Skip to main content

Caterpillar France’s Eric Lepine takes over CECE presidency

Eric Lepine, general manager of Caterpillar France SAS in Grenoble, has taken over the presidency of the Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE). Lepine replaced Johann Sailer on January 1 2014 and will serve as CECE president over the next two years. The official handover from Sailer, who himself chaired the association for two years, took place in Paris in December on the occasion of the last CECE-Steering Group meeting of the year. During his 26 years of experience in the industry, Lepin
January 15, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Eric Lepine (left) took over the presidency from Johann Sailer (right). Pic courtesy of CECE
Eric Lepine, general manager of 178 Caterpillar France SAS in Grenoble, has taken over the presidency of the 2440 Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE).

Lepine replaced Johann Sailer on January 1 2014 and will serve as CECE president over the next two years.

The official handover from Sailer, who himself chaired the association for two years, took place in Paris in December on the occasion of the last CECE-Steering Group meeting of the year.

During his 26 years of experience in the industry, Lepine has held various important positions at Caterpillar in countries such as Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Russia, USA and UK before taking over the responsibility in Grenoble, southeastern France.

Lepine’s main goal for his presidency will be to ensure the implementation of the 10 Points listed in the CECE-CEMA Industry Manifesto, which was presented during the 2013 CECE summit in Brussels to the members of the European Parliament and the 2465 European Commission. Lepine believes that CECE should focus on three main priorities during his presidency:  achieving a harmonisation of road safety requirements for non-road mobile machinery within Europe; ensuring that industry’s needs are duly taken into account within the current revision of the exhaust emission legislation; and maintaining efforts to secure the final approval of the market surveillance legislation review, currently stuck at the European Council level. Lepine says the CECE will continue and step up dialogue with decision makers in Brussels at all levels. “We will keep on promoting the idea of fair competition and free trade for all market players in Europe. What we have to avoid is non-needed complexity in laws and regulations.”

Lepine’s deputy chairmen for the next two years are Christian Stryffeler, executive vice-president for the machine segment of 6791 Ammann AG and Giampiero Biglia, business director at CNH Industrial. The new CECE president is chief spokesman of 1,200 mainly medium-sized European construction equipment manufacturers from 14 countries. They are members of CECE via their national associations. The European construction equipment industry achieves a turnover of 25 billion Euros and employs 130,000 people.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Key road safety training course from FEHRL
    January 7, 2013
    Using experience gained during the European Commission’s PILOT4SAFETY project, FEHRL is organising a training course from 4th–8th March 2013. This course is dedicated to audits and safety inspections and will be held at the FEHRL offices, boulevard de la Woluwe 42, 1200 Brussels. This training, structured into three modules: Basics in Road Safety Engineering, Road Safety Auditing and Road Safety Inspection, will focus on the secondary road networks. It is intended for designers and managers wishing to expan
  • Hire Association Europe steals a march
    August 28, 2024
    The association’s new web portal will share equipment theft information with the UK’s National Construction & Agricultural Theft Team (NCATT) and the Construction and Agricultural Equipment Security & Registration Scheme (CESAR).
  • A fresh breath of air
    July 16, 2012
    With a new wave of exhaust emission regulations coming shortly, engine manufacturers are well on track to develop new solutions as Mike Woof reports A wave of technological advances has made the current generation of diesels the cleanest industrial engines ever produced. Driven by tightening controls on emissions, manufacturers have had to develop an array of innovative solutions that will help cut particulate and NOx being emitted from the tailpipe. When the phased reduction in exhaust emissions was first
  • Call for global harmonisation of heavy duty trucks and engines
    April 26, 2012
    The world's leading manufacturers of heavy-duty commercial trucks and engines have called for further progress in regulatory harmonisation and closer cooperation among European, North American, and Japanese regulators in order to improve energy efficiency and reduce fuel consumption associated with on-road freight transport.Meeting in Tokyo, the chief executives of more than ten global truck and engine manufacturers discussed key issues facing their industry, including fuel efficiency improvements, reductio