Aitor Galdos takes the helm at Tecan groupd, four months after the departure of Emile Sutcliffe
Tecan group has a new CEO.
Four months after the departure of Emile Sutcliffe, the board of directors has named Aitor Galdos, born in 1955, as the group's new CEO.
He will take over the management of Tecan on 1 November 2003.
Galdos is a Spanish citizen and has broad industry experience in research, marketing, production and operation, as well as in the management of M and A projects and strategic planning.
Aitor Galdos studied mechanical engineering at the Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela, and received two master's degrees at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA, in both mechanical engineering and metallurgy.
He subsequently took his doctor's degree at the University of Tokyo, Japan, in the department of nuclear engineering, and worked for two years in teaching and research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston.
He also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree at the University of Syracuse, NY. Aitor Galdos began his career in 1980 with Exxon in the Amazon region, where he worked in oil production for three years.
During his postgraduate studies in Japan, he worked as a consultant on various projects from 1985 through 1989.
Starting in 1989, he built up one of the Japanese branches for Balzers (today's Unaxis Corporation).
In 1991 he moved within the group to work as a product manager in Liechtenstein.
In 1996 he took over the development and management of the TFT display division, which builds production facilities for liquid crystal displays.
From 1999 through 2001 Galdos was in charge of corporate development at Unaxis.
He is currently with VP Bank in Vaduz, where he works as a head group marketing and business development and is in charge of analysing all corporate activities and implementing new processes.
"Aitor Galdos has extensive experience in business management and possesses a very solid technical background.
"He is dynamic and ambitious, and his references are impressive," says Mike Baronian, the chairman of Tecan's board of directors.
"We are convinced that he will continue to lead our company during the current concentration on our core competencies - the production of high-precision platforms for medical laboratory instruments - with enthusiasm and determination." "Tecan has highly qualified specialists, superior products and an excellent competitive position," Galdos explains his taking the helm of the M„nnedorf-based technology group.
"It is therefore not only my goal to further develop our platforms and to improve cost effectiveness.
I will also be committed to showing investors just how interesting the market for laboratory automation is for them in the long term." Aitor Galdos fluently speaks German, Spanish, Italian, English, and Japanese.
He is married and has two children.
His hobbies include sailing, skiing, tennis, travelling, and reading.
