Newly-installed European automotive supplier body, CLEPA CEO, Paul Schockmel, says he will be examining the organisation’s structure to ensure it is functioning in the most efficient way possible.

Schockmel – a fellow-Luxembourger as his predecessor Jean-Marc Gales who now heads Lotus in the UK – was appointed in the summer and has extensive experience in 20 years of the automotive sector.

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“I will take care a little bit of the CLEPA organisation , to see if [it] is well structured,” Schockmel told just-auto. “Every organisation has limited resources and my feeling is we have more projects and ideas than we can do. We have to put priorities.

“We have a tremendous number of working groups – that is very strong. We have close to 1,000 people – these people are the elite of our section.

“CLEPA is the project manager and coordinator – we have a big responsibility.”

Schockmel added he would also look to increase the current corporate membership from 110 as well as the national associations from their present 12-strong number.

“There are around 3,000 suppliers who are doing mainly automotive, so there is still potential,” said Schockmel.

“We have to expand if we want to do more – we have a big weight in this industry.”

Prior to assuming his new role, Schockmel was the vice-president corporate strategy and marketing at IEE in Luxembourg.

Among other professional activities, Schockmel previously held the position of president of the Luxembourg Automotive Components Supplier Cluster and, since 2012, has been a Member of the CLEPA Board of Directors.

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