Eelco van der Wal is the Managing Director of the worldwide association PLCopen, being headquartered in The Netherlands, Europe. Eelco has 35 years of background in industrial controls. He started in 1986 in the marketing of real-time control systems. Before joining PLCopen in March 1995, he was active as a product manager for a line of high-end motion controllers. He was particularly focussed to the European market, especially towards the machine tool industry. Within PLCopen he added motion and safety to the logic, as well as communication, exchange, and training, making PLCopen a major contributor to the world of industrial automation. He studied physics at the University of Groningen.