End-to-End PLM capabilities, demand management and business planning for PLM, as well as innovation and related research and technology development.

As a strong supporter of industrial cooperation, Henrik co-founded of the Aerospace & Defense PLM Action Group (www.ad-pag.com), and serves on the Industrial Advisory Board of the German Scientific Society for Product Development (www.WiGeP.de).

Henrik is a member of the board of the prostep ivip Association since April 2018.

Prof. Dr. Rainer Stark

After a career of fourteen years in the automotive industry, Prof. Dr. Rainer Stark has been Director of the Virtual Product Creation division at the Fraunhofer IPK (Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology) in Berlin until 2021. He is Head of the Industrial Information Technology Department at the Technical University Berlin since 2008. 
The research interests of the organizations he presides include, besides the innovative technologies of product lifecycle management (PLM) and virtual product creation (VPE), in particular the new development capabilities in the field of self-learning systems, cyber-physical systems, smart services and digital twin solutions taking into account new key competencies like artificial intelligence, IoT and model-based systems engineering.

Prof. Stark is a member of the German Academy of Science & Engineering (acatech), the Scientific Society for Product Development (Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Produktentwicklung (WiGeP), and the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP).

Philipp Wibbing

Philipp Wibbing (born 1976) is responsible as partner for business focusing on digitization and IT-management in the automotive industry at the management consultancy UNITY (www.unity.de). His expertise lies in the areas of digitalization, CIO strategy, systems engineering, PDM/PLM, Cyber Security, business model innovations, agile management and data analytics.

Philipp Wibbing is a trained banker and studied business informatics at the University of Paderborn. After completing his studies he acquired consulting experience as managing director of a small IT and process consultancy and joined UNITY in 2005. In 2012 he switched to the field of business line responsibility and has been the Managing Director of UNITY Shanghai Ltd. since 2016. In addition to the consulting business Mr. Wibbing shares responsibility for investments and holdings within the UNITY Beteiligungs AG. 
He is co-author of the book “Chefsache IT” (IT - a top-level issue) and has been a member of the prostep ivip board since 2018.