Reinhold E. Achatz
Following his completion of electrical engineering studies at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Reinhold Achatz joined Siemens Automation in 1980 as a software engineer. He held numerous management positions, including head of development for industrial automation systems (SIMATIC) before being named division president for the A&D Systems and Software Division in 1998 (in addition to his development position).
In 2000, he joined Siemens Energy and Automation (SE&A) as vice president and served as a member of the Executive Committee of SE&A. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, he was responsible for Siemens' U.S. industrial automation and software business.
He was appointed vice president for Software and Engineering at Siemens Corporate Technology, in Munich in 2002, with the responsibility of Siemens' software and engineering strategy and for Siemens' worldwide Software Initiative, which contributes significantly to Siemens' software strategy.
On October 1, 2006, he was appointed corporate vice president of Corporate Technology, as well as head of Siemens Corporate Research and Technologies. Currently, he is responsible for the global research activities of Siemens in the area of Materials & Microsystems, Power & Sensor Systems, Production Processes, Information & Communications, and Software & Engineering.
Mr. Achatz is a member of the Siemens' Innovation Steering Committee. Since 1995, he has been a board member and vice president of the OPC Foundation. In addition, he is a board member and vice chairman of the EU's NESSI Technology platform. Mr. Achatz is also a member of the Fraunhofer Institute's Board of Trustees on Experimental Software Engineering (IESE), in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
He is Siemens Ambassador for the Technical University Kaiserslautern, the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken, the Techniscal University Ilmenau, and the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria.
In November 2007, he was elected as Vice Chairman of Münchner Kreis, Supranational Association for Communications Research.
