Smart Skin Technologies announced the appointment of Andreas Liebl as a partner for key account customers. Mr. Liebl has more than 25 years experience in the industry and held several senior positions in the brewing, malting, flavour and machinery industries in Europe and Africa.

The Research Institute for Special Analyses (FIS) of the VLB Berlin is headed by Dr. Nils Rettberg since 1 January 2015. In this function, he succeeds Prof. Dr. Leif Alexander Garbe, who has accepted a position as professor at the Neubrandenburg University of Applied Science last year.

The Brewers of Europe’s General Assembly has unanimously re-elected Spanish brewer Demetrio Carceller to represent the European association that federates 29 national brewers associations across Europe. The EU has over 5500 breweries, which together brew 38 billion litres of beer annually. In Spain, the EU’s fourth largest beer market, beer represents 1.4% of national GDP.

Carlsberg Group announces that Dr Isaac Sheps, CEO of Baltika Breweries and Senior Vice President for Carlsberg Group’s Eastern Europe Region, has decided to step down from Carlsberg’s Executive Committee. He is succeeded by Jacek Pastuszka, currently CEO of Ringnes, Norway. The changes will take effect from January 1, 2015. In December Dr Sheps will be handing over the business and during 2015 he will continue working in the Carlsberg Group as Senior Executive Advisor to the Carlsberg Group’s CEO and ExCom.

At its constituent meeting following the General Assembly on 29 September 2014, the Administrative Board of the Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin (VLB) [EV] has elected Dr. Mike Eberle as its new chairman. The term of office is four years. Eberle takes over from the previous VLB President Dr. Axel Th. Simon, Bitburg, who held this tenure from 1989 to 2014.

At the General Assembly of the VLB Berlin on 29 September 2014 in Berlin, Dr. Axel Th. Simon resigned as Chairman of the Administrative Board of the VLB. In recognition of his outstanding commitment, he was appointed Honorary President of the VLB Berlin.

South Beer Cup 2014

The fourth edition of the South Beer Cup was held from May 21st to May 24th in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in conjunction with the exhibition Brazil Bier and Expo Cachaça.

James Mouton becomes NürnbergMesse North America’s new managing director on 1st July 2014. As an acknowledged exhibition expert, Mouton will be controlling the service portfolio of NürnbergMesse North America from Atlanta in future, allowing the company to benefit from his experience in this area.

Effective March 24, 2014, Ivan Williams was appointed as Global Commercial Director CO₂ & Biogas Systems at Pentair Haffmans. The New Zealand national brings more than 20 years of experience in CO₂ Systems. Prior to joining Pentair Haffmans, he was Managing Director of ASCO Carbon Dioxide Ltd. based in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Vice President of CO₂ Technology for the Messer Group GmbH in Krefeld, Germany. He holds a degree in Chemical and Process Engineering from the University of Canterbury and served as Project Manager and Senior Sales Manager at Pentair Haffmans from 2000 to 2009.

Food and drink research company Campden BRI has appointed Chris Smart to lead its Brewing Services department. Chris will be responsible for driving the development of Campden BRI services in operational support for the alcoholic beverages industry.

Dr. Ing. Fritz Jacob has been appointed Honorary Professor at TU München (TUM). He currently is in charge of the Research Center Weihenstephan for Brewing and Food Quality – an important link between research, teaching and practical applications. As Honorary Professor, Jacob will further expand his teaching position at the Department for Brewing and Beverage Technology regarding Quality Management.

Effective as of the beginning of 2014, Tobias Kahmann (39) accepted responsibility as Director of two merged departments at Gea Refrigeration Technologies: Marketing and Market Intelligence. Annette Wille, who was previously head of the Department Marketing, will move to a new assignment at Gea Refrigeration Technologies. Tobias Kahmann is now responsible for all marketing activities: market-data generation, market analysis and market-data resourcing, development of marketing strategy, as well as internal and external communication. He was until now the Director of Market Intelligence, which has now been merged with the Department of Marketing to generate synergies and to provide a one stop shopping approach.

The Beer Academy in London, an educational body that was founded by a small group of beer enthusiasts in 2003 to help people understand, appreciate and enjoy beer, has appointed Alex Barlow as its Director of Training and Chief Examiner to replace George Philliskirk, who retires after nine years with the organisation.

Pentair announced the appointment of Dr. Roland Folz as Director Technology & Innovation for Food & Beverage. Effective, February 1, 2014, Folz will be responsible for innovation, product design, solutions development, and the global R&D function for the company’s food & beverage division. Folz has 17 years of experience in the brewing and beverage industries.