Holger Riecke
Siemens

One of Holger's main objectives is to help influence SAP in terms of providing support for more "out of the box" solutions for complex configuration and integration scenarios.

Scott Perdue
Baldor Electric

Scott's main objectives in serving as a CWG Board Member are to influence SAP in continued improvements to the VC/IPC landscape and to increase awareness and participation in the CWG community .  He believes these two initiatives are tightly integrated.

Bill Dorow
IBM

One of Bill's main objectives, as a Board member, is to help influence SAP's continued progress in product and solution configuration, specifically in terms of providing support for more "out of the box" integration of solution and complex configuration and its surrounding business processes.

Kevin Meyer
Haworth Inc

Kevin has shown a continued growing interest in contributing to the CWG, with posting in the forums and suggestions for Regional chapter meetings in the Michigan area .  He has also demonstrated the ability to persuade Haworth management on the benefits of CWG participation and contribution .  With Kevin's prior experience in organizations such as the OFDA (Office Furniture Dealers Alliance) he will be a great addition to driving the CWG forward into the future.

Peter Illing
Integrity GmbH

He is an American who lives in Bavaria with his wife, his two horses, and his cat. I am a member of a community of SAP configuration technology users. As such I take very seriously the goals, expressed in our by-laws, of engaging with other members of that community to exchange ideas and information; and of engaging with SAP to improve the software, to provide guidance for their future development, and to keep informed of their plans. The community can only prosper if members make themselves available to carry its activities forward. I have been pleased to do this in various capacities (document translator, program committee, venue organizer) and look forward to continuing my service.

Karlheinz is working at SAP in the area of product configuration for over a decade.  Currently he is responsible for maintenance and development of the IPC and modeling tools as a development manager.  In 2011, he wants to ensure that the CWG gets to influence SAP via SAP’s “Customer Connect” program.

Alexander works at MHZ Hachtel GmbH & Co KG, a major producer of textile window decorations.  He worked in different roles and has been working with SAP since its implementation at MHZ in 2001 where he was in the VC implementation team.  After completion of an IT/Organisation/HR Master’s Degree Program at the Technical University of Chemnitz, he took over responsibility for the product modeling team in 2006 the pricing team in 2009 and the ecommerce team in 2012.

As a third year member to the board, Alexander would like to represent a midsized company in the CWG from a SAP customer’s point of view.  He focuses on pragmatic solutions that can be realized without enormous budgets or resources.  The idea of the foundation of regional chapters is of special interest to him.

A native of the state of Tennessee, Robert came to San Jose, CA upon completion of his Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering Master's Degree Program at the University of Tennessee Space Institute in 1990.  After 6 years working at the defense giant Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, he began work at Lam Research Inc, a leader in the Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment sector.  He has been working with SAP since its implementation at Lam Research in 2000 where he was the VC Implementation Lead.  Having started as the lead VC product modeler, he currently manages the product modeling team.  He has been active in the CWG since the Berlin 2000 conference and has led the ECM and subsequently the VC/ECM Focus Group.  As many folks are beginning to find out, his passion is fishing and he is willing to share his knowledge with anyone.

Robert’s near-term vision for the CWG is to build up the infrastructure required to take the organization to the next level.  3 years out, he expects that member training, influence councils, and reinforcing partner/member interaction opportunities will be a big part of the CWG experience.  With that in mind, the CWG will need to rely less on the board of directors to do the majority of the work and more on various subcommittees that are empowered to guide the CWG’s direction.  With that in mind, Robert wants to continue on the board of directors to help ensure that CWG is prepared to take this next important step.  Robert was the President of the CWG in 2007.

Chip is a SAP-certified Product Lifecycle Management Application Consultant and currently holds the position of Managing Consultant with IBM.  He has 16 years experience with SAP Variant Configuration.  His many roles in business related to Variant Configuration include VC Specialist, Variant Configuration Team Lead, SAP Applications Consultant, Senior PLM Business Analyst, and PLM Business Process Architect .  Chip has been employed with IBM for a total of 7 years, and held various IT roles with Kimball Office Furniture during his 12 year career there.  Manufacturing industries in which he has worked and/or consulted include aluminum processing, consumer electronics, industrial printing and safety supplies, contract electronics, office furniture, steel store fixtures, and wood cabinets.  Prior to his SAP career, Chip was a Product Engineer with Kimball Product Design and Research, where he also implemented and supported the Logia Configurator application.

Chip has been a member of the CWG Board of Directors for 4 years, and serves on the Venue Committee for the CWG Fall Conference.  He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Systems Management from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.  During his spare time, Chip also operates a small farming operation, consisting of corn, soybean, and wheat production in Southern Indiana.

Chuck Howard is the Global VC Team Lead and SAP Analyst primarily focused on the Plan to Produce area at Albany International.  This allows focus from the design of the product through the manufacturing process.  He has worked with ERP systems for 12 years in development, customizations and support.  This experience aids his current responsibilities of leading the VC team, supporting the business and improving the VC to make the business more efficient.  In addition to implementing and supporting the VC in 16 plants in 11 countries, he also served as the PP Lead during the initial implementation of SAP in Albany’s composite business.

Mr Iraschko has spent working through his entire business life with highly configurable products.  Having had achieved a degree in industrial business in 1989, he moved on to sell industrial machinery and components in Germany until 1994.  During this time he has built his own Sales Configurator in Lotus 123 which was the template for a global sales solution built in Visual Basic for an European Sales Force in 1993.

Mr Iraschko has a Diploma in Business Administration at the University of Hamburg, where he majored in Industrial Business and SAP with Version 2.2f.  He has implemented various solutions from fork lift trucks to refrigeration technology in environments spanning from R/3 to CRM utilizing the IPC and has contributed to various projects that link to Variant Configuration and the IPC.  Marc is part of the European venue committee and coordinating legal aspects for the CWG together with looking at privacy topics.

A native of France, Steve started his professional career in Germany after having completed his Engineering Master's double-Degree Program at the University of Strasbourg France and Offenburg Germany in 1997.  After 2 years working for ORIGIN as a QAD and the Calico consultant, he began work at SAP Consulting as an IPC consultant.  After 5 years, he took the challenge to move to SAP Custom Development in order to establish the Center of Expertise for Product and Solution Configuration.  This program is up to speed now and Steve is showing passion about enabling customers to move from product configuration business to solution configuration processes.

Steve has very good opinion about the setup and the organization of CWG.  The way the CWG has promoted the configuration topic in the past is a very important support for SAP.  Nevertheless new challenges are arriving.  The recent financial crisis had an impact on how SAP customers need to execute their IT projects and the way they need to address their business.  Steve is wanting to help the CWG to play a major role as an interface between SAP, SAP Partners and SAP customers to support those customer behavior changes.  Steve also believes that the CWG could be a platform where SAP, SAP Partners and SAP customers are working on coinnovation projects.

David Loomans has been working with ERP Systems and complex configuration for the past 15 years.  He has extensive knowledge of SAP’s Variant Configuration functionality in a complex manufacturing environment.  David also has a deep understanding of commercial third party configurators and has successfully integrated them with SAP.  David can share his experience implementing SAP Variant Configuration with over 70,000 configurable BOM and 700 orders per day.  David served as the SAP Project Manager at Greenheck Fan Corporation for three full cycles of a multiphase SAP implementation.

David has served as the vice president and president of the Configuration Work Group in 2009 and 2010 and is currently the chair person for the American SAPS Users Group (ASUG) Configuration Work Group (CWG) Special Interest Group (SIG).

Lawrence has more than twenty years of experience in engineering and information technology consulting.  As Managing Partner for eLogic Group, he is responsible for consulting operations and the delivery of client project services.  Throughout his career, Lawrence has applied a high degree of creativity and deep technical knowledge to deliver uniquely optimized solutions in engineering and manufacturing.  He has held management positions in large consulting firms including KPMG and IBM Global Services.  His engineering expertise entailed designing, constructing, and maintaining large industrial systems in various industries such as energy and industrial products.  Lawrence is a widely recognized solution architect for product configuration and engineer-to-order systems.  He brings a multi-discipline perspective to business challenges and has routinely devised solutions and recovered projects where other consulting firms were unsuccessful.  He has a proven track record of continual innovation that has driven dramatic process improvements for customers.

Harald Reitz is business solution architect within the SAP Industry Business Unit for Industrial Machinery & Components (IM&C).  He is responsible for the sales and manufacturing solution for companies in the industrial machinery & components industry with more than 5000 customers.  His focus areas are product configuration and make-to-order / engineer-to-order manufacturing.  Since 2005 he is in the board of directors of the Configuration Workgroup, the international SAP user group for product configuration.

Harald started his career at SAP in 1996.  Before joining the IM&C solution management team in 2001, he was working as an integration consultant and he has comprehensive knowledge in implementing SAP solutions for industrial manufacturing companies.  He has a degree in industrial engineering from the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Germany.

Rick Smethers is a 32+ year veteran with Schneider Electric which is based in Paris, France.  His career includes working as an Application Engineer in Square D brand electrical distribution products including Low Voltage Switchgear, Low Voltage Switchboards, Medium Voltage Metal-Enclosed Switchgear, Medium Voltage Metal- Clad Switchgear and Utility Substation Circuit Breakers.  Rick began product modeling with Schneider Electric proprietary configurators in 1992 and in 2005 became the Project Manager for a Custom Development Project using SAP configurators.  Rick received his degree from Miami University of Ohio in Computer Science with a minor in Electro-Mechanical Engineering.  In off hours, Rick is an avid fisherman and big game hunter.  He is a professional fishing guide and is sponsored by Pradco Bait Company, one of the world largest manufacturers of fishing lures.  Rick is also a member of the United States Eastern Wado-Ryu Karate Federation and currently pursuing his black belt.  Rick was President of the CWG in 2008.

Edgar has been working in the variant config and e-commerce arena for over ten years.  Coming from a pure research background (PhD in artificial intelligence) he was introduced to the world of SAP and variant config when he joined IntelliCorp in 1997.  He's been a freelancer since 2001, working in all areas touching product configuration in the SAP world, from pure VC modeling to java and JSP programming to logistics integration with the surrounding areas SD, MM, PP, PS, CRM, internet sales.

Bernhard is working at SAP AG since 2001.  He started in SAP IPC Product Management team being responsible for IPC-PME.  Currently he is working in Solution Management for CRM Customer Service.  In 2011 he additionally took over the topics Product and Solution Configuration.  In his role as Solution Manager he listens to Customer’s requirements and addresses the needed enhancements to the SAP Organization.  Bernhard has a degree in chemical engineering.

Marin is one of those really curious creatures who seems to be just as comfortable on both sides of the techie/non-techie divide.  He's got a background in engineering, but for many of the past years he's been working in sales ... much of that time as a presales consultant, where he's been especially effective, not least because he's just as competent with the business details as he is with the technical ones.  He´s a CoAuthor of the SAPPRESS Bestseller “Variant Configuration with SAP”.  Given this background, Marin's got an especially keen understanding of his customers, their business problems and the best fit solutions”.

Marin has a degree in industrial engineering and works as Senior Solution Advisor in the Business Development Area for the IM&C and Mill Industry.  He started his career at SAP in 1999 and joined the CWG in the same year.  Being close to the CWG makes sure, that product configuration requirements get channeled in the SAP Field Organization.

As an ambassador of the CWG within SAP, I would like to look out for opportunities where CWG can add value – especially on customers’ side.  Having the chance to influence both sides, CWG and SAP, is one more motivational point.  As the responsible SAP Account Manager for the CWG I would like to make sure, that CWG gets the best support in new topics and software.