Beckhoff Automation Appoints New Regional Director for Eastern U.S.
Beckhoff Automation LLC (Savage, MN) has appointed Steve Rastberger to serve as regional director for the eastern U.S. following the retirement of Graham Harris.
Posted: September 29, 2021
Also, Rastberger will grow the region’s team of sales and applications engineers, oversee operations on the East Coast, and expand the Beckhoff customer base in strategic industries.
Rastberger joined Beckhoff in 2020 as northeast district sales manager. Before that, he worked as regional sales manager for automation vendor Unitronics. Also, he worked for 20 years at Omron Automation – Americas. During his last eight years there, he served as director of the solutions and service division, among other positions.
“With the advances in automation technology from Beckhoff and the renewed emphasis on innovation across industries, this is an exciting time to take on this new role,” Rastberger said. “We are seeing significant growth with both new and longstanding customers, including numerous applications with XPlanar and advanced IoT concepts. I look forward to guiding the team through a new period of growth, building upon the solid foundation that Graham Harris has provided.”
Harris retired at the end of August. He had been the manager of the east region since 2014. In 2003, he became president of Beckhoff USA. At the time, the company had just 20 employees. Harris led the North American subsidiaries to average revenue growth of 20 percent each year.
“Beckhoff USA would not be what it is today without Graham’s contributions as company president and later as regional manager,” said Kevin Barker, president of Beckhoff Automation LLC. “We will miss Graham’s humor and leadership, but we are excited to have Steve take on a larger role. Steve has proven his knowledge and leadership capabilities throughout his career and especially in his time here at Beckhoff, so we are looking forward to the great work he will do for the larger team as regional director.”
