Dr Andreas Pleßke confirmed as chairman of Drupa committee

As part of the constituent assembly of the Drupa committee Dr Andreas Pleßke, CEO of Koenig & Bauer, has been confirmed as chairman of the body. Wolfgang Poppen, managing partner of Freiburger Druck and president of Bundesverband Druck und Medien was again appointed his deputy. Both votes were unanimous.

‘It is a special honor for me to continue to actively help shape the development of Drupa as chairman of the Drupa committee. The world is changing rapidly – both in technical and political terms. Together with the committee, we will ensure that Drupa constantly develops further to also assert its pole position as a world-leading trade fair for print technologies in the future and to orient the industry for the future,’ commented Dr. Pleßke.

‘Drupa is the centrepiece of the industry, a place of innovations and technology launches. The coming months will be used intensively to further sharpen the profile of Drupa’s position in 2028,’ added Poppen.

As part of further development, the strategic process towards drupa 2028 has already been initiated. Drupa works on an innovative concept that aims to leverage new target groups in a constantly transforming industry and to promote high-caliber knowledge transfer.

Alongside the trade fair format, innovative formats are being developed to enable stronger networking within the industry. The focus will increasingly be on brand owners and multipliers. 

Due to succession planning and personal changes, four new members were included in the committee: Markus Hoffmann, executive senior vice president of Leonhard Kurz Stiftung and chairman of the Printing and Paper Association in VDMA; Marcel Martens, general manager of industrial print EMEA direct at HP Indigo & Pagewide and HP Industrial Printing; Thomas Heininger, CEO, MBO of Postpress Solutions and CEO of Komori International Europe; and Peter Voigt, managing director of Perfecta Schneidemaschinenwerk.

A central component of the new strategy is the identification and presentation of relevant technology trends that determine the future of the print and packaging industry. Topics such as artificial intelligence, automation, sustainable printing processes, and digital transformation continue to be central to this.