Manager appointed for ABB's UK drives business

ABB has appointed Neil Ritchie to head its low voltage AC drives sales business in the UK. He replaces Steve Ruddell who, after 10 years in the role, has moved into a global position within ABB.

Ritchie will be based in Daresbury and report to Chris Withey, who has taken over Ruddell's other role as local division manager for discrete automation and motion, UK.

Ritchie says: "I'm looking forward to running the UK drives business at what is an exciting time for drives generally.We have new low voltage drives based on a common architecture as well as a push into micro-drive applications.We also have an extensive motion control portfolio which helps us secure markets and offer a complete portfolio. Underpinning this will be a concerted effort to build on our life cycle services while ensuring we improve customer responsiveness."