Speakers 2022

Uwe has more than 25 years experience in the manufacturing environment and with industrial software and automation products. He spent 5 years as an application engineer with Schiess a major manufacturer of heavy machine tool builder before he started to be involved of developing the first Industrial pc´s and the use of pc equipment to control and optimize palletize systems. Prior to Incuity and Wonderware, Uwe has built up the sales area for an engineering company and sold automation solution to all kinds of manufacturing segments. After running his own business Uwe joined Wonderware in 1994 as regional sale manager in the west part of Germany. 1995 he moved to the head quarter in the US to develop the OEM program. In this timeframe Uwe gained also international expirience in Asia. Since 1997 he was leading the sales organization of the German operation including the ERP and Maintenance sales which came through Wonderware in 1999. January 2001 he took over the position as managing director in Scandinavia where he was building up the new entity which was created in April 2001 with a clear focus on adding value to their customers business. In 2003 Uwe became the additional responsibility of the German operation as Managing Director. April 2005 he exepted the position as Director Business Development and Marketing EMEA where he was responsible for extending the established markets and grow new emergency market segments or area. Together with his Marketing manager he developed the marketing strategies for Wonderware in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His primary goal was to grow significant the business in EMEA as well as identifying new potential business segments. Since Jan 2014 Uwe was also appointed to the Chairman of the EMEA board of Mesa International a non profitable association focusing since more than 20 years on Manufacturing. Uwe Kueppers is married and has a son and a daughter.

Dr. Michael Schmeja has been working at the Virtual Vehicle Research Center in Graz since 2009 and is currently key researcher in the department NVH & Information Systems. From 1997 - 2009 he held various management positions at Siemens Mobility, where he was awarded Inventor of the Year in 2003. After studying mathematics, Mr. Schmeja earned his doctorate at the Institute of Railway Engineering at the Graz University of Technology.

Adam Zawadzki joined Toyota in 2006 and currently holds the position of Senior Project Leader at the European Headquarters in Belgium. He is a part of a team shaping the future look of manufacturing in Europe bringing innovative technologies and approaches, especially in the areas IoT, ML/AI and intelligent processes.

He drove many international and cross-functional projects in Europe & Asia concerning Lean manufacturing, supply chain and banking processes preparation and/or optimisation. Moreover, as a direct Lean/TPS consultant he was responsible for simultaneous cost reduction and production efficiency improvement in various European manufacturing companies. Prior to Toyota he worked for such global leaders as Procter & Gamble and Tata Consultancy Services.

At work he often combines multiple techniques & mindsets and implement them in various fields and on different levels believing that there is always a better way of doing things.

Aristides is a Professor of Supply Chain Design at Cranfield University and also Visiting Professor at the University of Lille (France) and at the Vietnam Maritime University. Previously, he was Associate Professor and Head of the Engineering Systems & Supply Chain Management at Aston University.
His research focuses on topic of Design for Supply Chain/Logistics looking at to how to design the supply chain based on strategic and logistical assessments. He has been involved in several research (FP6, FP7, Horizon 2020, ERDF) and consulting projects as a freelance consultant particularly in manufacturing, automotive, food, and healthcare. In 2019 he was appointed a Royal Society Short Industry Fellow to collaborate with Williams Advanced Engineering a world-class technical innovation, engineering and specialist low volume manufacturing services provider to develop a tool for the automotive industry to assess suppliers’ ability to upscale production in order to raise the competitiveness of suppliers in the UK.
Aristides’ industrial research collaborators include also Rolls-Royce, Jaguar Land Rover, Saietta Group, MCT Reman, Microcab, Goodfloo, Marks & Spencer, AB Vassilopoulos, and many SMEs.

Philippe Babel is leading a cultural change as Group Lean Director for LISI since February 2021 and previously for different companies in US & France.

He is an expert in Lean, continuous improvement and Leadership, built through several years in consulting and 30 years in the automotive & Aerospace industries acting in different positions (quality, manufacturing, program management, Supply Chain, supplier development, operations, Lean …).

Philippe has also taught his expertise for several years at French engineering schools “Les mines” of Nancy and CESI of Bordeaux.

Philippe is graduate from HEC Paris in Executive Team Coaching and various French universities in Finance & strategic management, Quality in the Aerospace Industry and Mechanical Engineering.

Thaddeus Anim-Somuah is a chartered chemical engineer who is passionate about sustainability. During his career he has led the development of the global decarbonization roadmap to reduce Croda's emissions by 50% from 2018 to 2030 and has been a Future Energy Leader at the World Energy Council.  In 2020, he was listed by Forbes as 30 under 30 for Europe for his contributions to Manufacturing & Industry. 

He has also been promoting sustainability within the Engineering Profession; having held several board and advisory board positions including European Federation of Chemical Engineers, European Young Engineers, Brunel University and University of Southampton

Biologist, phD in biotechnology, since more than 30 years in different roles in the pharmaceutical industry, with a key focus on vaccines. I have held roles in different countries (Belgium, Germany, Hungary) in vaccines development and manufacturing and operational site leadership, growing & leading for 13 years GSK´s vaccines manufacturing site in Dresden, Germany with > 700 pp.

Currently I am responsible for leading and growing a network of several small-scale manufacturing laboratory units, spread across the globe in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Canada & USA. Our role is to provide tangible, technical & scientific support into d2d operations, process development and mid-term process improvement programs through Quality-by-Design small scale studies and grow a ww exchange network, sharing experiences and providing mutual support.

Brintha leads Partner Solutions strategy & plan for EMEA manufacturing customers. In this role, is an extended member of the global AWS Manufacturing and Industries Partner Solutions team working backwards from customers needs to bring innovative and differentiated partner solutions to market.  Prior to this role, Brintha delivered several multi-partner edge-to-outcome solution builds in manufacturing, energy management, and consumer products as an IoT services lead.  Prior to AWS, she held several global leadership roles at NXP, Electrocomponents, and Intel in the the US, Hong Kong and London.

She holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She calls Hamburg, Germany home where she lives with her family. She is an active mentor to women and girls in technology through Mentorloop and MoinWorld.

A goal-driven person who believes that a company´s culture based on growth, innovation, and leadership is the path to achieving excellence.

I started my career in IT and Quality. After that, my professional career included Plant Manager and Operations Director jobs.

My actual position is Vice President Operations in EMEA, Clarios (formerly Johnson Controls Power Solutions). Responsible now for cost, production, quality, H&S, manufacturing engineering as well as environmental and facility management for the EMEA region, among other aspects. I represent the company to stakeholders and shareholders and plan the use of personnel, financial and technical resources in Operations.

My Bachelor of MORSE (Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics, and Econometrics) was obtained in 1985, and my MBA in 2009. In 2019, I got a certificate in Digital Business Strategy from MIT Sloan and in 2020, I got another one from Columbia Business School. In 2021, after 12 months, I got a certificate in Digital transformation from MIT.

Vitor Gregorio is now leading the HVAC division for German multi-conglomerate Robert Bosch for a major part of the globe after being President and CEO for North America. For more than 20 years, Vitor has been transforming the organization, making Bosch the leading brand in the HVAC industry, but also Consumer Goods and Automotive sectors. Currently he has responsibility over 15 sales organizations, close to 1000 associates a a business targeting a One Billion Euros.

In his previous role as President and CEO in North America for the last 7 years, Vitor is credited with helping to define and execute on a groundbreaking restructuring and business turnaround, resulting in his division winning numerous awards and becoming the industry benchmark for customer centricity, innovation and high performance culture.

Recognized for his entreprenuerial spirit, passion and leadership, Vitor’s experience over the last two decades also includes leading growth and expansion for various Bosch divisions across five countries and three continents.

Vitor has a Bachelor degree from UBI in Portugal and MBA in Business Administration from IAE in Argentina and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. Originally from Portugal, Vitor has just retuned to his home coutry after 22 years living abroad. He lives in Lisbon with his wife and two daughters. Passionate about living life to the fullest with his family, Vitor is an avid runner, cycilist and and a lover of turtle necks and sneakers…

John Harhen works with industry clients in many sectors in operations and supply chain improvement. This includes pharmaceuticals, medical device, drink, food and distribution. His primary areas of concentration are rapid analytics, end to end supply chain and operations optimization, cost to serve, and operational and commercial due diligence.

He has many years of experience of working with Private Equity funds doing buy-side due diligence particularly in the life sciences area. His strengths in analytics allow him play on the commercial side as well as the operations side of due diligence. Prior to becoming a consultant, John worked at director level with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (now Pfizer), SmithKline Beecham (now GSK), and Digital Equipment Corporation. John Harhen graduated in Industrial Engineering from the UC Galway of the National University of Ireland.
John earned a master of engineering science degree in Computer Integrated Manufacturing also from UC Galway, and completed a Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in Industrial Engineering/Operations Research. His dissertation focussed on applications of Artificial Intelligence to Corporate Strategy. John has many papers published and has co-authored a book on Production Management.

Hussein Tarhini leads the Additive Academy at Fraunhofer IAPT providing professional trainings, knowledge transfer and consultancy in the field of Additive Manufacturing (AM).
He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino in Italy and a degree in 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. Currently Mr. Tarhini strives to support companies realize their AM potential by identifying viable AM scenarios and supports implementing them.

Thomas Hughes is the World Class Manufacturing Lead for Zaptic.

Previously, he was Senior Director in the Global Business Development “center of excellence” of Procter and Gamble and part of the Global WCM and Manufacturing and Supply Chain team. 

His 40 years of professional experience spans multiple FMCG companies including Lyons Tetley, Northern Foods, Gillette, Duracell and P&G Fabric and Home Care.

Tom has worked in many areas of product supply, including running large mega plants, Quality, Product Development, Engineering, Operations and Supply chain optimization, winning several awards for delivering and driving cultural change and WCM, safety, cost, cash and innovation transformations. 

He is an expert in the P&G integrated work system, TPM, Lean and continuous Improvement methodologies. Tom assists Zaptic clients in the development of their Connected Worker vision and road map. He is passionate about people, driving out loss and making the work of the frontline connected worker, simpler, digital and connected to their work.

After several experiences in multiple functional areas it became clear to me that I like two things; being in contact with people of different backgrounds and result!

My education and first job as electrical engineer gave me good insight in how technical improvements and innovation can be managed. When I moved on in my career to purchasing and finally to business development and sales also cost-efficient production, revenue generation and increasing profitability became know to me.
In my current role as CCO in Tamturbo I’m able to really use that acquired knowledge to help customer reach their sustainability goals.

Eric Peeters is the Vice President for Sustainability Performance Materials & Coatings Business Segment, responsible for setting and implementing a holistic sustainability strategy to bring sustainability into the core of the activities and develop an overall growth-oriented approach.

Peeters joined Dow Corning in 1992, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company since June 1st, 2016, in Barry, UK. Over the course of his almost-30-year career, he has served in a number of science and business leadership roles in the U.S. and Europe. He headed the solar business from 2008 to 2012, was named Vice President of Dow Corning’s Electronics Solutions in 2012 and in 2014 became Vice President for Dow Corning’s Emulsions, Blends, Powders and Lubricants Business. In 2017 he was named Global Business Director for Dow’s Home & Personal Care business, holding the P&L and balance sheet responsibility for this business. Peeters is a Board Member and the Treasurer for the American Cleaning Institute. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Energy Materials Industrial Research Initiative. He has a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and a master’s in technology enterprise degree from the IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Steffen started his career in IBM in 1990. Until 1998 he worked as a specialist for UNIX/AIX in the area of internationalization. He then moved to Tivoli in technical sales and worked as a service management solution architect for complex system and service management environments. With the beginning of the millennium, the topics Cloud and Smarter Infrastructure became increasingly the focus of his work.

Since 2014, Steffen has been working in the area of Internet of Things in combination with Asset and Service Management to realize added values of digitalization and artificial intelligence in maintenance.

Steffen holds a degree in business administration (BA) in business informatics from the Verwaltungs- und Wirtschaftsakademie Stuttgart.

Andrew Evans is the General Manager for the Light Industry Sector Decarbonisation business at Shell. 

 

Since joining Shell in 2001, Andrew has held a broad range of local, regional and global roles covering marketing, brand strategy,  business development, business process design, and business opportunity management across multiple Shell businesses, including Renewable Energy Solutions, Lubricants, Commercial Fuels,  Retail, Specialties, and Brand. 

Andrew brings unparalleled experience across to Shell to design tailor-made strategies to help customers in the sector reach their long-term sustainability targets.  His team focuses on developing roadmaps of solutions available across Shell, then works with key customers and suppliers to implement them in the short, medium and long term. 

Andrew is also passionate about Purpose and how organisations can incorporate Purpose to drive better outcomes for employees, customers, and society. Andrew has a Bachelor of Business Science with honours in Marketing from the University of Cape Town.

Rémi Malenfant is Director of HR Innovation and Customer Experience at UKG HR Service Delivery (formerly known as PeopleDoc). He has more than 10 years of experience in HR. Passionate about the impact of digital in HR, he helps organizations to develop and realize their HR strategy through technology and support them in optimizing and automating processes to improve service delivery as well as enhance the employee experience through technology-enabled solutions.
Previously, Rémi held numerous HR roles at global testing, inspection and certification company Bureau Veritas as well as consultancy roles at PwC and Capgemini. Rémi is an international speaker and thought leader on HCM trends, hot topics, and global strategies.

Harald Kirsch can be described as dynamic, entrepreneurial business strategist with over 30 years of professional experience in organizational and business development. His professional career, to date, has mainly been defined by the topics - Securing the Future Viability of Companies, Developing New Business Models, Digital Transformation, IIoT, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Automation of Enterprise respectively Production Processes, Product Management for innovative SW Solutions and Services, Portfolio Management, Strategy Consulting as well as Business Transformation, Change Management, Employee development and coaching

 
His current area of responsibility includes in particular the topics:

-          Establishment and further development of a Modern Organizational Structure
-          Implementation of Agile Methods
-          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

Salvatore Impellizzeri is global director of Procter & Gamble’s “Product Supply Manufacturing, Innovation & Capability center of excellence”. 

Salvatore is from Italy and completed his studies with a master’s degree in engineering in Bologna. His 30+ years of professional experience in P&G spans multiple supply chains, manufacturing, Innovation and Supply Network Operations.

He has worked in many areas of product supply: at country, regional and global level, from initiative leader to manufacturing execution roles and from planning/logistics to manufacturing excellence within and outside P&G.

For the last 2 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.

Chris is the editor of Manufacturing Management magazine, and is passionate about bringing thought-leader advice to the UK’s manufacturers.
He has a decade of experience in the publishing industry, across a variety of sectors, and helps lead MA Business’ engineering events.

Chris (Xiangwei) Cheng graduated from Tongji University with a Master's degree in Control Engineering in 2021 and was also certified by a double master's degree in Engineering at the Technical University of Munich in 2021. Currently, he is doing his Ph.D. study at Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute, and his research focus is the AIoT applications in the automobile industry and value stream management.

Digital Twin Consortium is The Authority in Digital Twin. It coalesces industry, government, and academia to drive consistency in vocabulary, architecture, security, and interoperability of digital twin technology. It advances digital twin technology in many industries, from aerospace to natural resources. Digital Twin Consortium is a program of Object Management Group.

Carsten Hunfeld, Augmentir’s Sales Director for DACH region, has over 20 years experience building and leading successful teams, primarily focusing on early-stage technologies that bring new and differentiated analytics-driven solutions to market. Carsten has worked in various leadership roles where he has successfully built and fostered teams and businesses that have serviced some of the largest industrial clients.

Matthew McGregor took on DataProphet’s Digital Marketing Manager position in 2020. Since then, he has fully embraced the opportunity to help fulfill the mission of this company at the forefront of industrial tech innovation — to be the leading global provider of high-impact AI solutions for the machines making the world. Matthew is a critical change agent in a fast-paced, high-growth environment, mediating at the nexus of DataProphet’s customer base, communications outlets, technical sales, HR, marketing, and the executive.

He relishes the challenge of helping to nurture the company culture and shape its marketing strategy, applying his people skills and acumen for data analytics, B2B sales, and brand identity. Matthew believes enabling industrials to attain manufacturing excellence 4.0 with value-driven AI constitutes a meaningful contribution to our most significant economic and environmental challenges.

From a digital change management perspective, he appreciates the opportunity for plant personnel to future-proof their positions as connected workers for the digital age with Data Prophet’s service-oriented, collaborative approach.