Peter Oppinger

“There was always ONE mission for me: Provide confidence to every customer I was talking to and support them as much I could.”

What is your personal motto?
You should never give up, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Why do you think that VAG is a team consisting of valve experts? What makes VAG so special to you?

• Most important is the cohesion of the people working for VAG day by day. We have great people; great engineers are developing long lasting products and we know about the applications around water.
• Second important is that VAG is a well-known brand in the market, in Germany and in many other countries around the globe as well. Our customers trust in our long experience, the high quality together with the longevity of our products. They really appreciate the technical support that we provide to them while talking to engineers on the same technical level.

What makes you a valve expert? Are you proud of being part of the team?
Of course, am I proud to be part of VAG. When I started to work for VAG in 1992 as Product Manager for Butterfly Valves in the Industry department, I did not expect that I would stay that long with the company. But within these 30 years I had many opportunities to develop myself in different responsibilities within the VAG-Group. I was travelling around the world to meet with colleagues from different cultures and visit many customers in another part of the world. There was always ONE mission for me: Provide confidence to every customer I was talking to and support them as much I could.

Tell us your (best) story in connection with VAG .
Late in 2003 VAG was approached by a German water association for a technical solution to replace old DN 2000 diameter needle valves. These large valves had been installed in the bottom outlets of the Rur dam in Germany for the last 80 years and were now experiencing severe leakage. As VAG was not yet producing plunger valves of this size, we recommended our KSS Howell-Bunger Valves, DN 1800 diameter, with DN 3600 discharge pipe hoods. The valve replacement project had very high visibility and was hugely successful. German television featured a segment on the TV show „Abenteuer Wissen“  where they reported interesting facts about the project and VAG’s manufacturing plant in Mannheim. In October 2004 the project was successfully completed and since then the valves have been working as expected.