The 48-year-old business graduate from Magdeburg has a wide range of professional experience in industry and management consultancy. After working in Germany and abroad, he most recently headed up the business development department at Investitions- und Marketinggesellschaft Sachsen-Anhalt in Magdeburg. Köhn intends to use his sales expertise and supra-regional network to support the association's members, particularly in fundamental areas such as the internationalization of business activities, digitalization with its many facets from self-learning machines to new forms of work, as well as the training and recruitment of young skilled workers.

One of the new Managing Director's main concerns is to support member companies in the area of internationalization. The increasingly difficult market environment shows how important broadly diversified foreign activities are. "One shortcoming of the East German mechanical and plant engineering sector is exports. At just over 50 percent, the proportion of business generated abroad is almost 30 percent below the figure for mechanical engineering in Germany as a whole. I therefore want to encourage smaller companies in particular to expand their foreign business," explains Köhn. He sees good opportunities in South East Asia and, in the medium term, in Africa, for example in the sub-Saharan region.

Meanwhile, his predecessor Reinhard Pätz has helped write a significant part of the history of the East German mechanical and plant engineering industry over the past 20 years. He headed the regional association both during the difficult times of the economic and banking crisis and during the long-lasting economic upswing.

After several years in the VDMA Textile Machinery Association, Pätz took over the management of the then North-East regional associations in Berlin and Saxony/Thuringia in Dresden in 2000. In 2008, he merged the two regional associations and has been at the helm of VDMA East ever since. Pätz subsequently formed a strong regional association and increased the visibility of the industry in public and political perception.

After two decades, Pätz is now passing on the baton. Until his retirement in the fall of 2020, he will be working on international projects on behalf of the VDMA Executive Board. dsc