During productronica 2021 in Munich last November, Klaus Gross and his designated successor Stefan Janssen already made a pointed appearance as a double act at the Fuji Europe Corporation stand (see PLUS 12/2021, p. 1564). On March 31, 2022, the time has finally come: Gross will retire and Janssen will take over his position. Janssen's deputy will be Jonas Ernst, who has been with the company for 10 years.
Klaus Gross has been with the company for 30 years. At the beginning of the 1990s, he moved from his former customer Motorola to the electronics manufacturing equipment supplier. Since then, he has held various positions in shaping the then newly founded Fuji subsidiary into an independent business unit within the structure of the Fuji Group. One of the highlights was moving into the newly built headquarters of Fuji Europe Corporation GmbH in the small Hessian town of Kelsterbach, adjacent to Frankfurt Airport, in 2018. "I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank our customers for their loyalty and exceptional cooperation over the years," said Gross at his official farewell a few days ago. He also thanked the partner companies, some of whom had contributed to the success over many years, and his own team. "Their hard work and motivation have brought us to where we are today." Just as important was the global team spirit with the different cultures in Japan and all other Fuji subsidiaries worldwide. "It is a tightly woven network, you could even say a multicultural family with a very high feel-good factor and very pleasant and effective communication."
In view of his departure, Gross said: "It's not easy to let go now. And yet I am also looking forward to the new stage in my life, in which many other things await me."
