PI North America was founded as the PROFIBUS Trade Organization in 1994 and was generally known as simply PTO. Although an autonomous non-profit trade organization, PTO renamed itself to PI North America to more closely identify with the international umbrella organization, PI (PROFIBUS & PROFINET International).
PI North America is dedicated to supporting industry in achieving beneficial results using the PROFIBUS, PROFINET, IO-Link, and omlox technologies. PI North America also assists device manufacturers in the development and marketing of PROFIBUS, PROFINET, IO-Link, and omlox products.
Over 1,500 companies organized into 27 Regional PI Associations develop and supply fieldbus and Industrial Ethernet solutions for cost efficient and highly reliable automation.
The PI Community
PI is the largest industrial networking standards organization in the world and it is the umbrella organization responsible for the PROFIBUS, PROFINET, IO-Link, and omlox technologies. Its standardization efforts and commitment to openness have guaranteed leading-edge, certified-interchangeable products from an enormous range of suppliers. It has been doing business with PROFIBUS since 1989 and a measure of its success is that there are over 69 million PROFIBUS devices in use today. First PROFINET specifications became available in 2002 and there are more than 65 million PROFINET devices installed today. IO-Link was brought into the organization in 2009 and as to date more than 40 million IO-Link devices have been installed worldwide.
Membership
As one of those 27 local PROFIBUS and PROFINET organizations, PI North America, a non-profit, member organization, is responsible for North America. Members of PI North America are vendors of hardware, software and systems, as well as end users and operators, scientific institutes, universities, distributors, and system integrators. PI North America supports its members with a range of services such as joint marketing projects, road shows, training classes, product certification, strategy meetings and webinars.
Board of Directors
PI North America is governed by a Board of Directors that advises the organization and helps shape long-term strategy.
Darrell Halterman | Emerson
Darrell Halterman is the Director of PACSystems Controls and Compute for Emerson’s Controls & Software business unit. The business is headquartered in Charlottesville, VA providing a broad portfolio of automation products and solutions including PLC/PAC controls and industrial I/O, motion and safety controls and devices, operator interfaces and industrial PCs, industrial Ethernet and power devices, and edge devices and solutions.
Darrell joined the Controls & Software business in 2000 and has held a variety of roles of increasing responsibility including Embedded Systems Developer, Project Manager, Global Program Manager, Engineering Manager, and Product Manager and now leads the product strategy development and deployment for the PACSystems portfolio.
Darrell holds several patents and earned a Bachelor Of Science in Computer Engineering from Virgina Tech and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from James Madison University.
Victor Wolowec | Hilscher
Victor Wolowec is National Distribution Channel Sales Manager at Hilscher North America since 2012. A native of Philadelphia, PA, he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University and later an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University.
Throughout his career, Victor has served in many various roles such as Project Engineer, Inside Sales Management, Regional Sales Management, VP of Operations and Logistics, VP of Solutions Business and General Manager and has served on the Board of Directors of PI for 2 years previously being appointed in 2008. He has spent most of his career in Industrial Automation but Victor’s passion is in creating results oriented organizations that thrive. Starting from the ground up, Victor built an extensive North American distribution channel for Hilscher’s end user products including gateways and PC cards.
He currently resides in Indiana and enjoys spending time with his family which includes his wife of over 37 years, three children and soon to be 5 grandchildren.
Michael Bryant | PI North America
Michael Bryant has been involved with Industrial Automation and the Fieldbus Industries for the past twenty years. He is best known for his worldwide support of the PROFIBUS/PROFINET technologies. With assistance from PROFIBUS International (PI), he founded the PROFIBUS Trade Organization (PTO) in January 1993 which was renamed PI North America in 2010. Today he serves as Chairman of the Board of PI North America and Administrative Director of the OPC Foundation.
Mr. Bryant joined Matrix Corporation as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing in 1988 after retiring from the US Naval Submarine Service. In 1992, he became the Vice President of Global Marketing with PEP Modular Computers. Mr. Bryant resigned his position with PEP in January 1995 to serve full time as the Executive Director of PI North America. In July 2001, he founded Panoramix Services LLC, a corporation specializing in marketing, administrative, and technical services for trade associations.
Mr. Bryant holds a Bachelor of Science degree (magna cum laude) in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University.
Raj Batra | Siemens
Raj Batra is president of the Digital Industries division for Siemens USA. In this role, Batra is responsible for overseeing all development, marketing, sales, R&D, vertical industry, and manufacturing aspects for DI in the United States. Joining Siemens in 1993, Batra has held a variety of high-level management and sales positions including VP, General Manager, Global Corporate Account Manager and Automotive and Aerospace Business Unit Manager.
In addition to his responsibilities at Siemens, Batra is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI). Prior to Siemens, Batra worked as a sales engineer and product manager developing automation solutions for discrete manufacturing and process industries.
Batra earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Lawrence Technological University in Michigan and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Michigan.