GEA announced that as of February 1, 2017, Ansgar Hoffmann, who was previously responsible for GEA's North & Central Europe Region, will be taking over the DACH & Eastern Europe Region from Dr. Hugo Blaum, who is retiring. Ann Cuylaerts, previously Head of GEA France and GEA Maghreb, will be taking up the vacant position of Regional Head of North & Central Europe. In their new functions, Ann Cuylaerts and Ansgar Hoffmann will be reporting directly to J-rg Oleas, Chairman of the Executive Board of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft. After spending several years as a consultant, Hoffmann joined GEA in 2003 and has held various management functions during that time, including the position of a managing director inside the former GEA Heat Exchangers segment and a term as Business Unit Leader and General Sales Manager of the former GEA Farm Technologies segment. Cuylaerts has been with GEA since 1994. She started her career in Belgium as a sales engineer and, like Ansgar Hoffmann, has held a variety of management functions, mainly in the field of mechanical separation.