Frank Thielmann
Dr Thielmann has a PhD in Physical Chemistry/ Material Science from the University of Duesseldorf, Germany. Frank joined Novartis Pharmaceutical Development (Basel, Switzerland) in July 2007 as Formulation Lab Head. From August 2009 until February 2011, he managed the pharmaceutical development group at the Horsham site, UK. Upon his return to Basel, he took on the responsibility for the local formulation technology platform until February 2012. Subsequently he joined Novartis Technical Operations where he was managing the setup of a new solid dosage form manufacturing facility and the transfer of the corresponding portfolio before moving to the Biotechnology department as global Leader for PMO & Operational Excellence in November 2016, in this role Frank had an additional responsibility as Operational Excellence Head of the new Novartis manufacturing facility for Cell & Gene Therapeutics in Switzerland. In November 2019, Dr Thielmann moved to a new responsibility at Takeda Manufacturing & Supply as Operational Excellence Director, where he is responsible for the implementation of process improvement in the manufacturing of a wide portfolio ranging from small molecules to ATMPs. Dr Thielmann is member of the Steering Committee of the Material Science and Biotherapeutics Focus Group in the British Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Fabio Achille
More of Thirty-five years industrial experience in the space manufacturing industry in Europe. Production Director of the new state of art Thales Alenia Space plant in L’Aquila, mastering Lean, process Improvement, Business Continuity and Industry 4.0. A professional certified APICS CPIM. Experiences on high mix low volume production in a focused space qualified factory for equipment and Antennas for satellite market. Experiences on electronic equipment in several fields and technologies, as SMT, PCBA, Microelectronic, Digital/RF and Power Modules & Equipment and Test Facilities (Shaker, Shock, Thermal Vacuum, EMC), operating in clean room and laboratories
Rescue, Relocation and Business Continuity Manager of Thales Alenia Space Industrial activities after earthquake of 2009 in the center of Italy. New lean layout definition and set-up of Industrial activities in the new plant. Production Director | Space Manufacturing | Industry 4.0 & Digitalization | APIC CPIM Certified | Business Continuity Manager | Lean & Process Improvement
Joerg Recklies
- Joerg Recklies has been in the semiconductor industry for 26 years with responsibilities ranging from Chip design to IDM. He is currently in charge of the General Mananger at Infineon Technologies Regensburg. Prior to that, Joerg Recklies was in charge of the FAB Manager at Infineon Dresden and held several positions in automation and productions at Infineon. These positions contributed to his excellent experience in terms of equipment and automation. Earlier in his carrier he has made contributions in digital and analog Chip design.
Joerg Recklies holds a graduate engineer for Semiconductor.- Highlight during the time with Infineon ….
- Establish high automation at IFD 1995- 1997 as project leader automation software integration
- Project Leader world wide cost reduction program within Infineon Frontend
Productions from 1999 –2003 (within Europe, US, Asia)
- Section Manager Plasma Etch / Wafer Inspection 2003- 2007
- Director Maintenance Engineering 2007 – 2014
- Project Leader 300 mm Fab Startup / Transfer Power Technologies 2011-2013
- FAB Manager Senior Director 200 / 300 mm Dresden 2014 – 2018
- General Manager Site Regensburg Senior Vice President since 2018
Harald Kirsch
Dynamic, entrepreneurial business strategist with over 30 years of professional experience in organizational and business development in the segments of Digital Transformation, IIoT, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, automation of enterprise processes, sales of innovative SW solutions and services, portfolio management, consulting, system integration services, outsourcing as well as business transformation, change management, product management and product development.
My current area of responsibility includes in particular:
- Management of the Automation and Industrial IT division
- Continuous further development of the company's digital strategy
- Structuring and advancing the Industrie 4.0/ IIoT platform strategy
- Optimization, digitalization and further development of manufacturing and production processes
Rachel Cooke
Rachel is an accomplished technical leader with nearly 20 years of experience in the food, drink, and logistics industries and has lived in five different countries. She currently leads Reliability Engineering for Amazon Europe, where her focus is on the use of science and data to improve asset performance.
In this role she is responsible for a team of over 70 people in eight countries working on predictive analytics (including machine learning), computerized maintenance management systems, new technology introduction, robotics, reliability programs, and new site launches. Previously she led a team supporting Amazon's expansion across Europe in capital planning, technical vendor management, commissioning planning, change management, and design.
Prior to working for Amazon she was Global Manufacturing Development Manager for SABMiller and had also carried out a range of technical, project and product development roles for Cadbury.
Rachel is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. She chaired the Food and Drink Special Interest Group for six years and was a member of the UK Board until 2016, when she moved to Luxembourg. She has a long history of voluntary work raising the profile of chemical engineering and is a founding Director of the Cheltenham Science Group. She has a starred first and PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge.
Pierluigi Petrali
In Whirlpool EMEA since 1989, after a first experience in industrial automation as System and Network Manager and as Project Leader, he dedicated himself to topics of innovation and Product-Process Design support, defining and using processes based on methodologies such as TRIZ, Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, Complexity Management, and contributing to the definition of the global process of New Product Introduction.
Afterward he moved his interests to Industrial Research coordinating for Whirlpool EMEA the participation to more than 20 European Funded Projects under FP7 and Horizon 2020 program on various topics such as Internet of Things, Technology Forecasting, Big Data, Edge Computing, Process Engineering, Cyber Physical System, Digital Platforms, Electro Magnetic Welding, Predictive Maintenance, Collaborative Robotics, and Zero Defect Manufacturing.
From 2016 onward he contributed to the strategic preparation of Whirlpool Manufacturing 2020 program, based on Industry 4.0 principles as member of the Global Steering Technical Committee. Currently he is involved in 9 H2020 Projects (SERENA, UPTIME, ROSSINI, QU4LITY, XMANAI, COALA, I4Q, 5GINDUCE, ODIN) and in several projects in EIT Manufacturing.
He’s member of Advisory Board of Osservatorio Industria 4.0 of Politecnico Di Milano, member of Scientific Committee of MADE Competence Centermember of the Technical-Scientific Thematic Group on High Efficient Production systems of Italian Cluster “Fabbrica Intelligente”He’s author and co-author of 4 patents and 14 scientific paper and gave a speech in more than 30 national and international conferences.
Jasper Rutten
Jasper Rutten is the Advanced Analytics manager within the Global Excellence Team of the Huntsman Polyurethanes business. He holds a Master’s in Chemical Engineering from the technical University of Twente. In his current role he is leading the advanced analytics roadmap for the upstream PU manufacturing sites. This roadmap combines black box data modelling techniques with classic engineering modelling & control skills.
He also has a strong focus on the change management related to the implementation of advanced analytics and in the broader sense digitization. The past few years multiple solutions have been implemented on the manufacturing sites bringing among others increased operational stability. One of his key attention points now is to make them sustainable for the long-term future.
Werner Stapela
Current Position: Global Head of Additive Design and Manufacturing, Danfoss Group
Recent Past (in AM): Sales Director, FIT Group (AM service bureau)+ Sales Manager DACH, Stratasys (AM Hardware Vendor)
History: 9 years in M&A Advisory (independent M&A Boutique) 30 years in Packaging, in various roles from sales through General Management
Achievements: Turn-around management and integration of bought companies into conglomerates (ITW), Value Adding to companies through buy and build strategies (M&A), substantial sales growth in AM companies, Strategic direction setting. Development and implementation of a successful AM strategy at an industrial conglomerate (Danfoss).
Felix Sieckmann
Felix is an OPEX expert and head of department for Quality Management at Fraunhofer IPK with multiple years of experience in research and industry projects throughout different industries. His focus is competency building for industry professionals through Learning Factories and Serious Games by applying agile and digital tools. In this context he serves also as project manager and trainer in two Learning Factories – one for Lean Management in the pharmaceutical industry in Berlin, Germany, and one for Industry 4.0 in Nanjing, China.
Jason LeBlanc
Director with progressive responsibility and sustained excellence leading diverse teams in Reliability, Maintenance Engineering, Facilities and Operations roles. Proven track record of success reducing costs, designing and implementing creative solutions to difficult problems and increasing productivity within complex and demanding environments. 13 years of international work experience leading multi-cultural teams in the EU (Germany, Italy and UK), Asia and the Middle East. Committed to continuous process improvement using Lean methodologies and principles to minimize costs through effective utilization of manpower, equipment, facilities, materials and capital. Customer obsessed leader who developed facility, infrastructure and capital investment programs for multi-billion dollar portfolios.
Ali Naseer
Accomplished Leader with over 19 years of experiences in Manufacturing, Supply-chain and R&D areas including Life Sciences/Pharma Industry complemented with education background in Information Systems. and MBA, Domain, and Process expertise with extensive Leadership and Management skills, expertise in delivering IT strategies and delivering IT roadmaps. Skilled at assisting the organisations in delivering right value and achieving corporate goals through development and implementation of IT strategies with Global mindset. Track record of optimising performance of manufacturing business through development of Pharma 4.0 digital strategy. Demonstrated success supporting the business in making more agile, informed decisions by developing IT analytics strategies.
Dirk Gebser
Dirk is serving at Lilium as VP of Manufacturing. He holds a Mechanical Engineering Degree in Aero- & Thermodynamics from the Technical University Dresden. He started his career working in aerospace design and testing programs at Rolls-Royce before changing to manufacturing functions for various global, large-scale organizations. With his expertise, he was able to grow and streamline production environments as Manufacturing Engineering Director for aero engine components at Rolls-Royce, as SVP in a RSP division at the Airbus group and finally as VP for aircraft assembly at the Airbus plant in Hamburg. Over the years he has been a lecturer and advisor for leadership seminars for Executive Management in Europe and China on the subject of Production. In his position as VP of Production at Lilium, Dirk has played a vital role in the set-up of the production facility as well as its supply chain.
Doug McKnight
Doug McKnight is leading Dow efforts to derive value in safety and productivity across Dow’s Operations in EMEAI through the adaptation of Industry 4.0 solutions. He partners with Dow’s businesses and technical functions and coordinates across all of the varied sites for the company in the region. He is located in Wiesbaden, Germany – at the seat of the Digital Operations Centre for EMEAI. He is part of Dow’s newly established “Operations IT/OT” function for the company – signaling the intent within Dow to drive digitalization. Before taking this current challenge in the Industry 4.0 world, his experience is in industrial operations leadership including environment, health and safety, production and site leadership, external manufacturing management, supply chain, continuous improvement techniques and advanced process control and systems dynamics modelling. Across his career in ICI and Dow, Doug has lived in many European countries including the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and now Germany where he lives with his family.
Sarah Bodó
• Establishing a digital strategy – creating strong foundations and looking at the long-term strategy, not quick wins.
• Technology evaluation and innovation – finding the right solution to your problem and avoiding the one size fits all approach.
• Building adoption – moving from pilot to implementation.
• Insights as the key to optimisation – building processes to evaluate data.
• Closing the skills and learning gap – encouraging teams to embrace the transformation.
• Understanding that optimisation only comes from correct implementation.
Jens Palacios Neffke
Jens is an OPEX and digitalization specialist with extensive experience and know-how in designing and improving manufacturing and transactional processes in rapid developing industries. With over 15 years’ experience in industry and academic settings, Jens has been part of several technological and cultural transformations throughout his career and has contributed in the definition and setup of business strategic initiatives of global manufacturing key players. Jens has a PhD in production technology from the Technische Universität Berlin, institution with which he continues to collaborate as part-time lecturer and research fellow in the fields of Lean manufacturing, factory management and industry 4.0. He is also a regular guest lecturer and key note speaker in Asia and Latin-America.
Morgan Rosörn
I am a communicative team player and see me primarily as part of a team. Success in working life is about me to see the best page of everyone in the team. The right person in the right place and a clear direction, in order to get a good flow in the daily work. Others would describe me as accurate, persistent and effective. I would like to add that I am a responsible person who likes to work structured and to work towards set goals. I also focus on the subjective part of a company, a part that I am passionate about. I am happy, positive and inventive and contribute to a wonderful and energy-efficient work environment. To me it is incredibly important to enjoy and have fun at work. Contributing to respectful and well-functioning relationships with my colleagues is a prerequisite for this. My great interest is to meet organizations and people where they are today and from there help them develop in the direction they have decided to go.
Filip Waelkens
Filip Waelkens graduated as a master in electromechanical engineering from KU Leuven, Belgium. He started his career as consultant at Accenture before joining Bekaert in 2000. After different SAP project management roles for the wire business of Bekaert and gaining experience in manufacturing operations in the role of plant quality manager in the specialty steel wire business, Filip joined in 2013 the global manufacturing excellence team, where he became responsible for the introduction of MES in Bekaert. Today, he is Product Owner MES and Change Lead for Europe and Americas.
Alexander Demmer
Alexander Demmer heads up the Digital Transformation piece at GBR and is responsible for orchestrating the content & connectivity on IIoT, Digital Transformation, Industry 4.0 and Future Technologies segments. Alexander’s career to date can be split up into two parts, in his Operational Excellence roles within a large group (Constellium, former Rio Tinto Alcan) he has driven numerous interdisciplinary and multinational enterprise transformations. More recently he led the new business development teams. By integrating Lean Management and ICT best practices with corporate & leadership culture, he contributed to position companies like Cognizant, Wipro, Dassault Delmia and Marcam in central Europe by leading strategic process improvements and building up partner networks to enhance business models. Alexander holds a Master’s in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, ITIL v3 and IPMI project manager. He is native bilingual in German and Romanian, fluent in English and French. He is based in Munich, Germany.
Ton Aerdts
Ton Aerdts leads the Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement practice at GBR. In this role he is responsible for both shaping and executing the agenda for these key pillars of GBR’s manufacturing clientele.
Since the start of his career in 1993, Ton has been active in Continuous Improvement (CI). The first 20 years supporting companies in their Lean, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), 6 Sigma and Change Management journey. Leading a boutique consultancy company based in the Netherlands supporting global customers like Heinz, Starbucks, Bosch and Paccar Trucks to better their operational processes.
In the last 10 years he worked hands on and onsite with brands such as Cargill, DSM and Akzo Nobel (to name a few) helping them develop the internal capability and to run integrated CI programs. Most recently as the Site Director and interim Managing Director for the DACH region at Prinsen Berning where he managed a site with around 350 fte producing protein bars though a difficult phase after being acquired by a private equity company. He led the turnaround from a traditional family owned and managed business with serious operational issues to getting ready for the future with tremendous growth.
Ton holds a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering. He is fluent in Dutch, English and German. He is based in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Jean Charbonneau
Jean Charbonneau is a senior reliability engineer and the president of the Maintenance Excellence Group. He worked in the industry as a reliability engineer and maintenance planner/scheduler. In the 1990s, he founded the Maintenance Excellence Group to put together a team of asset reliability experts and assist organizations in achieving maintenance excellence. Its flagship solution is the Visual Planner digital platform, used by over 10,000 maintenance professionals from all industrial sectors worldwide, allowing them to maximize production output and lower operational costs. Mr. Charbonneau is a worldwide renowned speaker with over 30 years of experience in asset reliability and a leading influencer on the best methods for asset intensive organizations to achieve maintenance excellence.
Alexander Moentjens
Alexander Moentjens graduated as a master in mechanical engineering from Ghent University in Belgium. He started his career in aviation and joined Bekaert in 2014 after a tenure as consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). At Bekaert, Alexander focuses on change management and operations. Today, he is the Global Program Lead for Digital Manufacturing and Intelligent Processes.
Matthias Bölke
Dr. Matthias Bölke has worked for over 25 years in the field of Robotics, Industrial Automation and Energy Management. He studied Electrical Engineering, was lecturer for Mechanics and Robotics and received his doctor’s degree in Advanced Robotics. After his academic career, he was hired by Square D, Telemecanique and Schneider Electric with several international General Management positions, including CEO of Schneider Electric Country organizations in Austria and Switzerland. Today, Matthias Bölke is VP Strategy Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric. He brings a deep expertise in the field of digitalisation in Energy Management and Automation solutions across various applications such as buildings, industrial processes and data centres in both: technology and business transformations. He also is the chairmen of the newly created Industrial Digital Twin Association (IDTA) and lives in Berlin.
Julian Weitz
Julian is Makersite’s VP Sales, leading sales, marketing and partnerships.
He joined Makersite from New Relic Inc., where he served as a sales leader for Central Europe. Prior to that he worked in sales roles in multiple startups. Julian Weitz holds a B.Sc. degree in international business administration.
Julian's key focus is on how digital twins are helping product manufacturers make complex decisions about their products and supply chains.
Gilad Garon
Gilad co-founded ASOCS in 2003 and has been spearheading the company as Chief Executive Officer ever since. Bringing with him extensive knowledge in mobile and telecommunications, he holds over 25 years of hands-on experience in international sales, marketing, and product management. Driven by his passion for disruptive technologies and the re-definition of existing markets, Gilad steered ASOCS towards its focus on cellular virtualization and mobile edge clouds. Gilad holds several patents in the areas of signal processing and communications, while holding an M.B.A. in Marketing and Information Systems and a B.A. in Economics & Business, both from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Reinhard Geissbauer
He is a Leading practitioner in supply-chain and digital operations strategies for Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting group, based in Munich. Global Head of PwC's Digital Operations Group and leading the EMEA Industry 4.0 team. With more than 20 years of industrial and consulting experience with multinational industrial equipment manufacturers, process industry companies and automotive suppliers, his main focus is on supporting leading companies in digital supply-chain management, smart manufacturing, operations strategy development, global sourcing, global footprint design, and process cost optimization.
Thomas Nagel
Thomas was able to shape the digital transformation of a company starting in 1992. All manual workflows, technical rules, the modular parts list, as well as all configuration processes from order entry to shipping were integrated into an ERP system.
Parallel he realized international projects in plant engineering. Starting as project manager and ending as a Director Operations and Technology in 2010 - 2020. Thomas was responsible for all areas of project realisation and technology.
As a CDO, Thomas has been instrumental in driving the digital transformation. Projects such as the paperless office, the configuration of process plants, a service portal that offers all orders with spare parts and documentation online, the use of a modern Project Collaboration Platform and Generative Design in engineering are some examples of his work.
Since 2020 Thomas helps with his experience, his know-how and his agile mindset Autodesk Customers on their digital innovation journey!
Gordon Loader
Gordon has 30+ years of experience helping customers improve their business operations through technology innovation. In particular, he has spent many years spent helping organizations deploy technology solutions to improve and enhance their engagement with customers and prospects.
At Orange he uses a consultative approach to help manufacturing organizations realize the benefits of digital transformation; helping them to incorporate data-driven decision-making to better manage day to day operations, rethink business processes and develop new business models.
Malte Dieckelmann
PROFESSIONAL
Joining Rockwell from Oracle. Having led Cloud & Software businesses for large vendors like Microsoft, IBM and Dassault in Europe and Australia/New Zealand.
Over the last 20 years I have supported enterprises across all industries to drive their digital transformation efforts from an infrastructure and application perspective.
EDUCATION
Master in business administration, University of Cooperative Education in Stuttgart, Germany
MBA from Henley Management College in London, UK
Executive Leadership Development Programs
PERSONAL
Born in Berlin. Living in Munich with my wife Ewa and my two boys (10/12). Having lived in various places across Germany, Paris and Sydney. For recreation, I currently choose hiking and running.
Martin Beisiegel
Project Management and Change Management Consulting for Steinhaus Informationssysteme GmbH. Experienced Project Leader in academic and industrial research and development. With Steinhaus Informationssysteme GmbH, Martin represents over 40 years of dealing with challenges and solutions in the industry 4.0 context. Using out core products (OT/IT Integration Platform TeBIS®), services, and experts, Steinhaus customers produce more efficiently.
Alexander Sandström
Alexander Sandstrom is Chief Technology Officer at XMReality, defining product and technology vision, and leading the engineering team. He has more than a decade of experience building high tech products using real-time communication and live video technology. Prior to XMReality, Sandstrom was a senior product manager at Amazon, providing product leadership for Prime Video’s low-latency live streaming technology. Before Amazon, he was a strategic product manager building professional video delivery technology for global media companies at Net Insight. He has also held several positions at Ericsson, primarily designing and evangelizing communication solutions that enable mobile broadband across the globe.
Josef Kriegmair
Josef Kriegmair works as Representative Industrialization Production Systems at MTU Aero Engines AG Center Enablement. Since 2010, his main task has been the development and implementation of digital process chains and manufacturing intelligence systems for turbine blades and structure castings. Prior to that, he was in production engineering with a focus on technology development for production and for maintenance, repair and overhaul. He hold roles in logistics and plant maintenance at MTU Aero Engines from 1997 to 2001. Josef started in technical procurement at MTU.
Marc Winkelman
Marc Winkelman is a global director of Procter & Gamble’s “Product Supply Manufacturing, Innovation & Capability center of excellence”.
Marc is from The Netherlands. He completed his studies at the Rotterdam University of Business Management and he became additional a Certified Production and Inventory Manager during his army time. His 25+ years of professional experience in P&G spans multiple supply chains, manufacturing sites and corporate functions.
He has worked in many areas of product supply: at country-, regional- and global level, from initiative planner to manufacturing execution roles, from site responsible to manufacturing excellence within and outside P&G.
He is recognized as a very pragmatic expert in applying and coaching the IWS methodology. For the last 4 years, he has a leading role in consulting P&G’s manufacturing excellence methodology, “Integrated Work System” (IWS) in the alliance with EY Consultancy to coach the methodology at non-P&G’s companies.
He has successfully coached this methodology in various environments (low & high tech) and various areas (from production line to board-room) around the globe with multiple companies.
Ram Pattiwar
Ram has 17+ years’ experience in digitalisation, process optimisation and manufacturing process. Over the years Ram has worked primarily in Agrochemical, Cement and Mining industries. At FLSmidth Ram is responsible for developing and rolling out digitally enabled services for Mining industry to support productivity and sustainability. Use of less energy, fuel and water in mineral processing is high on agenda for Ram at FLSmidth, which assist FLSmidth customer with their Scope 1 and 2 SDG goals.
Stephanie Ocampo
Stephanie Ocampo, currently manager of Global production processes at Sandvik Coromant and with over 15 years of extensive manufacturing background. She leads a team of Production Business Process Experts supporting all Coromant Production Units globally in developing, implementing and maintaining compliant and efficient production processes along with suitable digital capabilities.
Daniel Anderson
Daniel Anderson is the founder and CEO of 3DQR and visionary in industrial Augmented Reality since over 15 years. He started his career as AR researcher at Fraunhofer, where he contributed to the development of many of the basic principles of modern AR solutions. In 2016 he founded 3DQR and filed several international patents, with the vision to provide a new kind of easy and intuitive, yet stable and scalable AR technology. The company has since then become one of the leading AR providers, specialized in industrial training and assistance. The 3DQR Software Suite has a large and quickly growing user base and is trusted by many small and big organizations, e.g. DB, Siemens, Endress+Hauser and the German Chamber of Commerce.
Ibrahim S. Jawahir
Dr. I.S. Jawahir is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, James F. Hardymon Chair in Manufacturing Systems, and Founding Director of Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing at the University of Kentucky. His current research includes sustainable manufacturing and sustainable product design.
He has published over 440 research publications; awarded with 4 U.S. patents; delivered 72 keynote papers at plenary sessions in international conferences and over 150 invited presentations in 38 countries.
He is a Fellow of CIRP, ASME and SME; Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing; and Technical Editor of Journal of Machining Science and Technology. Since 1990, he has been active in international collaborative research through CIRP: led five CIRP research groups; and founded/co-founded three CIRP Conference Series.
Professor Jawahir received numerous awards and honours, including the 2013 ASME Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal, 2015 William Johnson International Gold Medal and the 2022 SME Frederick W. Taylor Research Medal.
Michael Bruns
Michael has more than 20 years experience in consulting with a focus in IT and Operations and a strong background in Cloud, Data & AI and IIoT. Michael has strategically planned, conceptualized and implemented Smart Factory Transformations for international companies and is accountable for PwC’s Smart Factory offering. His main focus is on supporting leading companies in smart manufacturing, digital operations strategy, and IT/OT architecture.
Hilde Van Gerwen
Experienced Quality Leader with global experience in strategic and operational quality roles. Delivers tangible quality improvements, focusing on right first time for the customer. Drives change in evolving environments, with integrity and focus on results. Agile and cross functional team leader, building strong teams across cultures and organizational levels.
Dr. Jens Buergin
Jens is Head of Industry 4.0 at ZEISS Vision Care. He has been working in the field of Industry 4.0 for several years both in academia and in industry. Jens is convinced that Industry 4.0 offers great potentials for improving our operations and even better fulfilling our customers' needs - and he is highly motivated to realize these potentials.
Kai Kümmel
Kai is working in the field of data & analytics for several years now from research, day-by-day analytics to project responsibility and coordination. He worked in the financial and industry sector and work end-to-end on data-driven projects from the first idea to the final data product as well as its governance and lifecycle management.
Anthony Mc Loughlin
Anthony has been helping manufacturers democratize advanced analytics in the space of Engineering simulation and AI, for over 15 years. Anthony is an aerospace engineer with a unique background in engineering, AI and business. Anthony believes the ‘Engineering Data Scientist' is now the key to unlock the potential of Data & AI and this will be game changing for our future.
Jelena Stamenkovski
Jelena has more than 20 years’ experience in cement operational excellence and holds a master degree in Process Engineering from the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy in Skopje , North Macedonia. She started her career in 2004 as Quality engineer in Titan cement plant in Skopje. In 2008 she joined Holcim group in Holcim Serbia cement plant in Popovac, since then was holding various positions in process, production and industrial performance as expert and manager. In the period from 2017 to 2022 she was working in operational excellence department leading the industrial transformation by supporting international expert networking in implementation of cement plant standard operating model. Currently hold position in Plants of Tomorrow team in Decarbonisation function in Holcim as a Group process expert working on leading the Industry 4.0 technology process product portfolio. Trough Plants of tomorrow program, Holcim is boosting the competitive edge of its operations and products and optimizing its environmental footprint.
Stefan Schleyer
Stefan Schleyer is “Domain Principal Architect – Technology Development” at SKF in Schweinfurt. Digital Engineering and Innovation is a part of Technology Development and acts as crucial part in developing the digital landscape of the SKF Group Stefan Schleyer worked for many years in IoT projects for international customers and assisted them in evaluation, development and implementation of IoT enterprise applications. For more than ten years he led EU funded R&D projects for SKF in international consortiums. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science.
Thomas Usländer
Thomas Usländer holds a degree in Computer Science and a PhD in Engineering of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. He is head of the department “Information Management and Production Control” at Fraunhofer IOSB, Germany. He was an invited expert of the European Commission about geo-spatial information systems, got the DIN Innovation Award 2017 about Industrie 4.0 and the OMG Application Award 2000. He is member of various working groups of the Platform Industrie 4.0, the expert panel of the Standardization Council Industrie 4.0 (SCI4.0) and the DIN/DKE high-level Coordination Group “AI standardization and conformity”. He is co-chair of the Industrial Community IDS-I of the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) and chair of the Competence Center Karlsruhe on AI Systems Engineering (CC-KING). His research interests include agile system and service engineering, AI systems engineering as well as open architectures for the Industrial Internet of Things.
Hussein Tarhini
Hussein Tarhini is a PHD candidate and a consultant who supports companies in realizing their additive manufacturing (AM) potential by identifying viable AM scenarios and implementing them. His PHD research focuses on methodological approaches for business model identification and implementation in AM. As the previous leader of the Additive Academy at Fraunhofer IAPT, he provided professional training, knowledge transfer, and consultancy for companies in various industrial fields. He holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino in Italy and Mechanical Engineering and Management from the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH) in Germany. Mr. Tarhini specialized laser-based AM systems with hands on experience in process development and optimization as well as process monitoring and quality assurance. Mr. Tarhini has a managed multiple national and EU-projects which focused on research and development for AM.
Chris Poole
Chris Poole serves as the Director of Client Development for PSbyM. Chris has a 25 year track record of engaging global clients in supporting the delivery of tailored, high-quality excellence programs with special focus on supply chain excellence, operational excellence and safety excellence delivering sustainable transformational results. He's an expert in all aspects of policy deployment, leadership development, organizational alignment, and focused problem-solving methodologies. Chris is a certified Change Management Practitioner, Master Black Belt, and TPM Instructor.
Neil Webers
Neil is founder of the Performance Behavior approach and publishing author of the management bestseller ‘Performance Behavior’ (2010), ‘The big improvement resource’ (2012) and numerous articles about people and DigiTech opportunities and threats in the industrial market. Before joining SOLVACE, he was EVP Americas at EFESO Consulting since 2017. Neil founded FLECTO and the Digital Consulting firm Rightselect.com in 1999, which were both acquired by EFESO Consulting in 2012. Neil is an expert in World Class Operations Management, with focus on change management, leadership and behaviors in Digital Industrial processes.
Kyle Tansill
Prior to leading Digital Manufacturing Strategy in Saint Gobain’s Life Sciences business unit, I had 15 years of experience in electrical installation, maintenance and automation engineering. This experience, coupled with a child-like curiosity in the power of technology, has led me to drive initiatives that focus on providing value in the trenches of the shop floor. Alongside a degree in Computer Science I hold vocational qualifications in electrical installation, machinery safety, automation engineering and Agile methodology. My greatest passion now is to find a way to bind people, technology and the business to drive ‘universe denting’ operational change over the isolated successes I have witnessed since the conception of i4.0
Michael Thierschmann
Operational Excellence expert based on professional career experience in Research&Development, global technology Marketing&Sales, strategy & process consulting as well as leadership responsibility in global industrial corporations in various industries such as aerospace, automotive, plant management, logistics and vacuum technology
Alexander Schaefer
During my 20+ years of experience in designing and implementing digital manufacturing solutions worldwide, I supported my customers to make their digitalization journey a successful one.
Joan van de Wetering
I am passionate about innovation and bringing companies and teams toward continuous improvement, growth and success. My professional experience includes over 20 years project, sales and general management positions, all in business and manufacturing IT. Currently I am leading TrendMiner into a new stage of the company where it has become part of the SoftwareAG family. My experience is in both Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT). Combining both areas helps bridging the gap between these two different worlds in an era where these merge.
Tilmann Kloppe
Tilmann Kloppe is currently part of the Business Excellence and Quality Management Function at the Rolling Stock (Rail) Business Unit of Siemens. Driving Digital Transformation with focus on process improvement is a major part of his role. Before he joined the Railway Industry he held several management positions in the Air- and Space Industry and Power Generation Industry. He accumulated knowledge and leadership experience in different areas such as Project Management, Supply Management and Operations. Certainly, one career highlight was a green field project he successfully led in Eastern Europe
Giuseppe Sarago
A passionate technology & transformational leader with significant experience in design & manufacturing domain with focus on 4 stroke engine, both for energy and industrial businesses.
Since very beginning of my carrier, I’ve been engaged in engine technology and innovation, starting as a researcher on the topics of combustion optimization, passing through 4S engine product development, till today that I’m heading global Engineering & Innovation in manufacturing domain at the Wartsila Sustainable Technology Hub in Vaasa. I have established new engineering teams in several positions during my career, recently lead transformation to new roles and founded Additive Manufacturing Campus in STH.
Been the initiator of Wartsila Smart Manufacturing Ecosystem Vision and relevant funded projects “OSME (open smart manufacturing Ecosystem)” focused on establishing an “Extended Enterprise model” where supply chain and other SMEs are deeply connected, where platforms, data and “base core knowledge” is shared for a common growth.
Keywords: innovation, transformation, leading change, performance, leadership, people centricity, digital aware, agility, collaboration.
Werner Reuß
Werner Reuß has more than 25 years of experience in the manufacturing and IT industry. He has built up and managed international business units for corporations such as Microsoft and Orange Business Services. In the last 10 years, his focus has been on Industry 4.0 and related topics in organizational development. At InterSystems, Werner Reuß is responsible for the company’s strategic positioning in the manufacturing industry
Kristian Schatz
Kristian Schatz works as Principal Project Manager & Product Owner at M&M Software GmbH. He holds a diploma in Civil Engineering and a PhD in Construction Informatics from the TU Darmstadt. With 15+ years of experience in consulting, design and implementation of digital solutions in the area of digital twins and IoT platforms, he supports his customers to turn their vision for a digital world with the right partners into reality.
Dipl.-Ing. Ingo Hild
Dipl. Ing. Ingo Hild, responsible for automotive plant Schwabmünchen. Studied Electrical Engineering at University of Ulm. Worked for Procter and Gamble and Bosch. Started 2002 at OSRAM to design fully automated high-speed machines for automotive head lamps production. Changed from plant Herbrechtingen to plant Schwabmünchen where he constantly increased area of responsibility up to his current position as plant manager. Currently he is leading the plant in a disruptive change from a traditional to a high-tech plant by using digitalization and lean principles. During that time, he also was responsible for plant Bruntal in Czech Republic for a period of time.
Sami Karttunen
Sami Karttunen acts as EMEA Smart Factory Lead as part of the PwC's Smart Factory practice supporting industrial clients to transform their manufacturing and supply operations to become more competitive, sustainable and resilient. Sami's focus is on advising clients on their manufacturing strategy, smart factory and organizational change. Sami has 13+ years of industry and consulting experience and he has supported multiple leading manufacturers to transform their manufacturing operations across the globe.
Christian Koch
Christian Koch is part of PwCs Smart Factory practice supporting industry & manufacturing clients in their Digital Transformation journey. His focus is on leading the technical design, development and roll out of Digital Manufacturing Platforms and the use cases built on top of them. Christian Koch has gained 8+ years extensive leadership experience with clients in the discrete manufacturing and the process industry sector and supported them building up central Digital Manufacturing platforms from scratch in a brownfield environment.
Adrian Palka
Adrian Palka holds a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering and boasts 16 years of experience in manufacturing in different regions around the globe. He has shown expertise in industrial & cost engineering, lean manufacturing and recently leads Digital Transformation as a part of the Global Manufacturing Excellence team. He's a proven leader with focus on servant leadership and people and in his career, he held various management positions in Product Costing, Advanced Manufacturing Engineering, Lean and Manufacturing Excellence. He has a track record of putting Lean principles into practice, creating Digital Transformation Strategies, and implementing Smart Factory solutions. He speaks 3 languages (English, German & Polish) which helps with communication and understanding the advantages of diversity and different cultures.
Jakob Hall
Jakob Hall is Enterprise Business Development Manager for GE Digital Manufacturing. In this role, Jakob is responsible for supporting digital industrial transformations within manufacturing companies across Europe and the Middle East. This includes delivering comprehensive solution visions, digital journeys and compelling business cases based on GE Digital Manufacturing Software and services to GE Digitals customers and partners in EMEA.
In his over 20 years of extensive experience in different roles within manufacturing software and consultancy companies, Jakob has developed and executed successful strategies to enable his manufacturing customers to harness the challenges of Digital Industrial Transformations, Industry 4.0 and grow through digitalization.
Today, Jakob’s ambition is to continue this growth path with his customers while leveraging the new opportunities brought by new technologies to develop environment sustainable solutions enabled by continues improvements and global industrial collaborations.
Currently located in Denmark, Jakob graduated from the Danish Technical University with a MSc in Mathematics.
Jakob Hall is Enterprise Business Development Manager, EMEA for GE Digital Manufacturing. In this role, Jakob is responsible for supporting digital industrial transformations within manufacturing companies across Europe and the Middle East.
In his over 20 years of extensive experience in different roles within manufacturing software and consultancy companies, Jakob has partnered successfully with many manufacturers on strategies to overcome the challenges of digital industrial transformation and deliver growth through digitalization.
Today, Jakob leverages his deep knowledge of GE Digital Manufacturing software and services as well as his vision for comprehensive digital journeys and compelling business cases to support GE Digital’s customers and partners in EMEA. His ambition is to guide them towards new opportunities and technologies powered by continuous improvement, sustainable approaches, and global industrial collaborations.
Currently located in Denmark, Jakob graduated from the Danish Technical University with a MSc in Mathematics.
Manuel Aguado Puertas
Originally from Spain and with background in Industrial electronics engineering. Manuel has worked in in robotic project engineering in Procter and Gamble and in Siemens around the Automation and Industrial IoT areas for Manufacturing in several leadership positions. Today in Danone driving the digital transformation in the manufacturing sites
Stephen Methogo
Stephen is an experienced Engineer and Sales professional, with a passion for sport and Japanese Culture. He supports companies within the Automotive and Li-ion Battery industries, in overcoming their global industrial challenges with Automation and Digitalization technologies.
Pascal Hennemann
Pascal Hennemann has an Engineering Degree from the ITECH school and a Postgraduate Certificate in polymer materials. Pascal Hennemann started his career as a Packaging Development Engineer in a research center at DOW CHEMICAL within the plastic industry. He then worked for BERICAP and REXAM in the R&D department. Pascal Hennemann joined BERRY GLOBAL in 2000 as R&D Director and became Research & Innovation Director in 2008. Pascal Hennemann has more than 35 years’ experience in R&D for plastic packaging.
Christopher Koehnen
Dr. Christopher Köhnen leads an interdisciplinary team of advanced manufacturing engineers, lean practitioners, and OT support specialists at StanleyBlack&Decker's EMEA automotive chapter. His focus is on driving innovation and digitalization to enhance productivity through lean tools, process digitalization, and innovative manufacturing automation. With a background in science and research, as well as experience as a managing consultant, Dr. Köhnen possesses the expertise needed to excel in his current role.
Daniel Ranke
Daniel Ranke is business segment manager for end-to-end operations at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA, which he joined in 2018. His focus is on the design of production systems and production management that meet today's challenges and demands for changeability, flexibility, and resilience. He studied Industrial Engineering and Management at KIT Karlsruhe.
Ronald Root
With over 15 years of experience in data and digital leadership roles in energy, innovation, and marine contracting, I have built my skills in leveraging the value of data and AI to create a better world. I’m an expert on digital transformation and data-driven decision-making, and I have leveraged my experience to implement internationally scalable models, such as the Hub and Spoke model, that enable exponential data driven growth.
Reinhard Geissbauer
Reinhard Geissbauer is a Partner at PwC and Head of Europe for Digital Transformation and Sustainability. He serves leading Manufacturing Companies with 20+ years of experience in Industrial Manufacturing and Operations Consulting positions. Reinhard Geissbauer supports industrial companies in their sustainability transformation, from developing a sustainable product portfolio, implementing sustainable production systems to optimizing the end-to-end logistics and supply chain processes. He has vast experience in developing sustainability strategies and implementing hands-on solutions in smart manufacturing, the end-to-end integrated supply chain and sustainable service innovation including new, data driven service business models. In addition to his industry and consulting activities, he is the author of numerous global studies on the topics of Sustainable Innovation, Industry 4.0, Factory Transformation or Digital Supply Chain Management. Reinhard Geissbauer holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a focus on international Finance and Operations, from the University of Kentucky and a Ph.D. in International Business Administration University of Regensburg. He lives with his family South of Munich.
Olli Kuismanen
Olli has been responsible for developing Tamturbo Air-as-a-Service business since its inception in 2017. Before embarking on a PhD on the topic of industrial equipment-as-a-Service he was also responsible for Tamturbo global sales. Currently he works to help customers become sustainable by helping modernize compressor rooms with no CAPEX usage – sharing the available energy savings in compressed air electricity and waste heat reuse.
John Robinson
John is a globally respected Industry 4.0 thought leader. His unique insights and disruptive thinking are the result of a thirty-year career that has included senior roles at Kearney, SAP, EY, Atos and Schneider Electric as well as over decade in manufacturing. He has worked with many of the world’s largest manufacturing brands across all industry sectors and his skill set includes strategy, IT, OT, Operational Excellence and Industry 4.0.
Claudia Voss
Industrial engineer with 23 years of experience in production, production controlling, key account management and IT. The focus of all activities across the various positions is on the strategic design and development of processes and IT as well as the initiation and implementation of IT and process changes. Currently head of the "Engine Operational Excellence" department in the Engine Services division of Lufthansa Technik AG, the MRO operation for the overhaul of engines and the repair of engine parts.
Hugo David Herrmann
Hugo is a young leader in the field of Operational Excellence & Smart Factory with experience in the sectors of beverages, infrastructure & construction and automotive. He graduated in Computing Systems (Tec de Monterrey, Mexico) and obtained his master’s titles in Innovation and Technology Management (University of Cambridge and Sussex, United Kingdom), as Business Transformation Manager (University of Applied Sciences Northwestern, Switzerland and SAP) and in Operational Excellence in Bavaria, Germany. He has collaborated with ABInbev - Grupo Modelo as Senior Advisor in the Strategic Transformation Programme, and his participation in numerous projects allowed him to broaden his skills and experience in Strategic Planning, M&A, Operations, Marketing, Processes and Technology. He later worked as Director in the area of Corporate Strategic Planning in ICA, the leading infrastructure construction and operation company in Mexico, and currently he is in charge of Operational Excellence and Industry 4.0 in the Tier 1 Global Automotive Company IAC, while he is based in Munich, Germany
Marcin Kosecki
Marcin Kosecki holds a Master’s degree in Controlling, Finance, and Accounting from Pforzheim University. He is a Business Intelligence Consultant who collaborates daily with Comarch clients to develop custom-made Enterprise Data Warehouse, Business Intelligence, and AI platforms. Marcin helps clients manage the complexity and volume of generated data, leveraging it to drive a customer-centric approach and enhance company performance. With years of experience in the Business Intelligence field, he has gained valuable expertise in providing top value propositions for manufacturing companies.
