Career is just a word
Many people don’t know exactly what happens in the production of high-precision machine tools and therefore have no idea of the jobs and career opportunities for young people and career starters. On the following pages, Motion shows careers in the UNITED GRINDING Group that convey a realistic impression of the variety of jobs and opportunities, the company’s international nature, and its networking with other industries. Examples that may embolden one to enter an industry where passion plays a much bigger role than can be seen at first glance.
TAO ZHANG, UNITED GRINDING CHINA, CTO
“Okay, I’m going to introduce myself.” In a video interview, Tao Zhang visibly enjoys talking to Motion about his career at UNITED GRINDING China. “I was born in Xinjiang, Uyghurs. You know that Xinjiang is very far from Shanghai.” To study, Tao left his home and went to Xián, a 14th-century city in the middle of China that is guarded by the Terracotta Army. Its university offers a four-year degree in mechanical engineering. From there, he moved to Shanghai in 1996 at the age of 25 as a master’s student to work for the state-owned transmission manufacturer SAIC. Five years later, he joined the Chinese company of the German automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen as service manager. “I then stayed as a service manager for about five years and gained my first experience with European culture. I liked it. People respect each other and are friendly.”
The next friendly Europeans with whom Tao came into contact in 2008 were from the UNITED GRINDING Group. “I was lucky,” laughs Tao, after the sound briefly cut out in the video, “because after I had barely started, the department grew to almost 70 people, was renamed Customer Care, and new areas were added. In 2021, my boss needed someone who could take care of more areas. In the end, that meant that additional technical areas became my responsibility.” Today, Tao is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and sees it as an important goal to allow technical professionals from different departments to work more closely together. “They now know the strategies that will help our business and can support me in my position.”
In his management philosophy, Tao distinguishes between management, leadership, and teaching, and sees the development of employees as the most important condition for success in cutting-edge technology. “In my opinion, the core of everything is the grinding experience,” explains Tao. “We need to teach employees to gather more information and experience every day and that they need patience to move forward.” Tao is convinced that only those who accept challenges can make a valuable contribution to the development of high-end technology in the long term. “In the end, you’ll notice that these employees have developed.” This corporate culture is also very attractive for new, young employees. “Employees develop pride in working in a company that is a leader in innovation. This positive feeling spreads among their friends, in their surroundings. That’s the best employer branding.” It really looks like Tao is right.
CAREER CHART
- 2005: Joined UNITED GRINDING China in Shanghai as Service Manager, responsible for machine acceptance, service and spare parts
- 2011: Director of Customer Care, responsible for all services in this area
- 2021: Chief Technology Officer (CTO), responsible for Customer Care, technology, application, and product quality management
JASON BARBER, UNITED GRINDING NORTH AMERICA, VICE PRESIDENT FINANCE AND IT
“In July of this year, it will be 14 years since I accepted the offer to work at UNITED GRINDING Group,” recalls Jason Barber, VP of Finance and IT at UNITED GRINDING North America, in his interview with Motion. He continues: After my bachelor’s degree in accounting, I worked in the accounts receivable team of a national hotel chain and was looking for something less monotonous.” As it turned out, it was that decision that paved the way for almost a decade and a half of continuous professional development, and there’s no end in sight.
Barber first joined the company as a business unit accountant for the sales team of the technology group “Surface and Profile Grinding”. “It was my job to take care of all accounting tasks for this technology group, including annual budgeting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and monthly reporting requirements.” During this time, Barber excelled at implementing SAP’s global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. That experience and his knowledge of business information technology qualified him for his next role as Manager of Information Systems. “In my first year in IT,
I had to cope with a steep learning curve. I am grateful that my employer invested in the development of the team and helped me acquire the necessary qualifications to succeed in this new role,” he says. Over the next eight years, Barber earned half a dozen IT certifications and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) while working.
In 2022, Markus Stolmar, President and CEO of UNITED GRINDING North America, asked him to lead the IT and finance departments. “Given his experience in many areas of the company and his high level of performance, Jason seemed like the right person to lead both teams,” says Stolmar about the decision to offer him the dual role.
When asked what surprises him most about his career development, Barber says: “I couldn’t have predicted how much I would learn and grow at each stage of my career. But for me, the most important thing was to always be ready to learn something new and take on additional challenges.”
CAREER CHART
- 2010: Joined UNITED GRINDING North America as Business Unit Accountant for the Surface & Profile business unit
- 2013: Manager of the IT infrastructure in the company in cooperation with the provider SAP
- 2022: Promotion to Director of Finance
- 2023: Vice President Finance and IT
HARRI REIN, WALTER, CEO
“What AI is today, back then was CNC.” Harri Rein, a “veteran” at WALTER and thus the UNITED GRINDING Group, recalls an important stage in his career. “As a machine tool manufacturer, we were at the forefront because we introduced a completely new technology.” And did this also create anxiety, like AI today?
“We were very excited at the time that we could do things that were very complicated to do manually.”
It all began 50 years ago: Harri Rein trained as an industrial mechanic and, after his first experience in “special machine construction”, he joined the mechanical engineers at WALTER, while also completing his master’s degree at night school. At the beginning of the 80s, he moved to application technology and then to the test department. In terms of technology, he now felt that he knew what was important – but he still lacked sales knowledge. With his “soft skills” (“approaching people and convincing them”), he switched to sales. There, he became part of a historic project to make CNC machines easier and more economical for customers: the development of the “Helitronic Power”, a versatile five-axis machine that did not exist back then. “We didn’t sell the machine, but we distributed it. Because everyone wanted them,” he says.
Back then, Harri Rein was just in the middle of his career – and he wanted a change once again. He found it as a “Woodtronic” product manager and as an engineering and operations manager when he was deployed in the USA. In 2004, he moved back to Tübingen to take on the position of Division Manager of Sales. In 2008 he returned to Technology as Division Manager, followed by Managing Director Technology (CTO), and finally, he was appointed CEO. Now Harri Rein has one and a half years to train his successor and then bow out to enjoy his well-deserved retirement.
CAREER CHART
- 1974: Apprenticeship at Montanwerke Walter GmbH as an industrial mechanic
- 1978: Toolmaker for jigs and fixtures for special machine construction
- 1983: Technical demonstrator
- 1988: Test technician
- 1989: Quotation administrator
- 1989: Technical sales
- 1996: Product Manager for saw blade grinding machines at Walter AG Tübingen
- 2000: Engineering Manager Operations at Walter Grinders INC. Fredericksburg, Virginia USA
- 2002: Vice President Operations at Walter Grinders INC. Fredericksburg, Virginia USA
- 2004: Return to Germany to Walter Maschinenbau GmbH, Head of the Helitronic product line, Division Manager Marketing and Sales
- 2008: Head of Application Technology, Engineering
- 2013: Managing Director Technology CTO
- 2021: Managing Director (Chair) CEO
SANDRA SCHIESS, MÄGERLE, HEAD OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Schiess is ideally qualified for the Motion interview. The commercial employee, who originally worked in Purchasing, was appointed Head of HR, which came as a surprise to her and is thus an impressive career example. Schiess also has experience with those who still have a career ahead of them: with applicants for vacancies at MÄGERLE. “Today,” says the Head of HR, “companies have to sell themselves to the applicant – and not the other way around.” Trained polymechanics are relatively easy to find, as MÄGERLE is well known. “They may have already worked on one of our machines in a teaching program or in a company where they were or are employed,” says Schiess. People who are unfamiliar with the industry, or people who do not know our industry, are less likely to apply to us. They often lack knowledge of how diverse and exciting the industry is. And hiring non-European talent is not easy due to the regulations in Switzerland.
On the other hand, the industry is quite attractive for women. “We have women polymechanics, designers, and buyers. And in HR, of course ...,” laughs Schiess. She's convinced: “The goal must be to find the right person. Whether male, female or other – that doesn’t play any role.”
DANIEL RENFER, STUDER, HEAD OF QUALITY CONTROL MANAGEMENT
“I started with an apprenticeship – although at 15, 16 you can’t judge what you want in life.” When Daniel Renfer talks about his career, it’s fun to listen. “I was lucky that I still love the profession I was already enthusiastic about as a young person, namely, that of a designer. It was lucky that I found conditions at STUDER that were great and are still great today and that still ignite my inner fire.” “That may all sound a bit like a picture book, but that’s how it’s been.”
Other chapters of the picture book would be the mechanical engineering studies that Renfer completed while working, a one-year absence at another company, and returning home to STUDER. “I thought I was a little Gyro Gearloose at the time,” laughs Renfer, “until I was able to participate in the PULS talent program in 2017, which opened my horizons for Operations. Leaving my comfort zone for the hard daily routine of Operations was a turning point in my career.”
Three years ago, the opportunity finally arose to take another step: as Head of Quality Management at STUDER and as organizer of the Quality Management working group at UNITED GRINDING Group.
FABIAN LEUTENEGGER, STUDER, REGIONAL SALES MANAGER GERMANY
“I went to school in the countryside, three-quarters of an hour away from STUDER.” At the beginning of the Motion interview, Fabian Leutenegger wants to share an anecdote. “There were 23 students in the class. And in the end, when it came to vocational training, I was the only one who went into industry.” Looking at Leutenegger’s career, one has to say: 22 made a mistake.
The problem wasn't in the Leutenegger family. Craftsmen, business people. But then there was the trial apprenticeship program. “A small job shop, a few CNC machines were there,” says Leutenegger, “but that was enough for me to feel that this is something for me. Without knowing exactly what my future would look like.” The polymechanic’s diverse professional profile brought clarity: “I saw that I had basic training in hydraulics, pneumatics, milling, CNC, control technology, and electrical engineering. The world opens up to you afterward.”
After his apprenticeship, Leutenegger got a job in the prototype department at STUDER in the TechCenter: “During this time, I was deployed for three stays in China.
I went to Shanghai for the first time. I came from a village of 2,000 souls and was now in a metropolis of 21 million.” After various technical assignments as a technician in China, Leutenegger moved to Sales and returned to Switzerland as Area Sales Manager for China.
He is now responsible for an area in Germany as Area Sales Manager. And the better he gets to know the differences, the smaller he finds them: “Whether Americans, Europeans or Asians, they all have one thing in common: People buy from people. Everyone wants to be more successful by making the right decisions. Regardless of whether you hand over your business card with two hands in China or if you tap wheat beer differently in Bavaria. It’s great to support people and win them over for us.”
THE PERFECT CAREER START
With its worldwide training programs, the UNITED GRINDING Group enables young professionals to get an optimal start in their careers along with a wide range of development opportunities.