IAA Voices Conference Special: Interview Voith Turbo

On September 1, 2021, Gregor Wiche became a member of the Board of Management of Voith Turbo as CTO and head of Product & Production Technology.

Imagine you are in a time machine and on your way "back to the future". In which year would you like to get off and why?

In 2030. There are so many goals for this year - the EU's "Fit for 55" is supposed to reach the first stage, the railways want to introduce the Deutschland-Takt and in many countries, such as the UK, Ireland, Sweden or Denmark, no more combustion cars are to be newly registered. That makes me curious whether and how we have achieved these goals.

If you had a superpower that would help you professionally, what would it be?

I don't know as much about superpowers as my daughters, who are very persistently "educating" themselves on this subject with the help of the Marvel films. But being able to telepathically convince people to do the right thing for the company and the community, and to put aside egos sometimes, would be pretty cool.

What trend are you currently following professionally with great interest?

The path from the combustion engine to electric drives and how the infrastructure around it should/will be built.

What is/was the biggest gamechanger for you in the logistics or transport industry in the past ten years?

I cannot identify the one big gamechanger of the last few years, but I see many challenges for this industry that still require considerable efforts to solve. Labour availability, the switch from combustion engines to new forms of propulsion, to name just two.

What innovation do you currently see internationally as a blueprint on the path to climate neutrality?

I don't see one innovation. The important thing is to find the technology or the path that leads most efficiently to climate neutrality, whereby it is important to look at efficiency as a whole.

What do you hope for from the IAA TRANSPORTATION?

New ideas and, in particular, other opinions and views that encourage me to question my view of things and, if necessary, to improve it.

What are you particularly looking forward to at the IAA Conference?

The exchange with colleagues.

 

Biography:

Dr. Gregor Wiche studied Microsystemtechnology at the University of Freiburg, Germany and at the Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA. He also holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the TU Berlin and a business degree from the FernUniversity in Hagen. He started his career at an international consulting firm where he focused mainly on operations topics such as manufacturing and supply chain management across different industries.

In 2011, Gregor Wiche joined Voith Paper in Heidenheim as project leader for the restructuring of the Group Division. In 2013 he joined the management team of the Products & Services Division where he was responsible for Global Operations and after 2015 for the region Asia Pacific, being located in Shanghai.

As of May 2019 Dr. Wiche switched to Voith Turbo taking responsibility of Asia Pacific for the Division Mobility. He relocated back to Germany in 2021 and took charge of Global Product and Key Account Management.

On September 1, 2021, Gregor Wiche became a member of the Board of Management of Voith Turbo as CTO and head of Product & Production Technology.