Durst Group AG has appointed Wolfgang Knotz as chief technology officer and added him to its Core Leadership Team.
Mr Knotz has been with the company since 2013 and began in Lienz as a production engineer. Before joining Durst, he worked at Siemens. According to the announcement, he has since played a central role in building the company’s development organisation in Lienz and has contributed to the architecture behind a number of its Single-Pass and Multi-Pass systems.
Christoph Gamper, Durst Group CEO and co-owner, said Mr Knotz’s work has helped shape the performance of current Durst machines, with design decisions made over a number of years continuing to influence the business’s technology platform today.
The appointment comes as print equipment manufacturers face increasing pressure to combine hardware development with the software, systems thinking and intelligence needed to support more integrated production environments. The company said Mr Knotz would lead the “physical and architectural foundation” of that system as the market continues to evolve.
In the announcement, the company said it had screened more than 600 candidates during the search process before deciding to appoint from within the business.
“The right person had been with us since 2013,” said Mr Gamper. “Today, Wolfgang Knotz becomes chief technology officer of Durst Group AG and joins our Core Leadership Team.”
The company described Mr Knotz as someone who approaches technology from a systems perspective rather than focusing only on product cycles, a mindset Durst suggested is increasingly important as the industry changes.
Durst framed the decision as a strategic internal promotion at a time when long-term technical architecture is becoming more significant for manufacturers seeking to differentiate themselves.
“I searched globally for this role. In the end, the highest-leverage decision was already inside the company,” said Mr Gamper. “Welcome to your new chapter, Wolfgang. Now we build what others cannot copy.”
