Sikora to succeed Stanikowski at ITM Poland

Andrew Stanikowski will step down in March as CEO of International Tobacco Machinery Poland after leading the company for 22 years. He will continue in a nonexecutive role.

Stanikowski was instrumental in the creation of ITM Poland, which helped turn the ITM Group into a respected OEM and a leading innovator. Leszek Sikora will take over as CEO.

Sikora started in ITM Poland 1992 as an engineer. He occupied several positions before becoming a member of the ITM Poland Board in 2007. He is known in the industry as the father of many successful machines and projects.

“After 22 years of leading ITM Poland and making our company play a key role in ITM’s success, I have decided that the time has come to pass on my executive responsibility to the next generation,” said Stanikowski.

Arend van der Sluis, chairman of the ITM Group, expressed his gratitude to Stanikowski. “Andrew has truly become an ITM family member. In the past years, he has matured a nice group of people around him to make sure our company is ready for the next decades, as inevitably the time would come where one needs to think of life after work.

“When Andrew realized that this capable team was properly taking care of the heritage that he has co-created, he indicated that he wanted to pass on his responsibility to the next generation of people. We are very happy to keep Andrew close to us and to the industry in his advisory role.

“ITM Group is looking at a very bright future with many more new challenges that will see more great innovative solutions like Solaris, Isis, Delphini and our latest Saturn FIFO buffer. We are fully confident that Leszek and his team will to continue to build and develop our great company.”