With Sebastian Bauer, an experienced family entrepreneur and mechanical engineer heads the AiF for the next two years. After studying and obtaining a doctorate at the Technical University of Munich, Bauer joined the family business founded in 1790 in 1996, the BAUER Group. Initially working as head of development and design for machines, he has been managing director of the internationally operating BAUER Maschinen GmbH with 1,100 employees in Schrobenhausen, Upper Bavaria since 2005, which is responsible for one of the three segments of BAUER AG. With its numerous subsidiaries in Germany and abroad, BAUER Maschinen GmbH has been the hidden champion of specialist foundation engineering equipment since the end of the sixties.

"I've been a fan of the AiF for a long time," confesses the new president. "The AiF organises a globally unique innovation promotion for the German Mittelstand and provides an exceptionally high multiplication factor for the economic power of our country. The Industrial Collective Research (IGF) performed in the network of the AiF is a great tool to direct the research of the scientific institutes and universities in a practical direction," continues Bauer. "I am excited and looking forward to the challenges of this presidency."

Experience in business and science alike

For more than ten years BAUER Maschinen GmbH has regularly been involved in IGF project user committees. Bauer made his first contacts with the AiF and thus with the IGF in the nineties during his research work at the Technical University of Munich. For more than eight years, the engineer has been a member of the Executive Board of the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA), the network of which also includes the AiF member association FKM (Mechanical Engineering Research Federeation). In 2011 he was awarded an honorary professor of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB). Bauer holds regular lectures there since 2001, since 2005 he has been an official lecturer.

AiF Chief Executive Dr.-Ing. Thomas Kathöfer is happy about the election. "We have been very fortunate to win a president with Mr. Bauer who has been involved in both business and science for many years having a high reputation in both areas. He knows the point of view of the entrepreneurs as well as the researchers, and he is also involved in university teaching - what more could you want for the members of the AiF network?"

In addition to the President, the AiF Board also elected the four Deputy Presidents Edwin Büchter, Managing Partner of Clean-Lasersysteme GmbH, Herzogenrath, Dr.-Ing. Andreas Zielonka, Managing Director of the Association for the Research Institute for Precious Metals and Metal Chemistry (fem), Schwäbisch Gmünd, Professor Dr.-Ing. Holger Hanselka, President of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, and Professor dr. Kurt Wagemann, Managing Director of the DECHEMA Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Frankfurt am Main.