BMW’s Christoph Huss is new President of FISITA

Dipl.-Ing. Christoph Huss, BMW Group’s Vice President Development Abroad, Type Approval and Traffic Management, is the new President of the International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies (FISITA) for the 2008-10 term.

Mr. Huss, who is also President of the German VDI-FVT, received the FISITA baton from Dr. Akihiko Saito of Toyota during the closing ceremony of the 2008 FISITA World Automotive Congress in Munich.

Addressing the Congress, which attracted more than 1,800 automotive engineers from 42 countries, Mr. Huss said, “I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to the delegates of all 39 member societies for entrusting me with the responsibility to lead our federation over the next two years”.

“I am convinced that FISITA must continue to grow and to continue to do much more in the future, if we want to make a significant contribution to the global efforts the industry is making, especially in the areas of energy, the environment and safety”.

He added that the challenges faced by today’s automotive industry, especially the development of alternative power sources, are “pushing at the very limits of current scientific and engineering knowledge” and call for “a re-invention of the automobile.”

He told delegates that FISITA was uniquely positioned to facilitate greater cooperation between engineers in different countries, both in industry and academia, saying “The problems we face are global. The action to solve them must be taken at a global level too.”

Mr. Huss has a distinguished career in automotive and mobility technology. After graduating from the University of Applied Sciences, Cologne in 1979 with a degree in Vehicle Engineering, he gained his Dipl.-Ing. in Safety Engineering from the University of Wuppertal.

He joined BMW in 1983 as an engineer specialising in international homologation. In 1985 he became Product Information Manager, Spokesman for Technology for BMW AG. From 1989 to 1991 he served as Spokesman for Technology for BMW of North America.

Returning to Germany in 1991, he became Manager Traffic / Safety in the company’s Traffic and Environment unit.

In 1997 he was named Representative of the Board for Traffic and Environment at BMW AG. He was made Senior Vice President Science and Traffic Policy of the BMW Group in 2002.