PI North America Announces New Board Member

Scottsdale, AZ, November 16, 2016 --(PR.com)-- PI North America, the non-profit trade organization for PROFIBUS and PROFINET technologies in North America, is proud to announce the appointment of Richard Carpenter, GE, to its Board of Directors. Carpenter is the Product General Manager for GE Energy Connections’ Automation and Controls product platforms. The Board voted unanimously to approve Mr. Carpenter’s nomination, and he will attend his first board meeting next month.

The Automation and Controls business is headquartered in Charlottesville Virginia with worldwide distribution and deployment capability for their control system, operator interface, industrial PC, and Industrial Internet products. In his current role, Carpenter is responsible for leading GE's automation controls strategy. Prior to this position, Carpenter was Chief of Product Strategy for GE Intelligent Platforms’ Software and Services business. He led GE IP’s overall Portfolio plan, the technology strategy, and the initiative to converge software and controls across GE. Carpenter has multiple patents in his name and a strong track record of introducing new, first release products. He will take over the seat vacated by Barry Lynch, now with GE Digital, who retired from the Board of Directors.

“Rich has been at the forefront of GE’s Industrial Internet strategy from the beginning, and how their platform relies on PROFINET data,” says Michael Bryant, Chairman of the Board of PI North America. “By joining the Board, Rich can now play a pivotal role in determining the strategic direction of PROFIBUS and PROFINET in North America. His expertise will help us expand our efforts to bring the technologies to an even wider market.” Carpenter will join fellow Board members Phil Marshall of Hilscher, Raj Batra of Siemens, and Michael Bryant.

About PI North America
PI North America is a non-profit, member-supported automation organization for fieldbus and Industrial Ethernet, specifically PROFIBUS and PROFINET. It is dedicated to supporting the discrete and process industries in achieving beneficial results using these networks. PI North America also assists device manufacturers in the development and marketing of PROFIBUS and PROFINET products. It is one of 27 regional associations that make up the global PI community. To date, more than 55,000,000 PROFIBUS devices have been installed and the total number of PROFINET devices installed now exceeds 15,000,000. Members of PI North America include vendors of hardware, software and systems as well as end users and operators, scientific institutes, universities, distributors, and system integrators.

About GE Energy Connections’ Automation and Controls
Our goal is to help companies optimize their assets and equipment and drive key business outcomes with proven technology solutions powered by the Industrial Internet. We design, manufacture, and sell rugged hardware that helps make the Industrial Internet real, including a portfolio of HMI/SCADA, Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs), Industrial Computers, operator interface equipment, and a complete line of programming and visualization software. Automation and Controls solutions work across many industries, including manufacturing, water, marine, oil & gas, power, and transportation.