Vanessa Malena has been named president of York, Pa.-based Engel Machinery Inc., the North American subsidiary of Austrian injection molding machine builder Engel Holding GmbH, after a year of serving as its chief operations officer.
Malena succeeds Mark Sankovitch, who will remain with the company as regional president of Engel in North America. Her promotion is effective Oct. 17.
Malena began with the company as an account manager in 2017 and then was named regional vice president of sales. She was appointed to Engel's management board as COO in 2021 and took on responsibilities for after-sales support, engineering, purchasing and automation.
As president, Malena will head the management team and continue to strategically develop the business.
"We are delighted to be able to fill this important position from our own ranks," Engel Group CEO Stefan Engleder said in a news release. "Vanessa Malena is a proven expert in the injection molding industry. With her planned change, we are ensuring a seamless transition for both employees and our customers."
Malena studied mechanical engineering and has worked almost 30 years in plastics machinery sales at companies, such as Gems Sensors and Controls, Arburg Inc. and Wittmann-Battenfeld.
At one point, Engel officials had planned to replace Sankovitch with Paul Caprio, who came to Engel in 2020 after 25 years at Krauss-Maffei Corp. However, the plan was dropped and Caprio left Engel on Jan. 31.
