Thomas Hähn, founder and CEO of United Robotics Group, has been named to the VDMA Robotics board. With this appointment, Hähn succeeds Daniel Bunse, formerly CEO of Rethink Robotics, who resigned from the VDMA Robotics board for statutory reasons.
"With my now 30 years of experience in factory automation, industrial robotics and service robotics, I am pleased to be able to promote the plurality of the VDMA Robotics Group,” said Hähn. “As a member of the board, I would like to work to sustainably secure the competitiveness of Germany and Europe as a business location."
The VDMA represents 3,600 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies, employing around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. Around 80% of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.
As part of the VDMA Robotics + Automation trade association, VDMA Robotics has more than 140 members, and their product portfolio ranges from robot manufacturing to integration of robot systems to robotics products.