Guard changes at MESA

New Officers for MESA were announced at the P2E (Plant to Enterprise) conference in Orlando recently. Taking over from Kevin Roach (late of GE and now with Rockwell Software) as Chairman is Karsten Newbury, Siemens Energy and Automation, General Manager, Process Automation Systems and Manufacturing Execution Systems; Vice Chairman is Sudipta Bhattacharya of SAP, thus confirming that SAP really has changed its spots and actually appears to believe that enterprise integration is more than an automated balance sheet. Other officers of note include Vivek Bapat and Matt Bauer of Rockwell Automation, Claus Abildgren, Invensys Wonderware, Program Manager, Production & Performance Management; Chris Colyer, Microsoft, Global Industry Director, Process Manufacturing, Manufacturing Industry Solutions; Bill Estep, GE Fanuc Automation Americas, Inc., Vice President, Automation Solutions; Carter Johnson, Visiprise, V.P., Strategy and Business Development; Jürgen Kletti, MPDV Mikrolab GmbH, Founder, Chairman and CEO; Jim Ricigliano, Wyeth, Associate Director, MES Technical Operations & Product Supply, Business Process Management and Jonathon Siudut, IBM, Manager, Industrial Sector Development. IBM's involvement in MESA alongside SAP may actually indicate that the Enterprise is recognizing that the problem of lack of realtime information doesn't lie with the plant floor, but rather the enterprise software systems. It is also nice to note that the vendors who dominate MESA have invited a couple of end users onto the board. According to the MESA press release, a "record-setting" crowd enthusiastically participated. Walt