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Mechanical Engineering Advisory Council

Albert A. Esser
Vice President of Engineering
Eaton Corporation

Dr. Albert A. Esser is the Vice President Technology, Fluid Power Group, Eaton and is responsible for driving functional excellence, developing advanced technologies and solutions and promoting global synergies within the Fluid Power Group based in Cleveland, Ohio since January 1, 2007. Dr. Esser is member of the Eaton Technology council. Prior Dr. Esser was the Vice President Engineering, Eaton Corporation and in charge of Eaton’s Innovation Centers since July 2006. He served on the Eaton Technology Council and was responsible for Eaton’s central research.

Prior Dr. Esser was the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Emerson Network Power, Emerson Electric, a position he held since Nov. 2001. He served as Technology Business Leader, Network Power Group, on the Emerson Technology Council. As CTO, he was overseeing the global R&D and product development of Emerson Network Power, which has engineers in 6 continents. The product lines included: UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), Precision Air-conditioning, Telecom-DC Systems, Monitoring Systems and others. Dr. Esser was also the VP Global Design DC-Systems since Nov. 2003 and had direct global responsibility for the global R&D and Engineering of the Telecom DC-Systems Business. Since 2004 he is Founding Member of the GridWise Architecture Board, sponsored by the DOE.

Prior Dr. Esser held the position Senior Vice President – Corporate Research at Hilti, Liechtenstein, appointed in 2000. The fields of Research he was responsible for included Work Science, Advanced Material Science and Analyses, Advanced Electronics and Systems, New Business Idea finding including business case studies, Engineering Services and others. He had global responsibility for joint research with Universities, Government and strategic partners.

During Jul. 1999 and Aug. 2000 Dr. Esser held the position Corporate Director Technology at Emerson Electric. In this assignment he was administering Emerson’s Strategic Investment Program aimed at highly visible technology based growth opportunities. Dr. Esser also held responsibility to coordinate Emerson wide strategic technology efforts, e.g. RF technology.

Before joining Emerson Dr. Esser held several positions with increasing responsibilities in GE from 1994 to 1999. He started in 1994 as Project Manager in GE’s Corporate R&D Center, Power Controls Program, and was Manager of this group from 1996-1998. Dr. Esser had responsibility for GE’s Research in the field of Electric Motors, Drives, Power Electronics, and Advanced Controls for these fields. Projects included Hybrid Bus (for NYC), Locomotive Traction Drive, High Speed Starter/Generator, High power inverters and others. During 1998 and 1999 he joint GE Medical Systems, MRI where he was Manager Imaging Subsystems, and later Global Manager. He was one of GE’s first Certified Master Blackbelt and was part of the initial 6 Sigma effort in GE Medical Systems.

Before joining GE, Dr. Esser started his career with Daimler-Benz in 1993 as a Staff Scientist and member of the Corporate Technology Exchange Program. He was responsible for innovative power conversion for rail applications.