Birkhauser retires from Manitowoc

Long-time crane industry veteran Dave Birkhauser retired at the end of 2009 as senior vice president of sales for the Americas region for Manitowoc Cranes. Birkhauser oversaw sales for Manitowoc's four brands; Manitowoc crawler cranes, Grove mobile cranes, National Crane boom trucks and Potain tower cranes.

Birkhauser started in the crane industry after finishing college, working as a sales representative for America State Equipment, a Manitowoc distributor in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the mid-1980s he went to work for Krupp, managing the company's North American organization. At that time, Krupp was one of the first European crane companies to introduce all terrain cranes to North America.

He was working for Krupp as senior vice president of sales and marketing when the company was purchased by Grove Worldwide in 1995. When Manitowoc bought Grove in 2002, Birkhauser became senior vice president of sales for the Americas region.

From 2002 until his retirement at the end of 2009, he led the North American salesforce through the best market the crane industry has ever seen, Manitowoc said.