40 Years of ELPRO: How Room Monitoring Has Changed. Joachim Gau Explains.

ELPRO is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2026. In this special year, we’re not only looking back at our roots, but also introducing some of the people who have shaped ELPRO over the years in an exclusive video series. Following the first episode featuring company founder Alois Bischof, here is the second edition: a conversation with Joachim Gau, who has been with the company for 25 years. As a sales representative, product manager, and now Head of Project Management EMEA, he plays a central role in the development and refinement of our solutions.

Joachim Gau started in sales in 2001 and quickly discovered his passion for monitoring rooms and environments. His career at the company clearly demonstrates how closely his professional development is linked to ELPRO’s technological evolution: from the early sales team through product management to project management, where he is now responsible for all projects in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Through these diverse roles, he has closely witnessed the transformation from early hardware solutions to modern, cloud-based monitoring systems.

The experience I gained during my time in sales and later in product management is extremely valuable for my work in project management today. We want to implement our solutions in the best possible way for our customers—and having a deep understanding of both the products and customer needs helps tremendously in this regard. At the same time, my experiences from these projects feed back into the further development of our systems. I therefore often see myself as a bridge between product development and the customer.

Joachim Gau, Head of Project Management EMEA, ELPRO

In this interview, Joachim Gau highlights how the monitoring solutions have evolved over the years: from the early “Hotdog” data loggers through the stationary, autonomous ECOLOG systems to the networked ECOLOG NET, which could be read without a computer connection thanks to its integration into the customer’s network. In 2015, elproMONITOR marked the transition to a database-supported architecture, before a fully cloud-based version managed by ELPRO is set to launch in 2025.

My conclusion: Requirements are much more complex today—ranging from regulatory guidelines and IT security to the expectations of quality departments. Customers expect seamless data integrity, audit trails, high availability, and absolute compliance. And ELPRO has consistently grown alongside these demands.

Joachim Gau

Today, Joachim Gau leads project management in the EMEA region. Whether small local or large global projects: he is particularly drawn to the interaction with diverse stakeholders, the growing importance of GxP compliance and documentation, as well as the challenging tasks in design and installation qualification—and not least, the fact that every project is different.

You really experience a lot in the field. I remember sweating it out during installations in full cleanroom gear, but also visits to hospital environments where my colleague and I caused a laugh when the OR team noticed we were wearing our caps backward.

Joachim Gau

 
You can find these and other anecdotes, insights, and original quotes in the full interview.