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Peter Larsen Chairman Apra Europe	Fernand Weiland Vice Chairman Apra Europe	Jarek Gora Chairman Electrical Division	William Henney Chairman Automatic Transmission Division	Dr. Stefan Freiberger Chairman  Mechatronics Division	Gregor Schlingschroeder  PR & Event Organisation

Text by: Fernand Weiland, Vice Chairman of APRA Europe

Since the creation of APRA Europe also called the European Division of APRA it has always been my prime objective to address the needs of our members and to serve by organizing and facilitating activities which provided management and technical support to our members. Important part of this job was to offer  networking opportunities to discuss and interchange at the APRA forums the common issues and challenges. During the past 20 years I have indeed never been disappointed and was very pleased by the excellent team spirit of our members who have always strongly supported our activities and events! So the recent 20th anniversary was not only a moment to thank all the members but also to reflect on the future of the next 20 years.
Against this background your European Board discussed in a  meeting last month the necessity to plan for a sustainable future and as a result decided to update our European structure.

Organisation / Structure

Peter Larsen was elected as the new chairman of APRA Europe, and I will continue to serve the association but as vice chairman. Very sincere congratulations Peter! The very promising appointment of Peter will bring new and fresh ideas and at the same time it will ensure that we continue to progress successfully in Europe. I personally will not be out of the loop; I will in the future fully assist Peter in his new role. Peter will in the next Rematec News share with us his ideas about our way ahead!
The European board members, who unanimously supported Peter’s election, did all promise to help him to drive the organization forward. The constitution of the board has not changed, the members are: Michal Adamiec, Harald Benninger, Peter Bartel, Ian Buxcey, Bill Gager, Jarek Gora, Peter Larsen, Alain Leroy, Rolf Steinhilper, Søren Toft Jensen, Michael von Linden and Fernand Weiland .The members of the board have all different backgrounds because the objective is to have a team with a good geographical and product coverage.

Product Divisions

In previous editorials I have often focused on the changes in automotive technologies (mechatronics, electronics, CAN bus etc) which will in the future affect significantly our industry. APRA sees as part of its mission the need to help its members to address these challenges and encourage them to join forces in going through the difficult learning process. To underpin this objective your board felt that a stronger product focus was necessary and created/confirmed the following product divisions:

• Electrical division chaired by Jarek Gora
• Mechatronics division co-chaired by Stefan Freiberger and Fernand Weiland. This European division is part of a global division which works together with its counterpart in North America.
• Automatic Transmission Division chaired by Bill Henney

Workshops

The duty of the product chairmen will be to propose and run on a regular basis workshops together with plant visits. I am very grateful that the chairmen accepted this challenging task which helps enormously to facilitate the flow of information and experience between the members of a specific product group.
To organize these workshops, like making arrangements with the hotel, inviting members and communicating the program, to handle the registration etc. is not an easy task either. We are pleased to have appointed for this job Gregor Schlingschroeder and Ines Hanstein, from COEmarketing, who do already an excellent job for us on PR and on the communication front. COEmarketing will handle this additional task for us in the future.
I am confident that all these appointments will, with your ongoing support, form an excellent basis for a future sustainable and successful development of your association in Europe.

Sincerely yours,

Fernand Weiland, Vice Chairman of APRA Europe.  fernand.weiland@t-online.de