Utz-Jens Beister

Bio

President, IAV Inc.

Utz-Jens Beister President IAV Automotive Engineering Inc. Utz-Jens Beister is president of IAV Automotive Engineering Inc., based in Northville, Michigan. Named to this position in 2005, he heads IAV’s North American activities with the objective to ensure the company provides the highest level of customer service around the world. In addition, Beister is responsible for IAV’s continued North American growth and expanding the company’s product and service portfolio.  He has pro-vided strategic leadership for the relocation and expansion of IAV’s North American Technical Center from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Northville Township, Michigan, which took place in 2008. Prior to this position, Beister was vice president of engineering for IAV. In this function, he was instrumental in restructuring the company and creating a new strategic direction. Previous roles have also included direc-tor of Powertrain Engineering and department manager of the Transmission and Alternative Drives division. From 1994 to 2000, Beister was employed with IAV’s parent company, IAV GmbH. While there, he held sev-eral positions in the Transmission and Alternative Drives division, including project engineer and project manager. In these roles, Beister developed automatic transmissions and hybrid electric vehicles for various automakers in Germany. Beister earned his Diplom-Ingenieur degree in automotive engineering at the Technical University in Berlin, Germany. He is a member of the Detroit section of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).