Although Atlanta, Georgia and Tampa, Florida have been Robert Muehlfellner’s home for nearly 25 years, his cultural and business roots remain closely tied to Austria. As Chief Technology Officer at Neuron Automation, an Austrian automation company based in St. Pölten, he travels back and forth across the Atlantic while growing the company’s activities in the United States.
Muehlfellner’s first stint in the US was in Wisconsin in 1998, when he was working as an application engineer for B&R Industrial Automation and commissioning a window manufacturing plant. Later, he worked on a project in Atlanta and eventually seized the opportunity to lead B&R’s US application engineering teams, moving to the US permanently in 2002. He held multiple roles at B&R, then in 2013 a former colleague reached out; he needed a president to establish his UI test automation company’s US subsidiary. Muehlfellner took the role and became an expert in all things market entry.
“I was on my own from company formation through building out the operations, sales, technical support, admin, and finance. We also started a network of local implementation partners and launched our certification program,” he said.
Overall, it was “tremendously successful.”
“Within the just over 2 years that I spent there, I developed a team of 10, went through two rounds of office expansions, and more than tripled our sales,” he said.
But Muehlfellner missed the machinery environment of industrial automation. After going back to B&R and taking on a global role in product management, he eventually joined Neuron Automation, where he is now CTO. The company helps automation companies expand their portfolios with functional safety controls.
In this role, Muehlfellner gets to flex both his industry and business development skills. He is responsible for product strategy and implementation as well as expanding the company in North America. He has honed his US market expertise throughout his career and has advice for Austrian companies looking to come to the US: Just take the leap.
“You can get started fairly easily,” he said. “Of course you have to know the basics, but entering the market is not as difficult or as daunting as it as it might seem at first.”
Muehlfellner emphasized that it’s important for companies to understand the business processes and environment in the US compared to Europe. “Some things are just fundamentally different, and you just have to accept them as they are, even though they might appear a bit strange at first. Healthcare for instance, or in general employee benefits,” he said.
Overall, Muehlfellner enjoys working in the US, especially the flat hierarchies and more casual way of doing business. Florida feels like home, he’s been in the US for almost 25 years, and his kids were born in the US as well. However, his focus remains strong on expanding Austrian business in the US.
“I will always have my Austrian roots. I've worked for Austrian companies throughout my career, helping them to grow business here stateside, and I go back and forth to our headquarters in St. Pölten every 6-8 weeks. I enjoy being part of both business worlds.”
