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Mr. Zens has over twenty years of experience in building and managing international business organizations for semiconductor equipment manufacturers. His background includes technology management, strategic business development and general management positions in the US and in Europe. Mr. Zens serves as Senior Executive Advisor to Noblemen Group and assists its clients with all aspects of international business operations between the US and Europe.
Mr. Zens has held various senior management positions of leading-edge technology companies in Germany, the US and the UK. He has an excellent reputation of being able to establish and optimize multi-national business operations to supply complex equipment and associated services to an increasingly demanding customer base.
As Managing Director of Tylan General Germany, Mr. Zens provided the leadership for a significant directional change in the company. The restructuring of European manufacturing, the setup of a customer-centric sales and support organization and the addition of two product lines were accomplished under his direction. Mr. Zens drove the divestiture of a business unit not in line with the new company vision, and spearheaded the creation of a very successful global strategic alliance. He managed to enhance profitability while bringing the company back to a dynamic growth path.
Prior to that, Mr. Zens was the head of European product development in Tylan. His key achievements included the adaptation of existing technology to make it suitable for the broader industrial market, as well as a major product innovation that was first introduced to the European markets and subsequently rolled out globally. Mr. Zens’ contributions included the transfer of manufacturing technology to the main factory in the US on a very demanding time schedule. The new product was an outstanding commercial success for the company.
After Tylan General was acquired by Millipore, Mr. Zens again took over a key role in technology management and headed up the product engineering for a business unit post-acquisition. He merged development activities from six different locations and formed one group benefiting from synergies between the formerly dispersed teams. A new product delivery process was developed and successfully implemented under his direction.
Later on, Mr. Zens served as the European Market Director for Kinetics, developing their sales and account management to the European semiconductor industry, as well as to global key accounts with fabs in Europe. The responsibilities included the integration of the regional organization which resulted from a series of acquisitions. At the same time, Mr. Zens developed the European business for Trimega, a Joint Venture of Kinetics and Air Products, providing turn-key solutions for the process systems infrastructure to semiconductor fabs.
In the recent past, Mr. Zens has developed the US business for DAS, a Germany-based supplier of waste gas abatement equipment to the semiconductor industry. He identified and set up of efficient communications and a highly responsive support organization as key success factors for growing the business.
Mr. Zens also held product management and senior business development positions in Veeco Instruments and Lamba Physik. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics from FH Munich.
Walter lives in Berlin, the new capital of Germany, and enjoys the cultural diversity of the city. In his spare time, he may still be found skiing the slopes in Austria, although his sportive ambitions have once been much higher in that field. | 