New European appointments drive growth at Citect

Edited by the Processingtalk editorial team May 9, 2008

Citect, a leading provider of industrial automation, real-time intelligence, and manufacturing execution systems, has made key appointments in professional services and distributor channel management

The new appointments strengthen its European sales and service operation with three highly experienced executives.

Greg Re, who has over 20-years experience in the automation sector, joins as Director of Professional Services Europe, while Rien van Geffen takes up the role of Citect Channel Partner Manager for distributors across Eastern Europe, and countries in the eastern Mediterranean region.

Finally, Mark Bakker takes up the role of Citect Channel Partner Manager for Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal.

Greg Re's brief is to expand the Citect Professional Services offering and expertise, by fostering closer links with Citect integration partners (CIP), and by supporting the growing Citect MES business in Europe.

Prior to joining Citect Europe, he was employed at the Citect Perth office in Australia for 8-years in both SCADA and MES fields; and before that he worked for CIPs as a SCADA engineer and Argyle Diamonds in a process engineering capacity.

Greg's wide experience combined with his educational background, he is a Batchelor of Engineering in Electronics, and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Science, means that he is the ideal person to drive growth in the Citect Professional Services operation within Europe.

Professional Services is a consultancy that partners with customers to deliver integrated solutions that align agreed business objectives with the technology implementation and necessary change management strategies.

The final goal of these partnerships is maximised output and improved profitability.

One of the key technologies utilised by Citect Consulting Services is Ampla, the Citect high-quality, scalable MES solution.

Ampla delivers real-time access to plant and business information, allowing key personnel to identify and act on opportunities to refine the workflow, maximise production KPIs, and correct problems before they impact on supply chain, regulation compliance and production.

Rien van Geffen will be highly involved with developing sales of CitectSCADA, CitectSCADA Reports and Citect Facilities, working with Citect distributors in Russia, Israel, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey, Slovenia, Romania, Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria and Cyprus.

Rien has been with Citect for 5 years, based in the European HQ in Leiden.

Originally he was employed as a Support Engineer; in 2005 he was promoted to a pre-sales consultant, and has now been elevated again, this time to a Channel Partner Manager.

Mark Bakker has been working in the Industrial Automation Market since 1999, and has been in sales related job positions since the start of his career in 1989.

Mark gained wide experience with SCADA, - and PLC software - during the 5 years he spent with Omron Electronics in the Netherlands, in the position of Account Manager.

The last three years of his career Mark has been Sales Manager for Baumuller, a supplier of high technology servo drives and motors, and PLC systems, in the Benelux countries.

Mark holds a BBA in Business Economics as well as a Post-Graduate course in Business Administration; he also speaks five languages: Dutch, English, German, French and Italian.

In his position as Citect Channel Partner Manager Mark will stimulate sales growth with Citect CIP partners in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal.

He will use his experience of selling solutions to motivate distributor staff to improve their sales performance in vertical markets where they are already active.

In addition, it is Mark's ambition to stimulate the distributors to enter new vertical markets, to further strengthen the position of CitectSCADA in their respective countries.