Dr. Daniel Meyer New Managing Director of the German Society for Electroplating and Surface Technology (DGO) Interview: Robert Piterek
"We can only remain competitive through innovation!"
Dr. Meyer, congratulations on your new position. Until now, Christoph Matheis was both DGO and ZVO Managing Director. Was the separation of duties planned?
Mr. Matheis and I had already agreed on a certain division of tasks in previous years. I have been a project manager at the DGO since 2017. Christoph Matheis already held the position of Managing Director at that time. In 2021, I then took over the position of Technical Managing Director and have been responsible for the technical committees, working groups, research and research topics at the DGO ever since. My appointment as Managing Director was therefore a logical step, as it was clear that Christoph Matheis also wanted to pass on the commercial side and withdraw from the day-to-day operations of the DGO. Accordingly, I have grown into the position over the years - it didn't happen overnight.
What specific goals do you want to pursue?
I will initially pursue the same goals that we have been striving for in recent years. On the one hand, there is the scientific and technical development of the DGO in the sense that we generate research topics in order to advance the industry in terms of content, also in cooperation with specialist committees and working groups. On the other hand, I would like to recruit new members for the DGO. In addition, the DGO budget must continue to stand on a stable footing.
What do the membership figures look like?
The DGO currently has 416 personal and 125 corporate members - from all areas of electroplating technology.
Let's talk about financing, which is also part of the commercial side. How is this actually organized at the DGO?
The DGO budget is based on several pillars. The largest pillar is of course the membership fees from the corporate members and the personal members. The second pillar is the specialist and master craftsman courses that take place in Solingen, and the third pillar, which has developed very strongly in recent years, is funding projects for which the DGO itself acts as an applicant.
These pillars ensure a solid financial situation for the DGO. However, constant medium and long-term activities are required to ensure that this remains the case in the future.
We have seen political changes. A new government team is coming in. Will that change anything for our industry? How do you see the fact that we will now have a black-red government?
For the time being, I would decouple this question from the color of the government. It should be clear to everyone that we can only remain competitive in the future through innovation. Of course, this also applies to electroplating and surface technology in the broadest sense.
We are living in difficult times, but I am pretty sure that there will always be programs from which electroplating can also benefit in the medium and long term. I would therefore like to encourage companies in our industry to actively contribute their own project ideas for research and development. I am available as a contact person for this at any time.
INFO
Dr. Daniel Meyer
studied mechanical engineering at Chemnitz University of Technology, where he completed his doctorate in materials and surface technology. After three years as an R&D project manager in industry, he has been working full-time for the DGO since 2017 - first as project manager for the implementation of the scientific accompanying project for the BMBF funding measure "InnoEMat" and from 2021 as Technical Managing Director. Since then, he has been able to acquire further DGO funding projects. He has been DGO Managing Director since the beginning of the year.
