With Thorsten Amann as the new managing director of Staufen Asia located in Hong Kong and David Müller as the future managing director of Staufen Shanghai, Staufen business consultancy continues on its course for growth in Asia. The internationally active lean management consultancy established its Shanghai subsidiary and an office in Shenyang as early as 2005; both are used to support and advise European and Chinese customers with the complete range of services offered by Staufen AG. Opening new locations is part of the growth strategy for the promising Asian market. In addition to his tasks in Hong Kong, Thorsten Amann will also look after customers of the business consultancy in the entire Asian region in his role as executive board member of Staufen AG. The 47-year old mechanical engineer had previously spent ten years working as partner for the auditing company KPMG, most recently as head of the internationalisation department with a main focus on the family enterprise sector. Thorsten Amann, born in Stuttgart and a father of two, advised and supported companies in their market launch and expansion in Asia for more than 20 years and had already been posted to China for his former employers LBBW and Commerzbank. David Müller, too, has a wealth of experience from working abroad and particularly in China. The 44-year old industrial engineer had been responsible for international procurement and innovation management at BMW and for four years before that had been in charge of procurement and quality management for parts of the BMW joint venture with Brilliance in Shenyang. In his most recent position, David Müller, who hails from Prague and is a father of two, was a founding partner of the Munich business consultancy BrainNet Engineers. As managing director of Staufen Shanghai, he will take over from Markus Franz who in his new role as head of the Staufen Academy will be responsible for the international growth of the Staufen Group training programmes. “We are delighted that with Thorsten Amann and David Müller we can welcome two new colleagues with such a proven international outlook and so many years of experience in China,” says Martin Haas, Board Member at Staufen AG. “As our most recent China study has shown, German companies face numerous challenges in this market; to cope with these, the professional expertise and the local experience of both Thorsten Amann and David Müller will be most helpful.” Best Practice Day in Darmstadt on 04 June 2013
The topic of China will also be the focus of the Staufen AG International Lean Management Congress in Darmstadt on 04 June 2013. One of the keynote speakers is Dr Marcus Chao, President, Lean Enterprise China Inc. from Shanghai, speaking about “China´s footprint – a dynamic of change to set global standards“. In addition, leading personalities from the German manufacturing industry will also address the congress.
