about us
It was around 2008 when the South Tyroleans Stefan and Paul Leitner stood in front of their home, watching a logging firm transport timber down a steep ropeway on the opposing mountainside. The propeller dissipating energy when moving downhill could be heard for kilometers. Moments later, a big engine could be heard powering the return of the carriage to the felling site. They agreed that the energy resulting from the downward transport of tons of timber should be sufficient to bring the empty carriage back to the mountain side to pick up the subsequent haul. An idea was born.
In November of 2018, with a clear vision of a disruptive product in mind and confident of technological feasibility and of having acquired the necessary skill sets, Stefan and Paul started out by founding Leitalpin. In a stroke of fate, Paul died suddenly and unexpectedly only 20 days later. He and his contribution to the project are greatly missed. Nevertheless, giving up was never an option. Reinhard, the older son of Paul subsequently joined Leitalpin. Leitalpin is headquartered in Bolzano, in the center of the northern Italian Alps.
In 2019 Leitalpin entered into a key industrial partnership to add know how, in particular in mechanical machine design and manufacturing. Leitalpin, together with its partners, is currently working on the development of an innovative timber harvesting and construction site transport solution for the most demanding applications in Alpine settings. The proposed concept is award winning and covered via extensive patent protection.
Stefan gained his first experience as an automotive mechanic and electrician at the age of 15. He now holds university degrees in mechatronics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and mathematics from universities in Austria and the USA. He also has many years of experience in university research and in industry in Germany, the US and Japan.
Reinhard took over the family's dairy farm. He is highly skilled in multiple construction work disciplines. He has also gained extensive experience in alpine logging, working with Paul employing long range ropeway systems as well as independently with ground-based extraction systems.
Paul, the father of Stefan and Reinhard, was an alpine dairy farmer. He gained 40 years of experience in ropeway logging, which he began right out of middle school. He was very passionate about technology and much of the logging equipment he employed he built himself.
