Industrial Automation Magazine India

The Künzelsau-based industrial company attracts a top manager from Kuka Robotics.

December 2023 – The Supervisory Board of Ziehl-Abegg SE has appointed Wolfgang Mayer as the new Chief Technology Officer. The 50 year-old will be taking up his new role in February 2024.

In his previous positions, Wolfgang Mayer internationalised his company's development activities. For example, he established and expanded the R&D departments in China, Hungary, Finland and the USA. The mechanical engineer also has a soft spot for "smart product architecture“.

With a degree in engineering, he has worked for Kuka since 1996. Initially holding various roles in application and software development, the mechanical engineer subsequently headed research and development in the field of mechatronics for Kuka Robotics. Since 2020 he has held the position of CTO at Kuka Robotics. Mayer is 50 years old, married and has four children.

Ziehl-Abegg (Künzelsau, Germany) is one of the leading global companies in the field of ventilation, control and drive technology. In the 1950s, Ziehl-Abegg established the basis for modern fan drives: external rotor motors which even today are still seen as state-of-the-art worldwide. Another area of business is electric motors which provide the power, for example, for elevators, medical applications (computer tomography equipment) or deep-sea underwater vehicles. 

The high-tech company has an impressive innovative capability. Ziehl-Abegg employs 2,800 personnel in its production plants in southern Germany. The company has a global workforce of 5,100 spread between 15 production plants, 30 companies and 117 sales locations.