Effective today, Bodo Garbe, 57, will be joining the Executive Board of Rheinmetall Defence, the defence technology arm of the Düsseldorf, Germany based Rheinmetall Group.

Garbe will have special responsibility for the corporation’s Defence Electronics, Simulation and Training, and Air Defence divisions as well as Rheinmetall Technical Publications.

Garbe will be taking over from Heinz Dresia, 63, who will remain on the Board in charge of Special Projects.

Bodo Garbe joined Rheinmetall in 1984, where he held a series of executive posts at W&M GmbH before assuming overall responsibility for the company’s quality assurance and testing operations in 1994.

In 1999, Garbe transferred to the Nitrochemie Group, where he was in charge of sales and marketing before joining the senior management teams of Nitrochemie Aschau GmbH and Nitrochemie Wimmis AG. In 2005 he moved onto Rheinmetall W&M GmbH, where he ran the company’s Force Protection and Pyrotechnics unit.

Since 2006 he has been at the helm of the Air Defence division of the Rheinmetall Defence Group.