FDT Group elects André Uhl as chairman of its board

FDT Group, an international, non-profit industry association supporting the evolution of the FDT (Field Device Technology) standard for industrial device management, announced that André Uhl, vice-president of technology and architecture for Schneider Electric’s industrial automation business, was elected as chairman of its board.

The chairman’s primary role is to ensure that the board effectively sets and implements the organization’s strategy and governance of the standard. The group shares in a press statement that the IEC 62453 standard directly benefits global manufacturing industries with a unified environment for industrial device management supporting brownfield, greenfield and new smart manufacturing initiatives in the process, hybrid and discrete markets.

Uhl replaced Lee Lane from Rockwell Automation as chairman due to his departure to a new role.

Uhl has over 20 years of industry experience managing research and development (R&D) centres for industrial and motion control applications and automation solutions for flagship products in the process, hybrid and machine builder markets. Currently serving as vice-president of technology and architecture for Schneider Electric’s industrial automation business, Uhl has served as a member of the FDT board since 2016 and presently sits on the ODVA Board and OPC Foundation Unified Architecture Field Xchange (UAFX) steering committee shaping the future of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). His dedication to working across the industrial automation ecosystem reportedly demonstrates leadership and support for the executive strategy of the organization that provides governance over the open FDT standard.

“I’m thrilled to lead the FDT community focused on eliminating intelligent device management barriers for industrial automation markets,” said Uhl. “I’m passionate about open technology innovation and FDT’s vision to transform manufacturing excellence by collaborating and expanding access to these technologies enterprise-wide on a data-centric platform critical in supporting the modern, connected industrial world.”