The HART Communication Foundation and Fieldbus Foundation have approved the merger proposed by their respective boards and will become a single entity called FieldComm Group starting January 1, 2015.
The HART Communication Foundation and Fieldbus Foundation approved the merger proposed by their respective boards through a voting process that concluded on August 30.
The new corporation, called FieldComm Group, will be led by a board of directors composed of representatives of the collective companies from the current boards of each foundation. Hans-Georg Kumpfmueller has been elected as the inaugural chairman of the board. Kumpfmueller will lead the direction of the FieldComm Group and oversee the addition of FDI LLC in mid-2015.
Kumpfmueller has served as a leader in setting the course of device integration in his role as chairman of the FDI LLC board and as CEO of Sensors and Communication at Siemens.
The board has appointed Ted Masters as president and CEO of FieldComm Group. He currently serves in the same capacity with the HART Communication Foundation. Masters brings a wealth of instrumentation and controls experience to bear in addition to a deep understanding of the use of data analytics in enterprise systems.
During the transition and integration of the two organizations, Richard J. Timoney will serve as executive vice president of FieldComm Group. Timoney currently is president and CEO of the Fieldbus Foundation.
FieldComm Group will consolidate offices in Austin, Texas, and function as a single entity beginning January 1, 2015. Until then, the HART Communication Foundation and Fieldbus Foundation will continue to operate independently.
Foundation Fieldbus
www.fieldbus.org
HART Communication Foundation
www.hartcomm.org
– Edited by CFE Media. See more Control Engineering networking stories.
