UGS states a family health problem demands that Brandis stay in Germany, where
UGS' parent company Siemens is based. He was to be stationed in UGS
headquarters in Plano, Texas.
August 2, 2007
To: Siemens A&D UGS PLM Software Employees
It has now been nearly three months to the day since we closed our
acquisition by Siemens, and we hope you share our continuing excitement
over UGS PLM Software becoming part of the Siemens family and the
opportunities ahead of us. Today we would like to provide you with some
important updates about the integration of UGS PLM Software into Siemens
A&D, including a look at our second quarter performance and 2008
strategic plan.
We start with news of an important change in our executive
management team. Tilo Brandis, who as you know came to UGS PLM Software
to oversee the integration of our business into Siemens A&D and has been
serving as our president, will be leaving UGS PLM Software due to a
family health situation that now requires him to remain in Germany. We
are certainly disappointed by this turn of events, because Tilo has been
a significant addition to our management team. He has provided great
energy, enthusiasm and support for our business, and has also played a
key role in expanding awareness and understanding of UGS PLM Software
throughout other areas of Siemens A&D. Thanks in great part to Tilo’s
efforts, the integration effort has surpassed even our own high
expectations and continues to gain strength.
We are pleased to announce today that taking the reins for Tilo as
our new president is Dr. Helmuth Ludwig, who joins UGS PLM Software from
Siemens Systems Engineering, a division of A&D, where he has served as
president since 2002. Helmuth brings a wealth of technology experience
and talent to his new position, and through his former role with Siemens
Systems Engineering his unusually deep understanding of Siemens’
inter-workings will be a strong asset for our business. In 1990, after
studying industrial engineering with a major in software engineering in
Karlsruhe, Germany and business administration in Chicago, Helmuth
joined Siemens in corporate strategy. Later he opened and built up the
first Siemens organization in Kazakhstan, and in 1996 joined A&D with
responsibility for Process Instrumentation Systems. From 1998 until 2001
he was head of A&D’s Energy and Industry division in Buenos Aires, then,
from 2001 to 2002 he was responsible for the A&D Software and Systems
House.
Helmuth is already in the process of planning his family’s move to
the Plano area. We had an opportunity to spend a great deal of time with
him this week in Germany, as well as on a long airplane ride together
yesterday, and we can tell you he is very excited to be joining our
business and will be a tremendous asset to our team. You will have an
opportunity to meet him during today’s global Town Hall meeting and we
hope you will join us in extending him a warm welcome.
Helmuth joins us at a very favorable time, thanks in great part to
our second quarter performance. We are excited to report that in our Q2
(our first quarter as part of Siemens) our software license revenue
growth was strong, significantly exceeding that of our key competitors.
As you know, license growth is the primary measure of growth for a
software company. We want to offer our congratulations to each of you
for this very strong performance, which you achieved while managing the
significant challenges of closing the UGS acquisition and accelerating
the global integration process. Q2 marked our 16th consecutive quarter
of year-over-year revenue growth, an accomplishment of which we can all
be very proud.
Another key accomplishment, achieved just this week, was the
approval of our 2008 strategic plan by the A&D Board. We, along with
Helmuth, presented our plan and we are happy to say that it received
overwhelming support from the Board. Our plan features six key
initiatives. We will provide a short overview of these initiatives
during today’s Town Hall and look forward to updating you with more
detail in the coming weeks. We believe these initiatives will provide
the focus we need to lead the next evolution in PLM and automation
technology.
Finally, we are excited to share an important update that has
grown out of our excellent integration work. On October 1, which is the
beginning of Siemens’ 2008 fiscal year, we plan to transition our
go-to-market divisional name from UGS PLM Software to Siemens PLM
Software. The UGS PLM Software name has served as a good bridge to
remind people of our heritage as we moved into the Siemens family. Now,
we have the opportunity to further leverage the world-class Siemens
brand by associating it with our divisional name. We have already been
converting existing UGS systems and materials to the Siemens brand, and
will continue this conversion by adding the new divisional name where
appropriate. At the same time, as we said upon the close of the
acquisition in May, we will continue to feature UGS in front of our
product suite names so we are able to continue to leverage the equity we
have built in recent years in this great name.
We want to close by personally thanking each of you for your
ongoing commitment to our business. There isn’t another company in the
industry that could do what we are doing now and it is you that makes
this possible. As we push forward with our integration and growth
efforts, we will continue to update you on major milestones. In the
meantime, please join us in wishing Tilo well as he focuses on his
family, as well as welcoming and congratulating Helmuth on his new
appointment.
With best regards,
Tony Affuso, Chairman and CEO
Tilo Brandis, President
Peter Bichara, EVP & CFO
Source: Material used in press releases is often supplied by external
sources and used as is.
