Frank Smulders, former CEO of Viasystems in Echt, appointed as MD of EIPC

Frank Smulders, 53, was until recently the CEO of Viasystems in Echt, The Netherlands. 

He graduated in economics engineering and joined Philips Components BV in Eindhoven in 1972, leaving for a brief period as a consultant at the University of Tilburg.  He re-joined Philips in 1985, as Purchasing Manager at Veldhoven, before joining their sales and marketing department for consumer electronics, in charge of overseas sales. 

In 1993 he was invited to join Mommers Print Service by Karl Mommers, as VP Sales & Marketing.  After the acquisition of the company by Viasystems he was appointed to run Viasystem's European sales force where he managed 150 people with an annual turnover of some $900 million.  In 2002 Frank was asked to take the position as a managing director of Viasystem's high technology shop Mommers in the Netherlands. 

Mainly due to exchange rates and the strong competition of China, Frank was forced to close the plant by June 2005.  After transferring the main processes and equipment to Viasystems in China, Frank left Viasytems on 1st September this year.

Frank undertook his first appointment with EIPC by attending the highly successful EIPC Winter Conference held in Berlin October 26-28, and commented "I would like to contribute to the survival of the PCB industry in Europe and want to strengthen the EIPC by bringing more value to our members.  Some ideas that are to be explored are the implementation of a marketing service, a website for Human Resources, a patent service, coordination and support for technical/process issues, and establishing a  pricing data base.  Furthermore, I believe that it is necessary, if we want to strongly represent our members in Europe,  that we seek for liaison with other like-minded industry associations which operate throughout the continent.  No one has yet successfully brought the state of the industry to the attention of the European Commission, and whilst EIPC is itself active as a partner in no less than three Sixth Framework EC Funded technology programmes, it is the core industry that is germane to our activity".   

Frank lives with his wife and daughter in Eindhoven.