Bruker taps co-presidents for its BioSpin division

November 16, 2009 by MassDevice staff

The Billerica, Mass.-based imaging and lab equipment maker names a pair of its executive vice presidents, Bernd Gewiese and Werner Maas, as co-presidents of its BioSpin division.

Bruker Corp. (BRKR) tapped a pair of its vice presidents to replace Dirk Laukien, a member of the company's founding family, who is stepping down early next year from his day-to-day role in the company.

The Billerica, Mass.-based imaging and lab equipment maker named Bernd Gewiese and Werner Maas as co-presidents of its BioSpin division, effective Feb. 1, 2010. Both men are executive vice presidents in the division, which makes nuclear magnetic resonance and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy equipment and pre-clinical MRI devices.

Gewiese joined Bruker in 1992 as MRI product manager, rising to managing director of Bruker BioSpin MRI GmbH in 1999 and executive vice president in 2005. Maas joined the company in 1992 as a post-doctoral fellow in the U.S., later becoming a research scientist. In 2001, he was named vice president for research and development; in 2005 Bruker made him vice president for MRI in the U.S. He was named EVP at BioSpin in 2007.

Laukien, 44, is the younger brother of CEO Frank Laukien. Bruker announced Nov. 13 that Dirk Laukien plans to give up his executive and board responsibilities effective Feb. 1, 2010. The company said Laukien opted to give up his full-time responsibilities at Bruker to "devote more time to personal interests." He was named, however, to a new position as senior scientific fellow at the company — a job that will pay him $100,000 a year.