Dr. Markus Heering to join VDW executive team as of May 2023
Markus Heering has a great deal of experience with trade fairs, as he and his associations have acted as institutional patrons for the drupa, security and formnext. Other key elements of his career have been the development of VDMA activities in the field of additive manufacturing within the relevant working group and trade association, for which he will continue to be responsible.
Frankfurt am Main, 26 April 2023. – Dr. Markus Heering (55) will join the management team of the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association) and the Machine Tool and Manufacturing Systems Association within the VDMA, both in Frankfurt am Main, on 1 May 2023. He will assist Dr. Wilfried Schäfer in steering the fortunes of the two associations until the end of the year. Schäfer has led the two associations since 2008 and is set to retire on 31 December 2023.
After graduating from RWTG Aachen University, Markus Heering gained his first professional experience in an environmental technology company. During this time he also worked on his doctorate in engineering, which he completed in 1998. In 2000, he began his career at the VDMA as a technical officer in the Thermo Process and Waste Technology Association, of which he went on to become deputy managing director in 2004. Four years later, in 2008, he took over as managing director of the Printing and Paper Technology and the Security Systems trade associations. In 2022, he also became managing director of the VDMA’s Additive Manufacturing trade association.
Markus Heering has a great deal of experience with trade fairs, as he and his associations have acted as institutional patrons for the drupa, security and formnext. Other key elements of his career have been the development of VDMA activities in the field of additive manufacturing within the relevant working group and trade association, for which he will continue to be responsible. In addition, he has expanded the global Security Systems association and has spun off and developed the certification bodies in this field. Heering is married and has four children. Regularly undertaking road- and mountain-bike tours, he is passionate about the outdoors and sports, which provide an ideal counterbalance to his job.
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Dr. Markus Heering will join the executive team of the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association), Frankfurt am Main, on 1 May 2023.
Background
The VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association), headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, has been the spokesperson for the German machine tool industry for more than 130 years. Machine tools for metalworking are the key to modern industrial production. Together with the Machine Tool and Manufacturing Systems Association within the VDMA, the VDW has about 300 mainly medium-sized members. They represent about 90 percent of the total turnover in the industry, which recently exceeded 14 billion euros.
The VDW represents its members nationally and internationally vis-à-vis the public, politics, business partners and science, and is a competent service provider for the development of sales markets, economic monitoring and market data collection, technical, economic and legal issues, for cooperation with the international machine tool industry, research projects, standardization and recruitment of young talent. In addition, the VDW has been organizing trade fairs for the industry for more than 100 years with the seal of quality “A VDW Trade Fair”.