The new management at Sumitomo (SHI) Demag is now complete. As was already announced in October, Gerd Liebig (55) is succeeding the current CEO, Tetsuya Okamura (60) who is senior vice president of Sumitomo Heavy Industries. As COO, Andreas Schramm (51) will assume responsibility as of January 1st 2017 for the operative side of business, taking charge of all operational processes and operational services ranging from organisation and purchasing to quality and production. In addition, Hideki Kuroiwa (51) will also be appointed to the board of management as CTO at the beginning of 2017. He will be responsible for the injection moulding machine manufacturer’s technical product development, developing product synergies and innovative customer solutions in conjunction with the Japanese parent company.

With Gerd Liebig, a German manager will once again be at the head of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, the first since the takeover by the Japanese parent company Sumitomo Heavy Industries. Andreas Schramm will be taking on the role of COO to further develop the core competencies of the corporate group in both organisation and production. Development of strategic partnerships will also be a focus of the new COO’s attention. Hideki Kuroiwa has worked for the parent company Sumitomo Heavy Industries as well as the Plastics Machinery Division in Japan for more than 20 years, and is fulfilling the role of senior integration manager for the company in Schwaig for three years. This integration aims at advancing the development of uniform platform concepts in general and all-electric machinery in particular. The aim is also to integrate technical development further to accelerate these processes through the exploitation of synergies.

“We are extremely thankful to Tetsuya Okamura who, in addition to invigorating the company greatly in a strategic sense, has strengthened the current growth process through targeted investment and initiating the focus on core competencies”, says Gerd Liebig, the new CEO of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag. The company has recorded a considerable increase over the last two years in its shares in key strategic markets. This growth is reflected in the current increase in capacities of over 20% in the Schwaig and Wiehe plants in Germany.