Mate Opens Chinese Office, Names New Staff

Mate Precision Tooling, Anoka, Minn., a manufacturer of CNC punch press tooling, has opened a new sales office in Shanghai, China. Wei Sun has been appointed the sales manager for this new office.

“[This] appointment and this new office demonstrate Mate’s ongoing commitment to the Chinese market,” said Vice President of International Sales Jim Thomas. “Mr. Sun will be responsible for dealer and direct sales development in China and Hong Kong.”

Prior to joining Mate, Sun worked for TRUMPF in Germany and China from 2003 through 2008. Most recently he worked for German industrial filter manufacturer Keller Lufttechnik at its office in Shanghai.

He has a degree in engineering from Karlsruhe University in Germany, and also studied at Tongji University, Shanghai.

In other news from the company, Frank Baeumler has been appointed vice president of business development.

“Mr. Baeumler’s appointment to this newly created position will open new directions and growth opportunities for Mate,” said President Kevin Nicholson. “He will lead the effort to identify complementary business segments for Mate where we can apply the skills and techniques that make Mate an industry leader. These new segments will provide diversification and growth into new product families, customer groups, and markets.”

Baeumler most recently was vice president European operations and managing director of Mate Precision Tooling GmbH.

During his six years in these positions, he expanded and moved the operations into new facilities in Oberursel, Germany. He developed new systems that utilize and combine the strengths of both Mate USA and Mate Germany to better serve all of Europe and the worldwide precision sheet metal market, the company states.

Baeumler previously was the company’s international marketing manager for 11 years, and has been with the company for a total of 23 years.

He holds a B.A. in international relations from the University of Wisconsin and an M.A. in international relations from the University of Wyoming.

For more information, visit www.mate.com.