Altair Engineering Announces Establishment of Trans-National European and Asia/Pacific Operations

Altair Engineering, Inc., a leading global provider of technology and services that strengthen client innovation and decision-making, today announced that it has reorganized its European and Asia/Pacific operations. The move is designed to streamline international customer support and marketing efforts for the company, as it continues to expand its global market presence. Two new trans-national support and marketing organizations -- one based in Boeblingen, Germany, and another in Bangalore, India -- will be responsible for Altair operations in Europe and Asia/Pacific, respectively. Executive Vice President Juergen Petit, former managing director of Altair Engineering Germany GmbH, will head the European organization, and Executive Vice President Nelson Dias, former managing director of Altair India, Pvt., Ltd., will assume responsibility for Asia/Pacific operations. In addition, Michael Hoffmann, Ph.D., joins Altair as vice president Business Development and Marketing, European Operations. All current country offices in each of the regions will be part of one of two organizations, as geographically appropriate.

"This year marks the beginning of our third decade as a technology leader," said James R. Scapa, president and CEO of Altair. "Our market presence in Europe remains strong with significant growth opportunity, and we continue to expand aggressively into the rapidly emerging Asia/Pacific region. Reorganizing our support and marketing efforts into two trans-national organizations makes good business sense, and should provide enhanced customer responsiveness and service across both areas.

"Juergen and Nelson are highly experienced, motivated and disciplined; they are ideally suited to their new responsibilities," Scapa added. "Michael will bring a wealth of global business development expertise to the Altair organization, as he directs the positioning and sales of our enterprise solutions in the European marketplace." Petit joined Altair Engineering GmbH in 1994 from an engineering position with DaimlerChrysler in Sindelfingen, Germany. He was named managing director of Altair Engineering GmbH in 1995, and grew the regional office from three to 100 employees before being named to his current position. Petit holds a masters degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany.

Dias joined the organization in 2002 as managing director of Altair India, Pvt., Ltd., from the position of regional manager for UGS Corp. Over the past two years, he has grown the Altair India office from 25 people to more than 200. Dias holds a bachelor of engineering degree from Bombay (India) University. Hoffmann comes to Altair from MSC Software Corporation, where he had been vice president of corporate marketing since 2002. He holds a master's degree and a doctorate in civil engineering with a focus in applied mechanics from the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany).