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.

Jesper has delivered organizational footprint and technology strategies within Element design and Mould Manufacturing - establishing Engineering centers in LEGO manufacturing sites in Mexico and Denmark. Responsibilities include delivering innovation to support product development and leading engineering on manufacturing sites. During his work Jesper has profound focus on how IoT can support his visions and enable the future – a true IOT-technology evangelist. Jesper has worked for LEGO in several roles. 1) Responsibility for R&D in Packaging and Processing (Decorations and Assembly) product line. 2) Responsibilities for product development execution for LEGO DUPLO, LEGO Games, LEGO Technic, LEGO Hero Factory - leading development teams through design, sourcing and marketing process from concept to finished product. 3) establishing logistics strategy, delivered turn around results in increasing differentiated services and reducing costs by e.g. outsourcing, consolidating sites and redefining logistic service offering.

My name is Roberto Napione (56) , I’m working in SKF since 1992 . I’m mechanical engineer ; I studied Mechanical Engineering in Politecnico of Turin an important Engineering University . My career has been initially in manufacturing Operations: Quality manager , Manufacturing manager , Unit manager, Factory Director (800 people) Then I move to Manufacturing Development : Manufacturing Development for Business Unit, Group Divisions, SKF Group global, Responsibility in technology step up , managing investments and EHS From 2016 till 2020 I build the Machine Centre of Excellence ; teams in Sweden, Italy, France , India and China. Task to develop machines and IP’s based on key strategic knowledge and connected to I4.0 and smart manufacturing. We produce proof of concept in new technology and we install the machines and the knowledge. In 2020 I got the responsibility of Manufacturing Knowledge Management for EU/ASIA/AMERCAS with the task to preserve the strategical knowledge in Covid and post covid situation and prepare for the new future needs. Involved in several external communication experiences , summit, video, books.

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.

Christian studied Materials Handling at the University of Applied Science at Erfurt, graduating with a degree in engineering (2002) and later completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree program at the University of Wales, UK (2012). Currently he is enrolled in a Master of Science degree program in Information Technology at the Indiana University Bloomington, USA. From 2003 till 2018 Christian held several leadership roles in Operations, Lean and Supply Chain Management for Grammer, ITW, TRW, Faurecia and Federal Mogul in Europe, Asia and the US. During this time, he was responsible for the setup of two manufacturing plants in Asia as well as more than 15 restructuring projects across the globe. Beside his operational responsibilities Christian was also jointly responsible with the conceptual design and roll out of the Production System for Federal Mogul as well as for TRW. His most challenging project was the setup of a new Just in Time plant in South Korea (2009). “At this time, I was fairly young (29) and put in charge in a culture where it is all about seniority and hierarchical levels. I have done many mistakes, have learned a lot and was successful in the end because of a great team and an inspirational leader”. Christian has a deep technical understanding and a high level of expertise in Production and Supply Chain with modern methods and standards. This expertise he is passing over in form of his lecturing assignments in International Production, Digital Strategies and Lean Management at two technical universities in Germany. Currently, Christian is working for STAEDTLER, a traditional German FMCG manufacturer, where he is responsible for the lean transformation along with the digital agenda for the manufacturing network.

Angelique Mesch started her career as a field engineer on offshore drilling facilities and pivoted to various cross-functional global roles in technical sales, program management, engineering to now product management. Her career path has been marked by constant reflection, self-awareness, and personal growth. One common theme is that she has always worked in a male dominated environment. This has taught her how to break boundaries, challenge the status quo and find her voice, advocating and paving the path for coming generations that Female leaders can be assertive, determined, and resilient. This drives diversity of thought which is the fuel for high productive and innovative business cultures.

Mesch is the global Product Manager for Waygate Technologies Digital Inspection Solution division based in Wunstorf, Germany. Her Product line consist of InspectionWorks Remote Monitoring and Diagnostics – System health Data Monitoring - and Inspection Works Archive – Data Storage and Data Management Solution. Prior to this Angelique was a field engineer for the Oil & Gas industry as well as the NDT-Industry. Angelique has 8 years of professional experience, two years in upstream oil and gas and six years in the NDT-Industry. 

Angelique is currently pursuing an Executive M.Sc. in Intercultural Leadership and Technology and holds a Masters in Industrial Engineering focusing on Energy and Natural Resources from the Clausthal University of Technology, Germany. She has a proven track record of adapting into different business environments and excelling in roles through her excellent understanding of complex coherences and fast learning abilities, paired with an above and beyond mindset.

Inspired by the significant value prescriptive AI delivered to local manufacturers as an industry consultant, Frans Cronje co-founded DataProphet in 2014. His mission is to establish this innovative, results-driven company as the leading global provider of AI-as-a-Service for manufacturing. Frans was amongst Fast Company SA’s top 20 industry leaders under 30. He is also a regular keynote speaker on the international circuit at key manufacturing vertical summits, conferences, and other prestigious events.

In 2019, the WEF invited Frans to speak at its Annual Meeting of the New Champions (the “Summer Davos”) in Dalian, China, recognizing DataProphet as a Technology Pioneer.

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.

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.

Dan Isaacs is Chief Technology Officer of Digital Twin Consortium, where he is responsible for setting the technical direction for the Member Consortium, liaison partnerships and business development support for new memberships.

Previously, Dan was Director of Strategic Marketing and Business Development at Xilinx where he was responsible for emerging technologies including AI/Machine Learning, including defining and executing the ecosystem strategy for the Industrial IoT.  Prior to joining the Digital Twin Consortium, Dan was responsible for Automotive Business Development focused on Automated Driving and ADAS systems. 

Dan represented Xilinx to the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). He has more than 25 years of experience working in automotive, Mil/Aerospace and consumer-based companies including Ford, NEC, LSI Logic and Hughes Aircraft.

An accomplished speaker, Dan has delivered keynotes, presentations and served as panellist and moderator for IIC World Forums, Industrial IOT Global conferences, Embedded World, Embedded Systems, and FPGA Conferences. He is a member of international advisory boards and holds degrees in Computer Engineering: EE from Cal State University, B.S. Geophysics from ASU.

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.

𝗟𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝘀 is a Global Operations Leader who prioritises population health and well-being in his business decision making. With 20 years’ experience working in multinational conglomerates such as Philips and General Electric, his expertise lies in the medical diagnostic imaging industry.

A skilled People Leader, Lior is experienced building and directing high-performing, multidisciplinary teams of up to 1000, across the world. With a strong customer-first mindset, he is known for propelling transformational company-wide change management processes, and leading data-driven optimization with quality at its core.

✦ 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 ✦
-2020 - Promoted to develop and execute global medical diagnostic Imaging operations strategy for Philips worldwide.
-2018-20 - Led transformational change management to develop, design, and structure the Phillips Industrialisation function, defining and leading vision and strategy toward a factory of the future.
-2016 - Led a large restructure to elevate local factories in Israel to become global Philips centres of excellence.
-2013-14 - Led joint venture operations between General Electric and Orbotech, greatly exceeding venture targets and financial goals.
-2011-12 - Significantly improved operational infrastructure and performance of a Defense and Aerospace company to enable due diligence and subsequent acquisition.

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.