ABB has appointed Tauno Heinola as managing director of ABB Australia, effective October 1, 2016. He succeeds Axel Kuhr, who will become managing director in Japan.
Heinola has been managing director (MD) in Finland since 2011. He joined ABB in 1983 as a sales engineer in the drives business, later becoming the unit’s export manager. He moved to the drives business in Canada in 1990. He then founded ABB Beijing Drive Systems with a local partner in 1994, before being given responsibility of ABB’s largest profit center in the drives business in 1998, based in Finland.
The appointments are part of a leadership succession at ABB: Kuhr replaces Tony Zeitoun, who is currently MD in Japan and will retire from ABB at the end of the year. Pekka Tiitnen, currently President of the Discrete Automation and Motion division, will succeed Heinola as MD in Finland.