ERNÖ BARTHA TO JOIN VISEON
From 01st January 2009 Dr. Jörg Willert (45) will be taking charge of the Bus Development division at MAN Nutzfahrzeuge. In this capacity he succeeds Ernö Bartha, who will continue to advise MAN in the transitional phase and then join Viseon Bus GmbH.
Ernö Bartha began his career in 1979 at the Hungarian bus manufacturer Ikarus. From 1991 onwards he had a managerial function in the engineering division of Gottlob Auwärter GmbH & Co. KG (Neoplan) in Stuttgart, before moving to MAN Nutzfahrzeuge in 1997. There he was Manager Bus Engineering, a position which he retained from 2001 to 2008 also as a member of the Board of Management of NEOMAN Bus GmbH. Since the Bus Division was fully integrated in MAN Nutzfahrzeuge last spring Bartha has been responsible for bus development and reported to the Director Development & Purchasing.
Bartha will remain active in an advisory capacity for MAN until the end of February 2009 and will then join the newly founded company Viseon Bus GmbH, in which he will have a personal holding as second managing partner.
Viseon Bus GmbH has already taken over business in trolleybuses and airport apron buses from NEOPLAN and will, on current plans, acquire the present main Neoplan plant in Pilsting with about 200 employees in mid-2009. Beside the agreed production of coaches and scheduled-service double-deckers and customisation of Neoplan series-produced vehicles from Plauen, Viseon Bus will, together with MAN, develop the new Neoplan Skyliner and also products of its own. MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG has a 19.9 per cent holding in the new company, which is headquartered at Pilsting in Lower Bavaria.