Major transition, award and partnership are detailed.

Otis Names Calleja President of EMEA Operations

Otis has named Bernardo Calleja president, Otis Europe Middle East & Africa (EMEA), the company announced in November 2020. Calleja has been interim Otis EMEA president since October 1, 2020, replacing Mark Eubanks, who left the company in September. An industrial engineer by training, Calleja began his career as an engineer at Otis’ San Sebastián factory in 1989 and progressed through several leadership positions before being named president of Otis South Europe & Africa in 2018. He will continue to lead this subregion and maintain his role as the president of the board of directors of Zardoya Otis, a publicly traded subsidiary in Spain. In his new role, Calleja will report directly to Otis President and CEO Judy Marks.

IGV Group’s ON AIR Receives International Design Award

A modular, customizable elevator system conceived by Italy’s IGV Group and designed by Studio Marco Piva during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, ON AIR received The Plan Award 2020 in the industrial design category, IGV announced in November 2020. Introduced in 2014, the award is an annual international competition that attracted more than 1,000 entries in 2020.
Combining form and function, ON AIR features antimicrobial materials, rounded corners and smooth edges to prevent germ buildup, a mechanical ventilation system and UV-C germicidal disinfection. To further reduce risk, ON AIR can be equipped with:

• Virus-resistant, touch-free and proximity-activated control panels
• Multilingual voice interface combined with facial recognition to enable exclusive stops
• Remote control of the lift from a mobile device

SKF, Imperial College London Continue Joint R&D

Bearing, seal and lubricant manufacturer SKF of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Imperial College London have extended their R&D partnership for a further five years. At the college since 2010, the SKF University Technology Centre (UTC) has researched improved performance and longevity for bearings with a focus on contributing to lower energy consumption for the machines in which they operate. With the new deal, this work will continue until 2025. Several components SKF produces are for elevators and escalators.

SKF R&D Collaboration Manager Dr. Kenred Stadler said:

“Tight collaboration between leading academia and R&D-driven companies like SKF is key to increasing the speed of innovation in industry. Through our relationship with Imperial College London, which first started in the 1970s, we will drive both short-term, agile projects lasting a few months, as well as longer-term PhD projects.”