Dr. Michael Hilt
President of FATIPEC
Dr. Michael Hilt MBA started his professional education studying polymer chemistry in Stuttgart, Germany. For his Diploma thesis and for his doctoral thesis he worked at the FPL (Forschungsinstitut fuer Pigmente und Lacke/Research Institute for Pigments and Coatings) in Stuttgart between 1984 and early 1988 in the field of colloidal stabilization of model waterborne paint systems for Prof. Dr. L. Dulog.
In 1988 he entered Daimler-Benz AG as a paint and corrosion protection specialist. For more than 21 years Dr. Hilt worked in Daimler/Mercedes-Benz in the area of surface protection. He started developing environmentally friendly painting materials for engines and other automotive components, changing then the field of action to be a manager of paint development for topcoat and primer surfacer systems and the measuring technique for that working area. His main topics were the development of integrated painting processes, improvement of automotive clear coat performance and the development of new colours and new effects in automotive painting.
Dr. Hilt was also part of the globalization activities of his company and could gain extensive experience in the US, in South Africa and in China, where he was deeply involved in the decisions for the painting processes of the Chinese plants of Mercedes-Benz.
During the time at Daimler Dr. Hilt was also involved in FPL, being a member of the board. In May 2009 he went back to FPL and was appointed General Manager of FPL beginning of July 2009. His main topic in the mean time was, to integrate the institute part of FPL into the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart, and to support the change management involved herein.
Dr. Hilt is Senior Manager Coating Systems and Painting Technology in Fraunhofer IPA and General Manager of the Research Society for Pigments and Coatings, Stuttgart, FPL. In these functions he was active in shaping the new strategic orientations of his department, which is a cross functional merger of the departments of painting technology and coatings and pigments, and of the new FPL.
From 2012-2017 Dr. Hilt was President of the GDCh Fachgruppe Lackchemie (professional group of German paint chemists), he was President of the ETCC 2014 in Cologne, and he is FATIPEC president since January 2015.
Contact: michael.hilt@fpl-ev.de
