Electricity + Control January 2017

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LIGHT + CURRENT
Looking forward to the challenge
Thierry Pimi was recently appointed as Managing Director of Cummins SouthernAfrica. Pimi
is responsible for the leadership, operations and strategic direction for Cummins’ distribu-
tion business South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana,
Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar.
Pimi is a professional mechanical engineer with over sixteen years’ experience in the
power generation, manufacturing and mining industries. He has held a number of senior
management positions at Cummins in the United States of America and Senegal. He joined
Cummins as Corporate Strategy Manager based at the company’s head office in Columbus,
USA in 2008. Thereafter he assumed the role of Mining Business Leader for Africa, also
based in Columbus. For the last three years he has held the position of General Manager of
Cummins North andWest Africa Regional Operations; including overseeing the deployment
and consolidation of company owned entities in Morocco, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.
Based in Dakar, Senegal, he has made a notable difference in a market which is considered
to be one of the largest and fastest-growing business areas in Africa.
Commenting on his new role, he said: “I am ready to take up the challenge and work hard to
further enhance the business, elevate the Cummins
brand and get closer to our customers. My vision for
Southern Africa is for us to exceed our customers’
expectations through world class professionalism
froma diverse and highlymotivated team.”A strong
supporter of promoting local talent, the new man-
aging director has unleashed diverse and capable
teams across the regions in which he has worked,
combining seasoned industry leaders with staff
equipped with strong local market knowledge and
solid regional business culture.
Enquiries: Email
ETG welcomes 4 000 th member
The EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) has reached another membership milestone: In
November, German supplier of advanced packaging solutions, KOCH Pac-Systeme GmbH,
joined the organisation as member number 4 000. A tribute in honour of this landmark took
place in the frame of this year’s SPS IPC Drives show in Nuremberg, Germany. JürgenWel-
ker, Divisional Director of Control System and Service at KOCH, represented the company
in Nuremberg to accept the official membership certificate with accompanying award. He
explains the reason for joining the ETG as follows: “Beyond the high quality and efficiency,
the individuality we gain differentiates our packaging solutions. We have benefitted from
the openness and flexibility of
EtherCAT for quite some time, and
have recently started to work with
EtherCAT P as well.Therefore, of-
ficial membership in the ETG was
the next logical step for us.”
Enquiries:
Email
South Africa’s second
Greenovate Awards
Growthpoint Properties, in associa-
tion with the Green Building Council
South Africa (GBCSA), held the second
Greenovate Awards with the University
of Cape Town taking first place. In its
second year, the awards programme is
an initiative that inspires and encour-
ages students of the built environment
to discover, explore and invent ways
to live more sustainably. Students
needed to come up with ideas for any
property-related project that makes the
way we live greener and our environ-
mental footprint lighter. The UCT team
of Cédric Fournier and Priscilla Nthai,
with supervisors Saul Nurick and Abby
Street, were named the winners of the
Greenovate Awards 2016. They focused
on the perceptions of occupants in office
buildings that contain green building
features and initiatives. This team of
outstanding young green innovators
took home R30 000 in prize money.
Enquiries: Green Building Council of
South Africa.Visit
Electricity thieves
responsible for
deaths
Eskom requests the help of the public
to bring to book the electricity thieves
who are responsible for the deaths of
29 people and for the serious injuries
suffered by 82 others in Kwazulu-Natal
over the past three years as a result of
illegal electricity connections and other
forms of electricity theft. “Electricity
theft remains one of the least reported
crimes in South Africa despite the fact
that an alarmingly high number of peo-
ple, pets and livestock are killed every
year as a result of illegal connections,
improper house wiring, cable theft and
low hanging conductors,” said General
Manager for Eskom in Kwazulu-Natal
Monde Bala. “We wish to see all resi-
dents rising to the call to take an active
stand against this crime by reporting
suspected acts of electricity or cable
theft to Operation Khanyisa. Tip-offs can
be sent anonymously via SMS to 32211
(R1/SMS),” he said.
Enquiries:Visit
Thierry Pimi, Managing Director of
Cummins Southern Africa.
Jürgen Welker, Divisional
Director of Control System and
Service at KOCH Pac-Systeme
GmbH, and Martin Rostan,
Executive Director EtherCAT
Technology Group.
41 January ‘17 Electricity+Control