Dr.-Ing. Gunther Kegel, CEO of Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH, has been elected to chairman of the Fieldbus Foundation's Board of Directors. Dr. Kegel replaces John Berra of Emerson Process Management, who is retiring after serving 16 years in his Foundation leadership post.

The Fieldbus Foundation is a global not-for-profit corporation consisting of leading process end users and automation companies. Within the Fieldbus Foundation, more than 350 end users, manufacturers, universities and research organizations work together to develop an automation infrastructure that provides process integrity, business intelligence and open scalable integration in a managed environment. The board of directors, besides the annual general assembly, presents the strategic steering committee of the Foundation and is formed by leading executives of major companies in the automation business, including ABB, DuPont, Emerson Process Management, ExxonMobil, Fuji, Honeywell, Invensys, Pepperl+Fuchs, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Yamatake und Yokogawa.

Dr. Gunther Kegel has been a member of the Foundation's board of directors since 2007 and now got elected as the first European chairman of this leading association in process automation. Dr. Kegel studied Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Darmstadt, Germany. After completing his doctoral thesis on the topic of "Integration of Sensor Signals into Robotic Controls," he became a freelance engineering collaborator for several small-sized engineering companies. In 1990, Dr. Kegel started his engagement with Pepperl+Fuchs as head of its Pre-design Department. He was subsequently named head of Pepperl+Fuchs’ Development Department/Factory Automation and Division Factory Automation, and later served as its deputy managing director. In 2004, Dr. Kegel was chosen as chief executive officer of Pepperl+Fuchs. He has authored numerous publications in the field of sensor and interface technology and serves on the Board of Directors of the FDT Group AISBL, the supervisory board of the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences and advisory boards of several exhibition organizations. 

Besides his commitment to the Fieldbus Foundation Board of Directors Dr. Kegel is a founding member of the EMEA Executive Advisory Council and has been its chairman for several years, thus emphasizing the dedication of Pepperl+Fuchs to support the Fieldbus Foundation on a world-wide base.

Pepperl+Fuchs is active in all national committees, several of which are chaired by Pepperl+Fuchs employees such as the Central and Eastern Europe Marketing Committee by Juergen George, the German Committee by Thomas Kasten and the Indian Committee by Thampy Mathew. Marc Van Pelt, Pepperl+Fuchs sales director for Western Europe, is vice president Fieldbus Foundation EMEA operations and was appointed to corporate secretary in March 2009. Furthermore Pepperl+Fuchs engineers are actively supporting the various technical working groups of the Fieldbus Foundation