July 17, 2026 — PLCopen had a successful annual General Meeting on May 20, 2026, in Gorinchem, The Netherlands. Part of the meeting related to elections in the Board of Management. Three board members — Achim Koch of SMS group, Efrossini Tsouchnika of Siemens and Jaeyoung Park of OMRON Corporation — informed PLCopen of their wish to resign.
We are pleased to announce that in their place Dr. Julian Alexander, Ingmar Binder and Hedon Ri were proposed and appointed respectively.
Dr. Julian Alexander Vogel is currently head of Automation Platform at SMS group GmbH, focusing on generative automation engineering. At SMS, he worked on transforming and integrating PLCopen models into engineering workflows and evaluated use cases, applying modern Software Defined Control practices with CI/CD in OT as well as generative AI technologies.
“Previously at RWTH Aachen University, I researched and implemented component-oriented process automation using experimental Soft-PLC technologies (ACPLT/OV and ACPLT/KS) under IEC 61131 principles. I also built OPC UA server components (typically in C) and gained relevant experiences in standardization topics such as OPAS and MTP, which I now aim to support and advance in PLCopen," said Vogel.
Ingmar Binder is a seasoned professional at Siemens, where he has been contributing for more than 34 years. He works within the Digital Industries division, specifically in Factory Automation. In his role, he is responsible for the SIMATIC controller portfolio, covering both hardware and software-based control solutions.
Throughout his career, he has gained extensive experience across key automation domains, including I/O systems, Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) and Safety technologies. Leveraging this broad expertise, he drives the development, management and strategic direction of core automation products within Siemens. Hedon Ri has more than 20 years’ experience in OMRON.
Currently, he is in charge of PLC business growth and realizing the importance of PLCopen day by day. “Let’s work for better Factory Automation!” said Hedon Ri.
PLCopen sincerely thanks Achim Koch, Efrossini Tsouchnika and Jaeyoung Park for all their work for the Board of Management and welcomes their successors. We look forward to our cooperation in the coming years.
About PLCopen
PLCopen was founded in 1992 as an independent worldwide association for industrial suppliers and users. It is the leading association resolving topics related to industrial control programming. PLCopen creates concepts to reduce the costs of industrial automation. These cost savings are realized in areas such as engineering, training, operation and maintenance. Together with its members, PLCopen creates specifications to materialize these concepts.
