FDT Group™, an international, non-profit industry association supporting the evolution of the FDT technology standard for industrial device management, today announced that André Uhl, vice president of technology and architecture for Schneider Electric’s Industrial Automation Business, has received a unanimous vote to serve as the Chairman of the FDT Board of Directors.
The Chairman’s primary role is to ensure that the Board of Directors effectively sets and implements the organization’s strategy and governance of the standard. The IEC 62453 standard directly benefits global manufacturing industries with a unified environment for industrial device management supporting brownfield, greenfield and new smart manufacturing initiatives in the process, hybrid, and discrete markets.
Mr. Uhl replaced Lee Lane from Rockwell Automation as chairman due to his departure to a new role. Other board members include Shinji Oda, Yokogawa; Ed Silva, Flowserve Corporation; Rolf Birkhofer, Endress+Hauser; Paul Brooks, Rockwell Automation and Michael Kessler, PACTware.
FDT Group Managing Director Steve Biegacki congratulated André Uhl on his new post. “We appreciate the service Lee Lane provided to our organization,” Biegacki said. “André’s industry expertise in technology and standards supporting the process and factory markets will guide the FDT organization and roadmap focused on promoting open integration and harmonized device management, driving future innovation field to cloud,” Biegacki said.
Mr. Uhl has over 20 years of industry experience managing Research & Development (R&D) centers for industrial and motion control applications and automation solutions for flagship products in the process, hybrid, and machine builder markets. Currently serving as vice president of technology and architecture for Schneider Electric’s Industrial Automation Business, André has served as a member of the FDT Board since 2016 and presently sits on the ODVA Board and OPC Foundation Unified Architecture Field Xchange (UAFX) steering committee shaping the future of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). His dedication to working across the industrial automation ecosystem demonstrates clear leadership and support for the executive strategy of the organization that provides governance over the open FDT standard.
“I’m thrilled to lead the FDT community focused on eliminating intelligent device management barriers for industrial automation markets,” said André Uhl. “I’m passionate about open technology innovation and FDT’s vision to transform manufacturing excellence by collaborating and expanding access to these technologies enterprise-wide on a data-centric platform critical in supporting the modern, connected industrial world.”
About FDT Group AISBL
The FDT Group AISBL is an international non-profit corporation consisting of leading worldwide member companies active in industrial automation and manufacturing. The major purpose of the FDT Group is to provide an open standard for enterprise-wide network and asset integration, innovating the way automation architectures connect and communicate sensor to cloud for the process, hybrid, and factory automation markets. The FDT standard is globally adopted by IEC 62453, ISA 103, and GB-T 29618-2017 with millions of Device Type Managers (DTMs) in use. FDT Technology benefits both manufacturers and end users, with advancements such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industrie 4.0 delivered out-of-the-box – enabling modernized asset integration and access to performance data for visualizing crucial operational problems. Around the world, end users, manufacturers, universities, and research organizations are working together to develop the technology; provide development tools, support, and training; coordinate field trials and demonstrations; and enable product interoperability.
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