Management & Corporate Structure

Helmuth Ludwig, Ph.D.

CEO, Siemens Industry Sector
North America

As chief executive officer of the Industry Sector in North America, Helmuth Ludwig is responsible for all business activity and executive management of the Siemens Industry Sector business in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America. In his 20 years with Siemens, Helmuth has held a broad range of strategic leadership positions.

After serving as general manager of Siemens' first organization in Kazakhstan, he joined the Automation and Drives group where he was responsible for process automation systems in Karlsruhe, Germany. He then became head of Siemens' Energy and Industry division in Buenos Aires.  Later, he became president of the Systems and Software House within the Automation and Drives headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany.

Helmuth then moved to the Systems Engineering Business Unit as president before being appointed president of Siemens PLM Software, a business acquired by Siemens in 2007 and headquartered in Plano, Texas. In that role, he successfully led the organization's integration into Siemens with its 50 legal entities and multiple facilities in 26 countries while working with its management team to develop long-term strategic direction.  In 2010, Helmuth became responsible for the global communications activities of the Industry Sector's Industry Automation division. He joined Siemens in 1990, working in corporate strategy developing regional strategies.

Helmuth holds a master's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany; a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago; and a doctorate from the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel, Germany. He is fluent in German, English and Spanish.

Raj Batra

President – Industry Automation, Siemens Industry, Inc.

As president of Siemens Industry, Inc.’s Industry Automation division, Raj Batra is responsible for the overall planning, organizing and directing of all activities of the division. Prior to this role, Batra was appointed vice president of the Automation and Motion division for Siemens Energy and Automation, Inc. (SE&A) in January 2007.

Batra joined Siemens in 1993 and held a variety of high-level sales and industry positions as senior account manager, automotive business unit manager and GM -global account manager before being appointed vice president – Automotive Center of Competence in 2002. In this role, he was responsible for the total automotive go-to-market strategy of SE&A in North America. In early 2005, Batra also assumed the responsibility of establishing and formalizing the go-to-market strategy for the burgeoning U.S.-Aerospace industry. He also served as head of the Automotive and Aerospace Center of Competence.

Before joining Siemens, Batra began his career at Rockwell Automation where he held various positions within the company's industrial automation segment.

Batra was born in Lexington, Ken., and raised in Detroit, Mich. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Lawrence Technological University in 1990 and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan in 1997.

Doug Keith

President – Drive Technologies Division, Siemens Industry, Inc.

In 2011, Doug Keith was named president of Siemens Industry, Inc.’s Drive Technologies division based in Alpharetta, Ga. Doug has more than 20 years of engineering and industrial expertise and joined the organization from Siemens Energy, where he served as vice president of the Power Distribution Medium Voltage Business Unit since 2005.

Prior to joining Siemens Energy in 2005, Doug occupied numerous leadership positions at General Electric where he managed factories in the United States and Mexico.

Doug holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University and is currently enrolled at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin.

Thomas Kopanski

Senior Vice President, Sales - Industry Sector (USA), Siemens Industry, Inc.

As senior vice president Sales, Tom Kopanski is responsible for the overall planning, organizing and directing of sales activities for Siemens Industry, Inc.

During his time with Siemens, Kopanski has held several managerial positions within the former Siemens Energy & Automation organization including general manager of the Drives business unit, vice president of the Solutions business and vice president of the Automation and Motion division. Tom was most recently the vice president of the Power Distribution and Controls division before moving into his current role in July 2009. Mr. Kopanski joined Siemens in 1992 as manager of training and promotions for AC Controls.  He held various positions within the AC Controls business and became manager, AC Controls business unit in 1996.

Kopanski began his career in 1984 as an application engineer for the Square D Company in Milwaukee, Wis. In 1989, he joined Allen-Bradley Company as senior marketing engineer. He subsequently held the positions of product marketing supervisor and product manager.

Kopanski holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and a Master of Business Administration degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis.

Aashish K. Gupta

Vice President, Metals Technologies, Industry Sector USA, Siemens Industry, Inc.

In 2011 Aashish Gupta was named vice president of the Metals Technologies (MT) business unit at Siemens Industry, Inc. He is responsible for managing and growing the metals businesses across domestic and global markets. Additionally, he is responsible for providing strong leadership in the continued integration of the electrical, automation and mechanical metals businesses. 

Aashish joined Siemens AG in Erlangen, Germany, in 1990 as marketing and project engineer for the metals industry after beginning his career with Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL), India in 1981 as a commissioning engineer, and later as a development engineer for the metals industry. 

In 1993, he joined Siemens Energy and Automation Inc. as a project manager and then as senior project manager. In this role, he was responsible for the overall performance of large rolling mill projects up to $50 million. From 1996 to 1998, as the segment manager for the Cold Rolling Mills & Process Lines, Aashish was responsible for all aspects of the business including marketing and selling, project execution and profitability. From 1998 to 1999, he was the department manager for the Test & Commissioning department.

In 2000, he was promoted to business unit manager for the Metals business unit in the United States. In this position, Aashish maintained complete responsibility for serving all aspects of the metals market and was successful in redefining and implementing a new strategic direction for the metals business due to significant market changes. In 2002, he took over as General Manager of the Industrial Plants business unit serving the Oil & Gas, Pulp & Paper, Marine and the Metals industries.

Aashish most recently served as vice president of the Rail Automation business unit of the Mobility division in New York. In that position, he was responsible for rail automation activities and services for the entire rail transportation portfolio in the United States. He was also responsible for the conduct of five major technology upgrade projects that Siemens implemented with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority which is responsible for all modes of public mass transit in the five boroughs of New York City including the New York City subways.

Aashish holds a degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) in Pilani, India.

Jagannath Rao

President – Customer Services Division, Siemens Industry Sector USA

Jagannath Rao is president of the Customer Services Division of the Siemens Industry Sector in the United States, effective Oct. 1, 2011. Rao is responsible for directing and growing product-related and value-added services to improve the availability, reliability and productivity of its customers’ industrial processes. 

Previously, he was president of Siemens Industry, Inc.’s Industry Solutions Division in the United States responsible for business segments in the division including Metals Technologies, Industrial Technologies and the U.S. Water Technologies business. 

Prior to that, Rao was senior vice president for Water Technologies globally where he was responsible for all business outside the United States.

Rao joined Siemens in 1985 in Chennai, India as a trainee engineer. He has worked in India, Germany and Singapore before moving to his current position in the U.S. Jagannath has held various senior and general management positions, such as regional sales manager for the Oil and Gas business, vice president of Oil and Gas for Asia-Pacific and vice president of Industry Solutions Singapore including the water hub for the Asia-Pacific region.

Jagannath was born in Jamshedpur, India and raised in Bangalore. He earned a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University in 1984 and a Post-Graduate degree in Knowledge Engineering from National University of Singapore in 2001.