FDT Group, an international, non-profit industry association supporting the evolution of the FDT technology standard for industrial device management, recently announced that André Uhl, Vice President - Technology and Architecture, Schneider Electric (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.

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.

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, he 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 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.”

Steve Biegacki, Managing Director, FDT Group, congratulated Uhl on his new post. “We appreciate the service Lee Lane provided to our organization,” Biegacki added. “Uhl’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.”

For more information: www.fdtgroup.org