As intralogistics industry growth continues to accelerate, Beckhoff Automation is adding resources to enable distribution and fulfillment center, parcel and post operations to meet evolving technology demands. Under the guidance of Global Intralogistics Industry Manager Doug Schuchart, Beckhoff USA has expanded its industry team by hiring Nathan Hibbs and promoting Gilbert Petersen. The company has also grown its New Automation Technology portfolio with solutions targeted to intralogistics applications and taken on additional leadership roles in key industry groups, such as MHI.
Hibbs will serve as a Material Handling & Intralogistics Business Development Manager for Beckhoff USA. He worked at B&R Industrial Automation since 2011, starting as Sales Engineer and working up to Channel Sales Manager with responsibility for the company’s southeast region and strategic business partnerships. Hibbs brings deep intralogistics industry expertise, particularly with right-size-packaging technology and other systems that require high degrees of motion control and mechatronics. Based in Greater Atlanta, he holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
A longstanding Beckhoff engineering expert, Petersen transitioned into the role of Material Handling & Intralogistics Application Specialist at the beginning of 2022. He started at the company as an application engineer in 2012 and was promoted to System Consultant in 2019. Prior to his tenure at Beckhoff, Petersen worked as Technical Director for Integrated Web Finishing Systems and Application Manager for Baumüller LNI. He is based in central Massachusetts.
In addition to the personnel news, Beckhoff became a founding member of the new Scan, Label, Apply, Manifest (SLAM) Industry Group at MHI, the largest material handling, logistics and supply chain association in North America. SLAM launched in February 2022 to “provide thought leadership for best practices on ‘the last 100 feet’ of every warehouse in the world,” according to MHI. Beckhoff actively participates in the MHI Solutions Community and Conveyor & Sortation Systems (CSS) Industry Groups, among other intralogistics and material handling organizations.
“By expanding our intralogistics solutions portfolio and industry team, Beckhoff is keeping pace with the exponential growth across all areas of intralogistics and is thriving in this industry,” Schuchart said. “Hibbs is an exciting addition to Beckhoff, and Petersen continues to provide outstanding engineering expertise for our wide-ranging customers. They will help me deliver superior support for equipment OEMs, warehouse integrators and equipment end users across all areas of distribution and fulfillment center, parcel and post operations in the U.S. Together, we will provide guidance for other Beckhoff subsidiaries as we scale up this team globally.”