Dr.-Ing. Alexander Schmidt (67), one of the founding members of the IPG Automotive GmbH, will retire at the beginning of this year. He will hand the reins to his son, Dipl.-Ing. Steffen Schmidt (42), who has formed part of the management team at the Karlsruhe-based simulation solution provider since 2013, to be sole managing director of the company.

Even if no longer active on the operational side of the business, Alexander Schmidt will keep in very close contact to the company. “Consistency and stability are very important to us,” said managing director, Alexander Schmidt, shortly before his retirement. “As a family business, those are two things we pay particular attention to and we are aware of the responsibility for our customers and employees that comes alongside this. The success and continuation of IPG Automotive have a special place in my heart and in my son Steffen’s, too, given that the company has always been so closely linked to our family.”

IPG Automotive was born from a project at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 1984. Today it is a globally active leader in technology, providing innovative software and hardware solutions for virtual test driving. Driven by the ever more rapid transformation to digitalization in the automotive industry, these solutions are also used in the autonomous driving, advanced driver assistance systems and e-mobility sectors.