Uwe Herold (45) will be taking charge of IT activities at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) as of July 1, 2011. The graduate engineer studied processing machinery design and information technology at Chemnitz University of Technology. Working in a number of industries, he has more than ten years of experience in managerial roles at international IT organizations, including SAP AG in Walldorf. Herold's most recent position was managing partner at an organizational and IT consultancy. In his various posts he has successfully optimized numerous business processes using state-of-the-art information technologies.

"In times dominated by dynamic markets and new business and cooperation models, it is important to run IT departments more than ever before in an entrepreneurial way while also using innovative process- oriented IT solutions as a means of shaping companies. My objectives in this respect are to boost the competitiveness of the entire Heidelberg Group with an IT organization that is geared to business processes and to provide proactive support for new areas of business," says Herold, describing his future remit.

Heidelberg CFO Dirk Kaliebe, who is also responsible for corporate IT, explains: "We are delighted to welcome an IT manager as experienced as Uwe Herold to our company. We are confident that he will play a major part in bringing about another lasting improvement in the efficiency of our IT and business process structures by further optimizing these areas. Through its systematic standardization and the introduction of SAP systems, the company has created lean structures by building up a global process world. Over recent years, this IT strategy has already enabled us to cut costs by around 40 percent."

Herold will be taking over from Howard Hutchings, who is leaving the company. Herold is married and has two children.