March 22, 2013 - The HART Communication Foundation's Board of Directors appointed Ted Masters as President and CEO. Masters will succeed Ron Helson, who has been the Foundation’s chief executive since 1993 and will retire from his position as Executive Director. Helson will work closely with Masters to ensure an orderly transition of Foundation initiatives and no interruption in day-to-day operations. Masters comes to the Foundation with a wealth of business experience and origins in process control and instrumentation. He has worked in leadership roles with both instrumentation and systems companies and served as president with the former Elcon Instruments, a leader in signal conditioning I/O and HART products.
In addition, Masters has executive-level experience in predictive analytics and smart devices and brings to bear a solid understanding from the users’ perspective. “Ron Helson has served the Foundation well for 20+ years. His dedication and vision are responsible for the success of the Foundation and HART technology. We wish Ron well in his retirement,” says Mark Schumacher, Chairman of the HART Communication Foundation Board. “I am very pleased and excited about the appointment of Ted Masters to succeed Ron in this very important role, both for the Foundation and for the industry.
Ted’s leadership capability, technology expertise and commitment to excellence will ensure the ongoing success of the HART technology for the benefit of the member companies and the end users.” “It has been my privilege to work with the talented people in our member companies and on the Board of Directors and the Foundation staff in serving the HART Communication Foundation over the past 20 years,” says Helson. “Together we have accomplished a great deal in advancing the HART technology and the benefits it provides to process automation industry users. I have had the benefit of knowing Ted Masters for many years and believe that he is the right executive with the right experience to lead the Foundation forward to greater achievements in the years ahead.”
“I am excited to be a part of forging the future strategy of the Foundation at this exciting time in the industry,” says Masters. “I look forward to delivering additional value to the member companies and building upon the cutting-edge leadership of process automation technology.” The HART Communication Foundation is the standards development and support organization for the HART Communication Protocol, the global standard for intelligent process measurement and control devices. Founded in 1993, the Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit, membership organization providing support for the HART Communication technology and standards worldwide. The Foundation is supported by a global membership of more than 280 companies.
HART Communication is the leading technology for process measurement and control with more than 35 million HART-enabled devices installed worldwide.