February - Alabama Germany Partnership

Are You Ready for Lift Off?
Dankeschön to Patron and
Sustaining Members
Join us for AGP's largest event of the year on March 7th at the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.
Program highlights will include remarks from:
 Greg Canfield, Secretary of Commerce
 Christoph Sander, Consul General of Federal Republic of Germany
 Colonel Jim Halsell, USAF, Retired, Retired NASA Astronaut and
Veteran of 5 Space Shuttle Missions
The evening will also feature a reception & networking, silent auction, dinner, the Dr. Barbara Fischer Award, Rainer Bauer Award
and New & Expanding German Companies Awards
$150 for AGP Members/$175 for Non-Members before February 18,
2013. This is not an event that you want to miss - sign up today! Please
note AGP has a block of rooms at the Marriott Hotel for a special rate
of $109/night.
It’s Time to Renew!
Sponsorship opportunities are still available - please email AGP to request more information.
AGP Business Forum
Also please save the date for AGP's upcoming Business Forum, March
8th from 7:30 am to 11:30 am. The program will include Consul General Christoph Sander of Germany and MG Lynn Collyar, Commanding
General of the US Army Aviation & Missile Command, followed by a
panel discussion.
NEWS
Mercedes names new CEO to Vance Plant
Adapted from tuscaloosanews.com
Markus Schaefer, the Mercedes-Benz executive who developed a plan to move Mercedes sedan production to Tuscaloosa County and then was named president and CEO
of the Vance plant, has been promoted to
head of production planning for all Mercedes-Benz passenger cars.
Schaefer will return to Germany and work
out of company headquarters in Stuttgart,
as of July 1. Mercedes named Jason Hoff,
42, to succeed Schaefer as president and
CEO of Mercedes-Benz US Inter-national,
the company's vehicle assembly plant in Vance.
Hoff worked for several years at the Vance plant in various capacities.
His most recent position was vice president of logistics until November 2010. He now handles procurement of Mercedes-Benz cars and
vans at Stuttgart, where he has overseen the global procurementrelated preparations for the successor generation of the C-Class sedans, which will be produced in Tuscaloosa in 2014 for sale in North
America.Hoff's appointment is effective July 1. He will be the fifth
president and CEO of MBUSI in the plant's 20-year history.
Schaefer has been president of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International in
Vance since July 2010.
"Although I welcome this new opportunity, it is a bittersweet move for
me," Schaefer said in a prepared statement. "I am extremely proud to
be a member of this team and of all that we've accomplished over the
past three years.
"Although I'm moving to a new challenge, I will always consider Tuscaloosa my home and cherish the memories of working with our team
members and getting to know so many members of the community
over the past three years."
The Vance plant was founded in 1993 and started production in 1997,
making the M-Class sport utility vehicle. GL-Class and R-Class SUVs
were later added to the production line. C-Class sedan production will
start in 2014, and Mercedes has announced plans to add an entirely
new model to the Vance production line-up in 2015. The fifth model
has not been revealed.
NEWS
It's officially that time of year - Now's the time to renew
your AGP membership.
We thank you for your
ongoing support!
If you pay your membership
dues via direct deposit, please
note that AGP has a new bank
as of January 1st.
German Quote
Menschen lugen nie so viel wie
nach einer Jagd, wahrend eines
Krieges oder vor einer Wahl .
People never lie so much as after
a hunt, during a war or before an
election.
—Otto von Bismarck
AGP Member News Ticker
Latest News From BASF
Latest News from Lufthansa
Latest News from Mercedes
Latest News from Rodl Warren Averett
Latest News from Siemens
Latest News from ThyssenKrupp
Stainless USA
Latest News from ThyssenKrupp
Steel USA
German companies:
please send us your news link to
director@alabamagermany.org
Mercedes-Benz, Shelton State sign $1.6 million
education deal
Reprinted by Ryan Poe, Birmingham Business Journal
Groundhog Day
It’s A German Thing!
Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc. today announced that Shelton
State Community College will provide manufacturing-related courses
as part of a $1.6 million agreement.
The automaker, which has a plant in Vance, and Shelton will sign the
joint-venture agreement at a ceremony Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. in
the two-year college's atrium, according to a release.
As part of the agreement, Shelton will manage technical programs,
including the existing Mercedes and Mechatronics programs, the release said.
NEWS
REHAU execs announce expansion, addition of 200
jobs
Governor, Mercedes-Benz CEO join local dignitaries for
groundbreaking
Whether you follow Jimmy the Groundhog or Punxsutawney Phil, the tradition
you follow is German-American through
and through! When German settlers
arrived in the 1700s, they brought the
celebration of Candlemas with them.
German traditions hold that if the sun
comes out on Candlemas, the hedgehog
will see its shadow and six more weeks
of winter will follow. If no shadow is
seen, legend says spring will come early.
The German settlers in Pennsylvania
continued the tradition but used a
groundhog rather than a hedgehog. The
first official Groundhog Day was February 2, 1887, at Gobbler's Knob, about 65
miles northeast of Pittsburgh, although
its first reference was found in 1841.
Today it is celebrated in the US and
Canada, with the most popular ceremony in Punxsutawney, although there are
several others across both countries.
Adapted from Cullman Times
Dignitaries, including Alabama Gov.
Robert Bentley, broke ground Monday for a multi-million-dollar expansion at REHAU that will create 200
new jobs. Bentley said after the ceremony that REHAU's expansion and
the continued strength of Mercedes-Benz US International in Vance
are indicators the state's economy is poised for greater expansion.
"Success begets success. We're successful because of the environment we have in Alabama. We're a business-friendly state with lowcost energy and a strong workforce," Bentley said. "Having parent
companies like Mercedes operating in Alabama helps bring in suppliers, like REHAU, and the jobs they create. Mercedes was the company
that started this, and in 2012 more than 880,000 automobiles were
produced in Alabama, which is an increase of 17 percent over the
previous year."
Niklas Braun, chairman of REHAU Automotive Executive Board and
REHAU Group Executive Board, said the company's new contract with
Mercedes-Benz is significant for both the Cullman facility and REHAU's global company.
In an interview after the planned program, Braun said Cullman has
been a productive setting for REHAU's efforts in building a strong domestic and global business model.
"I think we can follow what the governor and Mayor (Max) Townson
said earlier. The workers in Alabama stand up to the job; they do
what is needed to make our operations successful," Braun said. "The
community college (Wallace State) helps a lot. It is an integral part of
what we do."
Dates To Remember
AGP Annual Dinner
March 7th
U.S. Space and Rocket Center,
Huntsville
AGP Business
March 8th
Huntsville Marriott,
Huntsville
German Word of the Month
Die Qual der Wahl
If you have many options on the
table and are finding it hard to
make up your mind about something, you may be suffering from
"die Qual der Wahl" (the agony of
choice).
For full article, click here.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR BOARD MEMBER
Mobile Chamber’s Claudia Zimmermann
named “top 40 under 40” economic development
executive
Reprinted from article by Kelli Dugan, al.com
The Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce's Claudia Zimmermann has
been named to Development Counsellors International's debut listing of
"40 under 40" economic development pace setters.
AlabamaGermany Partnership
Executive Committee
AGP Chairman
The New York-based private company
specializes in "place marketing" and
began compiling its "rising stars in
economic development" homage in
October.
Bryan Winter
Lewis, Smyth & Winter, PC
Vice Chair/Chair Elect
Mark Sheppard
Alabama State Port Authority
Zimmermann, the chamber's director of economic development, is
one of only 14 women and two Alabamians to make the list. Steven
Ceulemans, vice president for innovation and technology at the Birmingham Business Alliance, also earned a nod.
VP, Business Development
Brian Hilson
Birmingham Business Alliance
When asked by the group the most overlooked issue facing economic
development, Zimmermann cited primary and secondary education.
VP, Culture
Dr. Thomas Fox
University of Alabama
"Much of the educational focus and a lot of the funding from legislators, educators and parents have been going toward college degrees.
But it's also the skilled non-degreed, andoftentimes very highly paid
jobs that our children need to be made aware of," Zimmermann said
in her Top 40 profile.
VP, Education
Dr. Anne-Katrin Gramberg
Auburn University
An AGP board member, Zimmermann joined the chamber in 2004,
having served as the local lead project manager for both the
ThyssenKrupp and Airbus projects and served a brief stint as director
of European business development for the Alabama Department of
Commerce.
VP, Communications
Warren McCullars
Alagasco
Secretary
Judy Benson
Johnson Controls
The 40 rising stars were selected from a pool of more than 150 candidates by a five-member committee, representing what DCI calls "top
innovators, deal closers, job creators, investment attractors and marketing extraordinaires."
Treasurer
Jim Robertson
Rödl Warren Averett LLC
"The people chosen by the selection committee represent a bright
future for the economic development world. They are a new breed of
result-driven place makers," said Andy Levine, president of DCI.
Immediate Past Chair
Arndt Siepmann
City of Auburn
VW plans Golf push in Americas with shift
to Mexico
Adapted from autonews.com
Volkswagen plans to produce its Golf hatchback in Mexico as part of a
push for market share in North America, where it trails global rivals.
Producing the Golf in Pueblas allows Volkswagen to make "further
strides towards the goal of building more than 75 percent of the cars
Volkswagen of America sells in the North American region,"
Volkswagen's North America chief Jonathan Browning said.
The move to build the Golf in Mexico is part of a plan to spend $5 billion over the next three years in North America. Growth there is a
critical to CEO Martin Winterkorn's strategy to become the world's
biggest carmaker by 2018. By adding Golf production in Mexico, VW
plans to benefit from lower labor costs and hedge against unfavorable currency fluctuations between the dollar and euro.
AGP Affiliates
Consulate General of the Federal
Republic of Germany Atlanta
Christoph Sander
Marquis Two Tower, Suite 901
285 Peachtree Center Avenue, N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia, 30303-1221
Phone: (404) 659 4760
www.germany.info/atlanta
Honorary Consul of the
Federal Republic of Germany
for the State of Alabama
Michael Johnson
Johnston Barton Proctor & Rose LLP
mhj@johnstonbarton.com
Phone: (205) 458.9421
German American Chamber
of Commerce of
the Southern United States, Inc.
Martina Stegmeier
1170 Howell Mill Road, Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30318
Phone: (404) 586-6800
www.gaccsouth.com/en
Alabama Germany Partnership German American Chamber of Commerce German Consulate General Atlanta