Klaus Woerner, the founder, chief executive officer and president of ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc., has died of cancer at age 65, the company said.
Mr. Woerner was one of the country's most successful immigrant entrepreneurs. He trained as a clock maker and tool maker in Germany before moving to Canada in 1960. Initially, he intended to work on the Avro Arrow. Then prime minister John Diefenbaker cancelled the fighter plane project before the 20-year-old could get his hands on it.
Instead, Mr. Woerner took jobs in Montreal, while he worked to complete his Canadian high-school diploma and as he began evening engineering courses. After several years, he moved to Toronto.
He founded ATS in 1978 as a tool and die manufacturer, taking out a second mortgage on his home and investing $70,000. After the company landed several large contracts, Mr. Woerner steered it into the then-nascent area of robotics. Today, ATS designs and produces automated manufacturing and test systems for big companies in the automotive, electronics, medical and consumer products industries. The Cambridge, Ont., firm employs about 4,000 people and posted annual sales of $665-million in 2004.
Shares of ATA fell 27 cents to close at $12.15 yesterday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
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