Brussels, 02 December 2021 – During its online General Assembly meeting, CECIMO appoints Dr.-Ing. Heinz-Jürgen Prokop as a new President of CECIMO for a two-year period, along with Mr Michael Merkle, Chairman of Communication and Advocacy Committee. Delegates also confirmed Mr Marcus Burton as Chairman of the Economic Committee for another mandate.

The end of year marks major changes in the association’s leadership. Dr.-Ing. Heinz-Jürgen Prokop takes up the position of CECIMO President and succeeds Dr. Hans-Martin Schneeberger, who leaves the Board after the completion of his term.

Dr.-Ing. Prokop, along with his fellow chairmen, affirmed that the prosperity of the machine tool industry is of the utmost importance for the recovery, growth, and competitiveness of the manufacturing sector in the EU. “I am deeply honored for being entrusted to lead an association like CECIMO, particularly in these challenging times, and together with our chairmen I will strive to work in the best interest of the machine tool sector, which is of strategic importance for Europe’s economy” said Dr.-Ing. Prokop.

The new President also emphasized the importance of sustainability initiatives that are the key political objectives saying that “sustainability is an integral part of the competitiveness of the MT sector. Different initiatives are undertaken by the MT sector clearly show the sense of industry towards sustainability and the environment.” Moreover, he added that it will be important to find the right balance between climate ambition and economic and technological challenges when translating objectives into comprehensive strategies.

Mr Michael Merkle, CEO of Agathon AG, will succeed Mr Bruno Cathomen as Chairman of the Communication and Advocacy Committee. In his two years term, his focus will be promoting the competitiveness and sustainable economic growth of our industry among European decision-makers, whilst advocating for innovation-friendly regulations that will enable acceleration of the industry digitization.

Mr Marcus Burton, a Director of Yamazaki Mazak UK Ltd, has been confirmed for another two years term as Chairman of the Economic Committee in which he will continue monitoring statistics and forecasts for the industry.

Who is the new President of CECIMO, Dr.-Ing. Heinz-Jürgen Prokop?

Dr.-Ing. Heinz-Jürgen Prokop has a degree in engineering obtained from the University of Stuttgart. He started his career within the Institute of Machine Components in Stuttgart where he obtained his doctorate degree in Engineering in 1989.

After that, Dr.-Ing. Prokop started as Head of the Design Department at TRUMPF Lasertechnik GmbH in Ditzingen, Germany, in 1988 and was Vice President, Head of Development/Design and production at IHI-TRUMPF-Technologies in Yokohama, Japan, until 1992. After holding various external positions as Managing Director at Thyssen/Krupp in Essen, Fritz Studer AG in Steffisburg, Switzerland, and Frigoblock in Essen, he returned to Ditzingen in 2012 as Managing Director of Development and Purchasing at TRUMPF Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH + Co. KG. Since 2017, Heinz-Jürgen Prokop has been a member of the Group Executive Board as CEO MT.

Dr.-Ing. Prokop was Chairman of the German Machine Tool Builders' Association (VDW) for the last 6 years and is a Board member of CECIMO since 2020.