New chairman selected for processing & packaging entity.

The Director- Corporate Market Development at Stemmer Imaging, Mark Williamson, has been elected as the next Chairman of the PPMA (Processing & Packaging Machinery Association). He has also been elected to serve on the Board of VDMA Machine Vision for the next three years.

Mark Williamson

The PPMA is the Britain's trade association for suppliers of processing and packaging machinery to world markets and represents over 400 member and associate companies. VDMA Machine Vision is a subgroup within the VDMA Robotics + Automation Association in Germany, with over 100 member companies supplying machine vision components and systems for both manufacturing and non-manufacturing applications across Europe.

Williamson is a former Chairman of the UKIVA (UK Industrial Vision Association) and joined the PPMA Board in 2010 when the UKIVA became a special interest group of the PPMA and continues to be an active member of the UKIVA committee. He becomes Vice-Chair to current PPMA Chairman, Grant Jamieson, from December 2015 and will take up his 2-year appointment as Chairman in December 2016. In 2018 he will revert to the position of Vice-Chair for a further year to support the then incoming Chairman.

Williamson commented: “It is a great honour to be invited to take up two such important roles in the industry. Having served for 12 years as UKIVA Chairman and been part of the PPMA Board for 5 years I have seen a significant growth in the adoption of vision technology in the processing and packaging industry. I look forward to further developing the interests of the processing and packaging sector as a whole during my tenure as Chairman.”

“As one of three non-German members on the new Board of VDMA Machine Vision, I also look forward, together with my colleagues from Belgium and Italy, to bringing a pan-European perspective to VDMA Machine Vision,” he continued. “With individual trade associations playing an important role in representing local vision companies' interests, our aim is to further broaden understanding of the market opportunities across different countries.”