Effective January 1, 2021, Dr. ir. Dirk Torfs, CEO Flanders Make (Belgium), has taken over the position of Executive Director of SmartFactoryEU. He succeeds Prof. Dr. Detlef Zuehlke who initiated the association in 2019 and retired at the end of 2020. “After a successful ramp-up of SmartFactoryEU, I can hand over the responsibility to Dirk Torfs. I am convinced that he will further pave the way of the SmartFactoryEU to become the European frontrunner in smart manufacturing”, Zuehlke said.
“I would like to thank Detlef Zuehlke for his dedicated work for SmartFactoryEU in the past two years. His vision of strengthening smart manufacturing in Europe has become reality, and he has played a decisive role in laying the foundation for our European association and supporting our initial growth. I wish Dirk Torfs a lot of success in his new role”, said Peter van Harten, Head of the Supervisory Board at SmartFactoryEU.
Dirk Torfs added: “I thank the Supervisory Board for their trust. I look forward to working together with our members to strengthen Industry 4.0 in Europe. We will grow our association by attracting new members to build a larger and stronger network across Europe.”
