Germany: Reinhold Festge, Managing Partner of Haver & Boecker, has been elected as the new president of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) at a gathering of its members in Stuttgart on 18 October 2013. He succeeds Thomas Lindner of the Groz-Beckert KG in Albstadt who served as president of the VDMA since 2010. Karl Haeusgen and Carl Martin Welcker were elected as vice presidents.
Festge, born in 1945, originally trained as a doctor before he majored in Business Administration and then became managing director of Haver & Beumer Latinoamericana in Brazil. From 1985 to 1987 he served as the managing director of Haver Filling Systems in the US. In 1987 he became a partner of Haver & Boecker.
Festge is a member of the restricted board and sits on the main board of the VDMA. From 1998 to 2004 he was chairman of the VDMA professional association for construction and building material machinery. He was chairman of the VDMA state federation of North Rhine Westphalia from 2005 to 2011.
