Former Aerotech UK managing director, Simon Smith, has rejoined the company as European manager of a newly formed control systems division aimed at taking the company further into the industrial controls market.

Smith (above) worked for Aerotech for about nine years until 2005, with more than six years as managing director, before moving to New Zealand, where he became national marketing manager for Rockwell Automation. He returned to the UK last year and worked as European distribution manager for Trio Motion Technology before rejoining Aerotech in January 2009.

The new control systems division aims to develop and expand sales of Aerotech`s rotary and linear servomotors, amplifiers and motion controls into existing and new market areas in Europe. A parallel initiative is taking place in Aerotech’s US home market and in Asia. The initiative will involve the development of new products and augmentation of existing lines.

“Simon`s broad engineering and marketing experience in our traditional high-precision positioning markets, and his recent experience in industrial automation, is the perfect starting point for the new division,” says Aerotech’s UK managing director, Dr Cliff Jolliffe. “By providing our existing sales channels with more market opportunities and developing new sales channels for this important part of our product range, we hope to increase our industrial motion control sales substantially in the coming years.”