Ahead of the departure of chief executive Henry Brickenkamp in June, technotrans has announced changes to its board of management.

Brickenkamp, who joined the company in 2006 and has been an architect of its transformation, has said he wants to leave at the end of his contract in order to follow up a "new professional challenge".

The supervisory board has appointed 42-year-old Hendirk Niestert as an additional member of the management board, and Andreas J Schmid (50) to succeed chief technology officer Christof Soest, who left at the end of 2017.

Both appointments are effective from February 1.

Mechatronics engineering graduate Niestart started his career with an American subsidiary of Grimme Landmaschinenfabrik, and joined technotrans in 2007 as service manager, became head of a business unit, and took charge of worldwide service in 2011. He will be responsible primarily for sales and service, and quality management.

Schmid's professional experience has been in the capital goods industry, the mechanical and plant engineering sector and the control technology field. He was latterly managing director of Munich-based Schaltbau, which makes electromechanical components and systems for auto and transport sectors, the capital goods industry and industrial applications.

He will be responsible for development, controls, business units, production, purchasing and logistics.

Niestert and Schmid join Brickenkamp and chief financial officer Dirk Engel on the management board.