Effective October 1, 2018, René Dankwerth, Executive Vice President of Research and Development and an Executive Board member for Recaro Aircraft Seating, will take over as General Manager of Recaro Aircraft Seating Americas. Sunitha Vegerla, the site’s current General Manager, has decided, after four years, to take a step back from her role so she can focus more on her family life. She will remain at Recaro and assume the new role in the executive team as Director of Quality & Process Management. Heiko Fricke will take over René Dankwerth’s role as Executive Vice President Research and Development and Executive Board member for Recaro Aircraft Seating. He will join the company August 1, 2018.
Having been with Recaro Aircraft Seating Americas for more than 14 years, Sunitha initially lead the program management team before becoming General Manager in 2014. She championed a strategy of continuous global growth and propelled the site to its present position as an industry leader.
"Recaro thanks Sunitha for her endless engagement, for the substantial success-story she has created and for her always moving forward attitude in order to generate excellent business for Recaro Aircraft Seating Americas,” said Chief Executive Officer and Shareholder of Recaro Aircraft Seating, Dr. Mark Hiller. “Her global business approach created valuable contributions to Recaro in general. We are delighted to announce that she will take the Director Quality & Process Management position and will remain part of the executive team at Recaro Aircraft Seating Americas.”
René created significant achievements while at Recaro Aircraft Seating’s headquarters in Germany, including a reduction of failure cost and quality findings by 50% within two years, significant improvement of supply chain quality in deliveries, and an introduction of Total Quality Management (TQM) methods. He later became a member of the Executive Board for Research & Development, where he was instrumental in the development and the ramp-up the CL3710 economy class long range product as well as for the re-entry into the business class long range market with our CL6710 product.
René will work closely with Sunitha for a transition period of two months before he takes over the position as of October 1, 2018.
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Recaro Aircraft Seating - left: Sunnitha Vegerla, right: René Dankwerth[/caption]