Michael Preuss has stepped down as Managing Director of Bucher Automation, formerly known as futronic.
He has been with the company since 1987 and became Managing Director of the Tettnang, Germany-based control system specialist in 2004.
He will step down at the end of March. His successor is already a familiar face at the company: Stephan Pies, Director Sales who joined the management team at the beginning of the year and will take over officially on April 1.
Michael Preuss has been with the company for almost exactly 37 years, initially as a software developer but gaining promotion to Sales Manager within a short time.
In 2004, he took over the management of the Tettnang-based control system specialist together with Wolfgang Lachmann, his long-time companion and Director Development Technology.
Preuss subsequently put the company on course for growth, pushing ahead prudently with modernisation and focusing from an early stage on climate protection and sustainability.
Probably one of his biggest challenges was last year’s change of name to Bucher Automation Tettnang.
“The change of name was a major landmark in the history of our company”, he said.
“The process is now largely complete and it’s the perfect time for me to place our organisation’s future in the hands of my successor.”
Respectful interaction
It was back in the early eighties that Michael Preuss graduated in Electrical Engineering and Electronics from Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences, ten miles north of Tettnang.
Whereas many of his fellow-students could not wait to get out into the big wide world after completing their final exams, he chose to remain faithful to his native Upper Swabia, starting work at futronic on 6 April 1987.
Aside from a few holiday jobs and temporary employment as a student, Preuss has spent his entire working life at the Tettnang company.
Preuss has always had a sympathetic ear for his staff. Mutual respect and a good working atmosphere are immensely important to him.
Flat hierarchies as well as his friendly nature and prudent leadership style are key factors here. His colleagues have shown their gratitude with great loyalty to the firm, in many instances over a period of several decades.
Mr Preuss, born in 1962, is married with two grown-up children. In future, he will have more time to cruise around the countryside again with his wife on a heavy motorbike, relax with a fishing rod in the early hours of the morning or devote himself to modelmaking.
And as grandfather of a newborn baby, there are also some hitherto unknown challenges awaiting him.
