Rolls-Royce Power Systems names Otto Preiss COO

Otto Preiss

Otto Preiss is to join the management board of Rolls-Royce Powers Systems as Chief Operating Officer (COO) on May 1.

Preiss joins the company, whose brands include MTU and Bergen Engines, after a more than 30 year career at ABB, where he was most recently Group Senior Vice President, acting in the role of Chief Operating Officer Digital. Prior to that headed up ABB’s global Motors and Generators division. Other global ABB businesses for which Preiss has assumed responsibility include corporate R&D into Power Technologies and the Swiss Corporate Research Center.

After graduating in electrical engineering at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Preiss went on to achieve a Master’s degree in computer science at the University of Colorado, following which he earned his doctorate at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

“The new corporate position we have created will enable us to drive the transformation of our business in an even more focused way,” said Axel Arendt, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Rolls-Royce Power Systems. “With his electrical engineering and IT expertise, and as a highly experienced international executive, Otto Preiss is ideally equipped for the task.”

Andreas Schell, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems, is looking forward to working with Preiss: “I’m delighted to have Otto Preiss on board, from whose expert support we will benefit greatly as we press on with implementing our strategy and mastering the challenges that lie ahead.”