Focused on further growth

Bosch Rexroth appoints Thomas Fechner and Roland Bittenauer to the board of management and focuses on further growth. Thomas Donato moves to Bosch Power Tools, where he becomes chairman of the divisional board.

Bosch Rexroth plans to continue to grow faster than the market, with the factory automation sector showing particularly strong growth. The new structure of the board of management supports these growth plans: the tasks previously covered by Donato will be divided between two independent departments. This will allow Bittenauer to concentrate fully on this area in his role as Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. With Fechner, the automation business will now for the first time be the responsibility of an Executive Board member who has no other functional duties.

"Thomas Donato has provided impetus in mobile hydraulics and later in sales, marketing and factory automation business since the beginning of 2022, contributing to the very successful development of Bosch Rexroth's business. I would like to thank him sincerely for his commitment to Bosch Rexroth and wish him every success in his new role at Power Tools," said Dr. Markus Forschner, chief financial officer of the Bosch Group and chairman of the supervisory board of Bosch Rexroth AG. "With Roland Bittenauer as Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing and Thomas Fechner as the person responsible for our automation business, we have appointed two experts to the management of Bosch Rexroth who, in their previous roles, have already set the course for the further development of Bosch Rexroth. Now, as part of the Executive Board team, they will drive profitable growth with the even clearer division of responsibilities."

Bittenauer has been with Bosch Rexroth since spring 2021 and is responsible for the top-selling sales region Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). Previously, the Austrian held senior sales positions at Parker Hannifin and the Austrian company Hainzl Industriesysteme. Bittenauer completed his engineering education at the HTL Steyr, specializing in automotive and mechanical engineering. Wolfram Ulrich, currently sales manager in the Large Hydraulic Drives product area, whose products are sold under the Hägglunds brand, will take over as head of the Central Europe sales region on June 1.

Fechner joined the Bosch Group in 1998 and has held various engineering and management positions at Bosch Rexroth since 2009. Since 2021, the automation and software expert has headed the Lohr-based Automation & Electrification Solutions product unit, which offers the ctrlX automation kit, a core part of Bosch Rexroth's factory automation business. Fechner is also responsible for the Ulm site, where the company has been operating a customer and innovation center since 2019. Fechner studied physics at the University of Stuttgart. As of June 1, Dr. Maik Rabe will take over as head of the Automation & Electrification Solutions product unit, retaining his current role as head of development.