Berthold Leibinger, born in Stuttgart, is the son of an art dealer in East Asian antiques. He graduated from high school in 1950 and began an apprenticeship as a mechanic at TRUMPF & Co., a machine tool manufacturer in Stuttgart-Weilimdorf. He studied mechanical engineering at the Stuttgart Technical University. After his education, he started work as a development engineer at TRUMPF GmbH + Co. KG. From 1958 to 1961, he worked as a development engineer at Cincinnati Milling Machines in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. After he returned to TRUMPF in 1961, he assumed the position of head of the engineering division and developed the first punching and contour nibbler with numeric control in 1968. |
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| Leibinger successively acquired shares in the company and, in 1966, became a managing partner of the company and its technical director. From 1978 to 2005, he was president of the managing board and managing partner of TRUMPF. In the early 80s TRUMPF developed their own lasers and laser systems. TRUMPF is considered the world market and technology leader in this field. On November 18, 2005, shortly before his 75th birthday, Berthold Leibinger became the chairman of the supervisory board of the TRUMPF group. | |||||||||||
| Above and beyond his company, Berthold Leibinger has held voluntary positions on a regional, national and international level. He is the honorary chairman of the supervisory board of BASF AG, chairman of the supervisory board of Stuttgart University, honorary president of the IHK Region Stuttgart (Chamber of Industry and Commerce), member of the main management board of the Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e. V. (VDMA [Association of German Engineers and Plant Manufacturers]), deputy chairman of the Verein Deutscher Werkzeugmaschinenfabriken e. V. (VDW [Association of German Machine Tool Manufacturers]) and member of the Asian Pacific Committee of the German Industry and Commerce.
From 1994 to 2001, Berthold Leibinger was chairman of the advisory council on innovation set up by the state government of Baden-Württemberg, and from 2002 to 2005 he was chairman of the Baden-Württemberg Innovation Forum.
Berthold Leibinger has distinguished himself through his commitment to the community as chairman of the board of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart and as chairman of the Freundeskreis des Schiller-Nationalmuseums [Friends of the Schiller National Museum] and of the Deutsches Literaturarchiv In 1992, he founded the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung GmbH as a non-profit organization to fund cultural, scientific, religious and charitable organizations from the earnings of the foundation’s capital reserve. Since 2000, it has awarded the Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis for applied laser technology. Since 2006, the foundation has also awarded the Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis for research in the application and generation of laser light. | |||||||||||
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