MeshNetics has appointed Thomas Lerm as General Manager of its EMEA Operations. Previously Thomas Lerm held a key position at Atmel Corporation where he was one of the masterminds of Atmel's 802.15.4/ZigBee effort, the Z-Link program. He brings to MeshNetics over 12 years of professional experience in engineering, business development and marketing. His expertise in the emerging wireless market will be instrumental in further growing MeshNetics' EMEA sales of Atmel-based 802.15.4/ZigBee modules and software, as well as related design services. Lerm will operate out of the new MeshNetics European headquarters in Dresden, Germany.
Vasiliy Suvorov, CEO of Meshnetics, comments: "Thomas is one of the industry pioneers who have been involved with 802.15.4/ZigBee from day one. He was one of the 'founding fathers' of ZigBee program in Atmel, the world leading semiconductor manufacturer and our long-standing partner. Thomas' new assignment should further strengthen our relationship with Atmel. His unique set of engineering and business development skills, along with his capacity to integrate new ideas and convert them into tangible results, will be the key to successfully developing the fast growing wireless markets of Europe and neighbouring regions."
Lerm was one of the architects of the Z-Link ecosystem that fostered a robust partner community offering 802.15.4/ZigBee software for Atmel's AVR Z-Link chipset. Prior to that he was Program Manager for Advanced System Development and technical marketing within the SPANSION Business Unit of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), where he is credited with successfully managing the Alpha Program for WLAN System Development and Integration. Until then he served as Commodity Quality Manager for Communication ICs and Solutions at Siemens Mobile and co-led an advanced technology group. Lerm holds a Master Degree in Communications Technology from the University of Applied Science, Berlin.
At the helm of the Business Development Centre for EMEA area, Lerm will be driving sales of MeshNetics' ZigBee modules and design services, gradually developing it into a local competence centre. He will manage and grow the distribution network and work on establishing key relationships with major OEM/ODM accounts. Lerm will be closely involved in all facets of MeshNetics' development strategy and portfolio planning. One of his goals will be transforming the Dresden headquarters into the 'MeshNetics WSN Solutions Engineering Centre' in Europe over the next few years.
Lerm states: "I feel fortunate joining the European leader in ZigBee module-based solutions for building automation, automated meter reading, asset tracking and a host of other application areas, at the time when the wireless sensor market is set for the exponential growth. MeshNetics offers a winning combination of superior Atmel hardware, packaged into easy-to-integrate modules, robust software, and a comprehensive support and design services. I look forward to serving our clients, working with our partners and establish a sustainable eco-network around MeshNetics product offerings."
In the European market, MeshNetics offers a full line of ZigBit 802.15.4/ZigBee modules. These modules, said to be the smallest of their kind in the industry, are based on the Atmel AVR Z-Link hardware platform and are claimed to offer a superior unamplified line-of-site range of over 1000m (3280 ft). The ZigBee 2006 certified mesh networking stack software and sample applications, included in the Development Kit along with the evaluation boards and accessories, provide all the tools needed to develop reliable, cost-effective ZigBee systems. MeshNetics also offers certified IEEE 802.15.4 MAC software, the OpenMAC, which can be downloaded for free at www.meshnetics.com/opensource/mac. For more information on MeshNetics 802.15.4/ZigBee modules and ZigBee software please visit www.meshnetics.com or the new German-language website www.meshnetics.de.