Dominic De-Kerf started his career in 1991 as local automation engineer, before later becoming part of central engineering in the mid 1990s where he was involved in building factories in Turkey, Germany and China. After his company was acquired by Cargill in 2003, he became the best practice lead for automation for the starch business in Europe and moved into more corporate roles in Automation. Dominic has more than 30 years experience in the industry and is involved in ISA, NAMUR and other industry associations.

Del Pailes has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for >36 years with extensive experience in the engineering arena. He has held roles ranging from apprentice to technician then team leader, to plant engineer, Lean/Six Sigma and engineering leadership, both at factory and central function levels.

Del has extensive experience with setting up engineering strategy, systems with standrd processes and configurations and is currently the business process owner for core engineering platforms such as CMX, along with the core central engineering data quality and analytics. Del is also the GSK Engineering lead for Data Integrity in GSK.

Sami Koskinen is a Director of Digital Transformation with Beamex. With over 25 years of experience, including developing and commissioning calibration solutions, Sami has tremendous knowledge of instrumentation and calibration process improvements. Sami is an expert consultant on both the technical aspects and the business benefits of calibration. Today, Sami travels throughout the world teaching companies how to build and improve calibration processes by digitalizing their procedures to meet company-specific requirements.

Thomas Menze is part of the automation team at ARC Europe in Germany, which deals with topics related to the process industry. Thomas' focus areas are distributed control systems (DCS), functional safety, IT security, energy efficiency, and physical layer components between the field instruments and control room. At ARC, Thomas specializes in process automation trends, technical customer expectations, and market research. He is also experienced in strategic marketing and mergers & acquisitions. Thomas has a strong background in the process market with MTL Instruments, KHS AG in Germany and the US, and Buerkert

Stefan Woronka joined Siemens in 1997 and has held various positions in consulting, business development and sales for Siemens in Germany. In 2010 he joined the Process Automation unit of Siemens in Karlsruhe to start the Industrial Security business. He was responsible for creation and alignment of the portfolio, regional rollout and development, and alignment with other Siemens units. In 2014 he took over the project lead for an internal project to develop a holistic security concept for Siemens for two Siemens divisions (Digital Factory and Process Industries & Drives). The holistic security concept is now rollout to all R&D centers and production sites of the two divisions worldwide. After the project Stefan took over the Product Managment for the Industrial Security Services and further coordinated the development of the portfolio. In 2017 he took over the worldwide rollout of the Industrial Security Services portfolio. Stefan holds a BS in Commercial Economics from Vlissingen University (Netherlands) and a MBA from Purdue University.

Klaus Mochalski is founder and CEO of Rhebo. He has over ten years of experience in the development and marketing of technologies for network management and security. The companies ipoque and Adyton Systems that he founded now have over 150 employees in total and continue to grow. Before starting his first company, Klaus Mochalski worked in research and teaching at a number of international universities for five years.

Andrey Suvorov has Master Degree of WBS (Warwick Business School, UK) and honor Degree with specialization as engineer in math. Master's degree at Warwick Business School (UK).

Up to 2015, managed critical infrastructure protection business, taking main responsibility for new KICS (Kaspersky Industrial CyberSecurity) solution. During his professional career, Andrey had responsibility in some large international companies with focus on complex solutions business development and sales.

In 2018, Andrey became CEO of Adaptive Production Technologies (Kaspersky subsidiary company) and now is Head of KasperskyOS Business.

Andrey Suvorov regularly gives lectures on innovation and cybersecurity for senior management of major Russian and foreign companies. He is a co-author of the Executive MBA programme “Cyber risks for Top managers”, co-author of the “Executive MBA Cyber Security” course for FEFU (Far East Federal University) “Doing business in Asia” program.

Expert group member for World Manufacturing Forum. Long distance runner

Valentijn de Leeuw's is VP of Consulting at ARC Europe. His responsibilities include research and consulting in the process industries, with a focus on clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Valentijn's focus areas include organizational change and effectiveness, business process improvement, value-based performance management, governance, project management, knowledge management, operations management, asset management, innovation and engineering, and manufacturing IT. His technology focus is on manufacturing operations management, performance management, supply chain management, and the role of the knowledge worker in manufacturing. Valentijn has extensive experience in best management practices in process industries, including chemical, polymer, metals, energy, food, pharmaceutical, and petroleum manufacturing. His experience includes knowledge of unit processes, simulation, and modeling, and business practices utilizing application software designed for manufacturing operations.

I grew up in the indigenous forests of the KwaZulu Natal Midlands, South Africa where my South African/American parents were missionaries. I went on to study electronic engineering at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban with a special interest in Control Theory and Embedded Systems.

On a bursary from Hulamin, an aluminum semi-fabricator, I started my professional career as a Control Engineer there. I worked on projects involving automation, technological control, process control, quality measurement and condition monitoring systems. I was fortunate enough to work with cutting edge model-based predictive control systems which really opened my eyes to the power of interventional modelling.

I naturally started applying this concept in my other duties assisting operations with process analysis and control. In searching for a formal framework for this 'abstracted closed loop control' I discovered the Industry 4.0 model/framework and the MESA community.

To pursue my passion for this concept, and its practical application, I resigned from the corporate overlords and struck out on my own. After a brief stint commissioning green-fields foil rolling mills in China for an historic German based machine builder I started my current journey of applying Industry 4.0 concepts in SME contexts.

I currently live in Sylvan, Hilton, KwaZulu Natal, where every weekend I must choose with much deliberation which of my many outdoor pursuits I will practice. I'm quite fortunate that these days my work is at least as interesting, challenging and adrenaline inducing as any of them!

Uwe Kueppers is a keynote speaker, digital futurist, Chairman of MESA EMEA, innovation advisor and digital consultant.

Uwe has more than 25 years’ experience in the manufacturing environment and with industrial software and automation products. He was educated in a major manufacturer machine tool builder before he started to be involved in the development the first industrial PCs. Uwe joined Wonderware in 1994 as regional sale manager in Germany. In 1995 he moved to the headquarters in the US to develop the OEM program. In this timeframe Uwe also gained international experience in Asia. In 1997 he led the sales organization of the German operation including the ERP and Maintenance sales which came through Wonderware in 1999. In 2001, he became managing director in Scandinavia with a focus on adding value to their customers business. In 2003 Uwe added the additional responsibility of the German operation as Managing Director. In 2005, he excepted the position as Director Business Development and Marketing EMEA. Together with his marketing manager he developed the marketing strategies for Wonderware in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In 2006 Uwe founded his own company Incuity Systems GmbH representing Incuity Software Inc. in Europe in the area of Business Intelligence for Manufacturing with its product Incuity EMI. Since the acquisition of Incuity by Rockwell Automation, Uwe has been responsible as Director of Software for the EMEA region for information solutions and since 2012 he has been a senior business consultant focusing on the CPG and discrete segments. Since October 2020 Uwe has been Manager Consulting Services EMEA of Kalypso, a professional services firm and a wholly owned Rockwell Automation company. 

In 2014 Uwe was appointed Chairman of the EMEA board of MESA. Uwe Kueppers is married and has a son and a daughter.

Shash Ramsangar is a Solution Architect working in Saudi Aramco. He has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and Masters of Science in Manufacturing Systems with 19 years specializing in Process Optimization and Manufacturing Operations Management within the Energy Industry.

Enzo Wälchli is the CCO of ANYbotics and leads the sales and after sales activities. He holds a Double Master’s Degree from University of St. Gallen and spent the last decade in marketing, sales and business development for innovative solutions in the oil & gas, power generation and construction industries.

Christian Fenk joined robominds GmbH in 2020 to build up and expand the sales activities of the young company in a leading position. He looks back on many years of experience in the sales development of technical medium-sized companies, most recently at the Danish robot manufacturer Universal Robots, where he was responsible for business development and sales in ever-growing areas for more than 3 years.

Lisa Nowaschewski

• Industriemechanikerin
• Bachelor of Science Architektur RWTH Aachen
• Bachelor of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
• Mechatronical Developer in packaging industry
• Currently studying Master of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

Peter Holzkämper has an engineering graduate degree in electrical engineering and automation tehcnology, and holds a master of science degree in software engineering leadership. He has more than 25 years of industry experience as a developer and manager in the packaging industry. In 2022, Peter founded his own company called mechatronaix.

Stefan Miksch is part of the industry team covering manufacturing topics in Europe and is based in Dresden, Germany. Stefan specializes in machinery, discrete industries, and economic modeling and forecasting. He is responsible for three of ARC's global market research studies, and is co-author of ARC's quarterly Automation Index report, and ARC's Capital Expenditures report. Stefan has a degree in political science with majors in political sociology and political systems, as well as a minor in business studies. He studied at the Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg (Germany) where he focused on statistical and empirical analysis of public and political opinions as well as the analysis of political systems with a focus on Eastern European countries.

Dr.-Ing. Andreas Schüller (1984) received his doctorate from the Chair of Process Control Engineering at RWTH Aachen University on the subject of procedure modeling and was subsequently employed as a I&C planner at YNCORIS GmbH & Co. KG (formerly InfraServ GmbH & Co. Knapsack KG). He is currently employed there as a Key Expert Automation Technology. His work in I&C planning focuses on functional safety and explosion protection. In addition, he is in charge of the strategic further development of an integrated engineering tool in YNCORIS engineering. He is supporting the digitizing strategy of YNCORIS. In NAMUR, he leads the working group 1.3 "Information Management and Tools" and participates in the working group 1.4 "Asset Administration Shell".

Moderator: Florian Gueldner

Florian Güldner is Managing Director of ARC Europe and responsible for the European operations. He joined ARC in 2008 and has worked in various positions, from discrete sensors to control, edge and IIoT related subjects. Prior to joining ARC, Florian gained experience in the automation industry with Siemens and has a strong background in energy markets. In particular, he worked for AREVA in Germany and the US, as well as for E.On Energy. At ARC, Florian was responsible for economic modeling, time series and business cycle analysis, and forecasting. He is also experienced in strategic marketing and mergers & acquisitions.

Phil Harvey has 22 years’ experience with AI and loves working with data and AI technology to solving interesting problems. He is especially interested soft skills for technical people in AI, data, empathy, ethics and in the impact of data on what people know and how they know it. Starting his career with a BA in AI, he has worked in a wide range of industries from surveying, to architecture, to advertising, to being the CTO and technical founder of a data start-up. Phil now works at Microsoft Research as an Autonomous Systems Architect within Bonsai bringing Simulation based Deep Reinforcement Learning to industrial applications.

From an early age, BasSteunebrink has asked how intelligence allows one to perform competently despite inevitably insufficient resources. To better understand natural bounded rationality, his research initially focused on artificial emotions before moving to silicon-friendly approaches to general intelligence as an IDSIA postdoc, where he received several best paper awards and a grant from the Future of Life Institute. At NNAISENSE, Bas heads up the effort to develop general-purpose AI.

Seth Page is a senior technology executive, 8x entrepreneur, operator and cross-border deal-making expert who seamlessly bridges the worlds of technology, operations and finance. An expert in equity investments and scaling start-ups to venture-capital backed high-growth companies and into successful exits, divestitures, and IPO trajectories. Deep, hands-on technology roots underpin over two decades of business development, operations and venture activity. Tech pioneer and founder providing deal flow origination for angels, venture capital firms, corporations and family offices in diverse yet interconnected areas including Industrial AI, IOT, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, Operations Tec hnology, Enterprise, Telecommunications,  Security & Access Control. He has founded, funded, scaled and exited multiple start-ups for investors, including: ThroughPut.ai; DataRPM (acquired: Progress); UniKey; PV Media Group (acquired: RhythmOne / Blinkx); RayV (acquired: Yahoo); Oyster Optics (acquired: Techquity); AdOnNetwork (acquired: PVMG); Trade.com (acquired: ABM AMRO); as well as deals including Xoom.com (IPO & acquired: NBC); LendingTree (IPO & acquired: IAC); Fetchback (acquired: eBay / GSI); Samsung (acquired: mSpot); xanox (joint acquisition by Axel Springer and PubliGroupe); Litronic (acquired Pulsar & IPO), and many other transactions. Seth earned an Executive MBA with honors in International Business from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, as well as a BS in Economics and a BS in German Linguistics & Literature, both from the University of California, Irvine, as well as a scholarship to study Volkswirtschaft and Germanistik at the Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, Germany.

Tyler Walker graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Information Analysis from the University of Michigan in 2018. Shortly after he joined Dow as a commercial analyst working on customer experience and market intelligence analytics. In 2020 Tyler joined the Digital Operations Center division of Dow that intersects cutting edge technology with manufacturing. There, Tyler has focused on AI in the context of cutting carbon emissions as well as predictive maintenance for sites across the globe.

Cody Falcon leads products & technology within ABB’s global digital practice. His career spans 20-years in technology, product, and cyber security leadership roles within software companies focused on advanced analytics in heavy industry. His product development and delivery experience spans data platforms, edge, asset performance management, and dozens of industry specific ML applications. At ABB, he is focused on digital innovation and solving our customers’ top challenges through industrial software, digital services, and data science. Cody began his career with 11-years in the U.S. Navy where he led submarine ISR missions and served as a technology advisor at the White House and advance lead for two U.S. presidents. He holds a BS in computer science, an MBA, and multiple professional certifications in the technology and cyber security space.

Snorre Larsen has had a central position in developing the operational technology (OT) domain in Equinor’s oil and gas business area over the last 15 years. As lead advisor he was responsible for the initial strategy towards Open Process Automation, and he is currently having a managing role in Equinor’s  project portfolio implementing technology as a value enabler in all value chains. Before entering Equinor Snorre had broad project experience from EPC contractors and System Integrators in roles as engineer, consultant and manager.

Snorre is currently chair of the Standard Norway’s Expert group within Industrial Automation and Control Systems responsible for the Norsok standard covering the domain. He is also deputy chairman of the board in the Norwegian association for electrical and automation (NFEA) and Equinor’s contact point towards the Open Process Automation Forum.

Jacco Opmeer is Principal Automation Engineer at Shell Global Solutions B.V. and is global Subject Matter Expert Process Automation Systems, working on Shell’s Automation Strategies. Jacco is leading the Open Process Automation activities in Shell and currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF). In OPAF his focus is to create a healthy business environment through the adoption the O-PAS™ standard. Jacco Is also board member in the International Process Automation Users' Association WIB.

Ryan Smeltzer is an automation and process control leader with ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company based in Spring, TX. He has over 25 years in the development and deployment of automation, optimization, and digital technologies in the refining and petrochemical industries and currently leads the Open Process Automation R&D program. His most recent experience includes the development and deployment of data analytics capabilities to build engineering capacity and improve manufacturing profitability.

Dr.-Ing. Andreas Schüller (1984) received his doctorate from the Chair of Process Control Engineering at RWTH Aachen University on the subject of procedure modeling and was subsequently employed as a I&C planner at YNCORIS GmbH & Co. KG (formerly InfraServ GmbH & Co. Knapsack KG). He is currently employed there as a Key Expert Automation Technology. His work in I&C planning focuses on functional safety and explosion protection. In addition, he is in charge of the strategic further development of an integrated engineering tool in YNCORIS engineering. He is supporting the digitizing strategy of YNCORIS. In NAMUR, he leads the working group 1.3 "Information Management and Tools" and participates in the working group 1.4 "Asset Administration Shell".

Valentijn de Leeuw's is VP of Consulting at ARC Europe. His responsibilities include research and consulting in the process industries, with a focus on clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Valentijn's focus areas include organizational change and effectiveness, business process improvement, value-based performance management, governance, project management, knowledge management, operations management, asset management, innovation and engineering, and manufacturing IT. His technology focus is on manufacturing operations management, performance management, supply chain management, and the role of the knowledge worker in manufacturing. Valentijn has extensive experience in best management practices in process industries, including chemical, polymer, metals, energy, food, pharmaceutical, and petroleum manufacturing. His experience includes knowledge of unit processes, simulation, and modeling, and business practices utilizing application software designed for manufacturing operations.

Steffen Wagner has over 20 years of experience in the field of digitalization and software engineering in power plant and process automation within Siemens. Pioneering and leading international digitalization and innovation teams with more than 250 developers and data scientists in different locations all over the world.  Working with a collaborative and agile approach, together with customers, is the winning formula to create future technologies. Steffen is a member of Siemens PLM & Innovation Working Group, Siemens Global Standardization Board and Consulting Committee of Software Engineers in Karlsruhe. He is a winner of the Werner von Siemens Award in the category Customer First (2019) and Technology with Purpose (2021).

Mark van Otterlo is Executive Director at Yokogawa Europe. His main focus is the growth of domestic business in Europe with existing and new customers by seeking diversification in the industries with customers and value partners. Through Co-innovation and lifting on the digital transformation activities he has strong focus towards decarbonization and efficiency improvement programs. Mark is intrigued by open connectivity between platforms and (business) eco systems and strives to unlock the best value for everybody connected to the customers business value chains. Mark has been holding several director positions within Yokogawa ranging from Sales to Operations.

Hermann Obermair has been Senior Vice President with Andritz Automation since 2018. He started his career in 1974 at the AEI department of AMAG Austria Metall. Ever since he has held various positions as Manager AEI department with Austria Alu-Guss, Senior Software Engineer, Sales Engineer, General Manager Sales Region Austria for B&R Industrie-Elektronik as well as Vice President Sales at Weidmüller.

Andre Babineau is Director, Strategic Initiatives for Process Automation in the Industrial Automation division at Schneider Electric. Andre is based in Montreal, Canada and brings over 30 years of global experience in marketing, software development and large project execution. He worked for 15 years at Invensys as a project engineering director to pre-sales director for the European region. Afterwards, Andre worked at CAE as an engineering director in charge of re-designing a new instructor station including modern user experience technologies. Lastly, prior joining Schneider Electric, he worked as a pre-sales director for Velan, valve manufacturer. Andre has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Laval University.

Omar Sher commonly refers to himself as a “3rd Culture Kid”, owing to his upbringing across different countries in Europe and the Middle East.

More recently, since 2013, he found himself based between Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Hopping back and forth frequently for internships up until completion of his Master’s in International Business Degree from Monash University. During this time he also witnessed first hand, the evolution of Cambodia’s economy over the years.

After graduating in 2018, he joined a well-known and successful AI- Enablement startup in K.L, Malaysia as one of the core business developers where he launched his full-time career in the tech startup world. 

After a successful stint, he left to take on new challenges, explore a potential career pivot into diplomacy and later found his footing in early 2020 in a key leadership position, where he is currently based and contributing to taking the business to the next level.  

Cristina Fernandez is a scientist with a passion for IT and new technologies. She has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and holds a Ph.D. in science and technology applied to chemistry with special focus in data analysis (chemometrics).

She started her career in pharma in the UK working for AstraZeneca as a process analytical technology (PAT) specialist using spectroscopy and data science to provide process optimization and understanding for pharmaceutical processes in both early and late stage projects enabling scale-up reducing risks.

She joined Aizon’s quality assurance team in early 2018 and provided guidelines and training to developers about quality and compliance in pharmaceutical environments. Currently, she is the product director and ensures that Pharma 4.0 technologies developed are ready to be used in GxP environments.

Ali comes from a deep academic and real-world industrial operations in process simulations and operations management. He has managed onshore/offshore/war zone logistics as well as batch, continuous, and discrete manufacturing setups. At Schlumberger, he became one of the youngest Geomarket Production Services, pioneering 3 projects and serving 50+ industrial clients. His production teams were responsible for billions of dollars of hydrocarbon output to the global economy. Ali joined his first tech startup while still an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. Since then, he has been eliminating one global bottleneck after another, with his current focus on optimizing supply chains that extend to Mars.

Managing Director, HHLA Sky GmbH

Charly Coulon started his career in pharmaceutical automation at Bayer Cooperation in 1997 after completing his PhD in Artificial Intelligence. In 2015, Charly Coulon joined the research institute and private public partnership INVITE GmbH, where he established the Future Manufacturing Concepts group. Accelerating the use of modern robotics in the chemical/pharmaceutical industry is one of the major goals of INVITE.

Niels Jul Jacobsen is CEO of Capra Robotics and has a wide background in the field of robotics and automation, where he has worked for more than 30 years. He holds an M.Sc. in Computer Science Technology (1990) and a Graduate Diploma in Finance (2007), both from the University of Southern Denmark. 

Before founding Mobile Industrial Robots, Niels held several prominent positions in the field of robotics, including R&D Manager at AMROSE A/S, Head of Program Development at Odense Steel Shipyard, and Head of RoboLab at Mærsk McKinney Møller Institute, coordinating the robot development at the University of Southern Denmark.

He has participated in several national and EU projects as both task leader and technical coordinator.

Peter Holzkämper has an engineering graduate degree in electrical engineering and automation tehcnology, and holds a master of science degree in software engineering leadership. He has more than 25 years of industry experience as a developer and manager in the packaging industry. In 2022, Peter founded his own company called mechatronaix.

Stefan Miksch is part of the industry team covering manufacturing topics in Europe and is based in Dresden, Germany. Stefan specializes in machinery, discrete industries, and economic modeling and forecasting. He is responsible for three of ARC's global market research studies, and is co-author of ARC's quarterly Automation Index report, and ARC's Capital Expenditures report. Stefan has a degree in political science with majors in political sociology and political systems, as well as a minor in business studies. He studied at the Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg (Germany) where he focused on statistical and empirical analysis of public and political opinions as well as the analysis of political systems with a focus on Eastern European countries.

Dr. Josef Waltl, studied Computer Science at the University of Salzburg and holds and MBA as well as a PhD with focus on Software Platform Management from the Technical University in Munich. He started his career at Siemens focusing on building up the Industrial Software business and extending the Factory Automation business to emerging markets. Prior to founding Software Defined Automation, he also built-up the global Industrial Software Partner Ecosystem for Amazon Web Services and managed a product line on Manufacturing IoT at Microsoft Azure.

Constanze Schmitz is part of the European team and is based in Belgium. Her focus areas cover a wide array of industrial topics with an emphasis on the processing industries. She has expertise in field devices, instrumentation, and process automation, with a special interest in communication and new technologies. Constanze comes from a family of engineers and is an alumna of the University of Trier in Germany. She worked in technical publishing for over 15 years. As editor of the pan-European, industrial magazines Processing & Control News Europe, Power in Motion, and Energy Efficiency she acquired insight in a multitude of industry-linked topics. In the 1990s she started out as the German technical editor of the TREM industrial buying guide to become the managing editor of the Thomas Register in Europe before turning her career towards the magazine side of technical publishing.

Naresh Surepelly's is an Analyst with ARC Europe. His main areas of focus are automation systems and solutions for discrete and process industries, covering both Europe and the worldwide markets. Naresh's expertise in automation technologies includes AC drives, programmable logic controllers (PLC), operator panels, industrial uninterruptible power supply systems (UPS), manufacturing execution systems (MES), and motor control centers (MCC). He has conducted end user surveys on product lifecycle management (PLM), cloud computing, capital expenditure analysis, and customized strategy assignments for global and domestic companies.

Thomas Roth has worked in the German engineering industry for more than 20 years and has been active in numerous digital projects in marketing and product management in a leading role. Due to his strong passion for the digitalization of tools and processes, it is a great pleasure for him to lead the clamping jaw with integrated clamping force sensor "iJaw" to market maturity. Motto: There is always something between 0 and 1.

Gabi Daniely is an experienced executive with over 20 years in the hi-tech industry and wireless technologies. He brings global experience in enterprise solutions from a variety of companies ranging from large corporates such as Intel and Stanley Black & Decker, in addition to start-up companies at various stages. Most recently, Gabi led the Marketing and Product strategy of AeroScout which pioneered the WI-FI RFID space and were acquired by Stanley Black & Decker. At Stanley, Gabi led the Solutions, Products, Business Development and Marketing of the STANLEY Healthcare division serving over 10,000 global enterprise customers. Gabi holds an Information Systems & Industrial Engineering degree (B.Sc with honors) and an MBA from the Ben-Gurion University.

Peter Wienzek’s more than 30 years of experience in automation technology helps his understanding of the source of information in industrial applications. As a Business Development Manager Systems at ifm, Peter helps customers to connect sensors to the cloud via cable or wirelessly.

Sai Seidel-Sridhavan has been in the automation industry for 10 years and works for Turck, a global automation partner with comprehensive solutions for Industrial IoT. With his electrical engineering background, he started in product management for sensors before moving to the position of manager for product marketing for the Turck product portfolio. Launching products in the context of IIoT and understanding customers needs and pains in digital eco systems are his tasks at the company. At IO-Link, Sai supports the Working Group Marketing and a part if the Global Steering Committee.

Gordon Göhrmann is a product manager for IO systems and is responsible for the netFIELD Device product portfolio at Hilscher. He entered the industrial communication sector in 2007 after completing his degree in electrical engineering and information technology. He then supported customers in netX projects. In 2013, he took over the management of software development for IO systems with netFIELD device technology. In 2020 he assumed product responsibility for IO systems, including the development of Hilscher's Industrial Networks with IO-Link applications.

Andre Kukhnin is a Managing Director at Credit Suisse where he heads the Capital Goods Securities Research Team in Europe, focusing on Industrial Automation and Buildings Technologies. Andre joined Credit Suisse in 2003 after graduating in Economics from Cambridge University.

David Humphrey is Research Director at ARC Europe based in Munich, Germany.  In addition, he is a member of ARC’s hybrid manufacturing, packaging, and industrial networking teams. David has over 30 years of experience in industrial automation, including specifying, designing, and programming control systems in areas ranging from automobile to packaging, implementing projects involving PLCs, HMI hardware and software, industrial networks, drives and motion control.  Prior to ARC, he was Area Manager for automation solutions in Rockwell Automation's Munich, Germany office. In addition, he has worked for Raytheon and Termiflex in the US.

Thomas Menze is part of the automation team at ARC Europe in Germany, which deals with topics related to the process industry. Thomas' focus areas are distributed control systems (DCS), functional safety, IT security, energy efficiency, and physical layer components between the field instruments and control room. At ARC, Thomas specializes in process automation trends, technical customer expectations, and market research. He is also experienced in strategic marketing and mergers & acquisitions. Thomas has a strong background in the process market with MTL Instruments, KHS AG in Germany and the US, and Buerkert.

Luiz Barberini has worked for almost 30 years in activities related to Supply Chain, Production, Procurement and Logistics, serving organizations such as Ford Motor Company, Rhône-Poulenc, British American Tobacco, Pfizer, Takeda Pharmaceutical and Merck Sharp & Dohme. In addition to his current assignment at Bayer, he teaches Negotiation, Supply Chain and Demand Management for some major post-graduation schools in São Paulo, Brazil. Luiz also coordinates post-graduation courses in two Universities in Brazil. Besides this, he is also preparing his master's thesis, researching on how the correct relationship management can bring more gains to partner companies.

After graduating from ESPCI (Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielle) in Paris, Alexander started his carreer in applied research at Rhône-Poulenc. In the latter part of his career, he broadened his experience in managing roles in international sales, marketing and, eventually, general management at SME scale. Alexander is fond of driving strategic transformation involving multidisciplinary teams, both from within and outside the company, right from the beginning. Although innately lean and agile, SNCZ has embarked in selective digital transformation to further operational resilience and sustainability.

Hermann Obermair has been Senior Vice President with Andritz Automation since 2018. He started his career in 1974 at the AEI department of AMAG Austria Metall. Ever since he has held various positions as Manager AEI department with Austria Alu-Guss, Senior Software Engineer, Sales Engineer, General Manager Sales Region Austria for B&R Industrie-Elektronik as well as Vice President Sales at Weidmüller.

Moderator: David Humphrey

David Humphrey is Research Director at ARC Europe based in Munich, Germany.  In addition, he is a member of ARC’s hybrid manufacturing, packaging, and industrial networking teams. David has over 30 years of experience in industrial automation, including specifying, designing, and programming control systems in areas ranging from automobile to packaging, implementing projects involving PLCs, HMI hardware and software, industrial networks, drives and motion control.  Prior to ARC, he was Area Manager for automation solutions in Rockwell Automation's Munich, Germany office. In addition, he has worked for Raytheon and Termiflex in the US.

Cerys James has been with PGS, an integrated marine geophysics company, for over 25 years. Cerys started as a geophysicist, working in onshore and offshore seismic acquisition operation. Cerys left the offshore world in 2006, becoming project manager, then in 2008 technical manager. In 2011 she became head of the operations technical dept responsible for the seismic equipment and technology development onboard PGS marine vessels. This included maintaining, improving, replacing and future development of the equipment to maximize efficiency and the return on investment, in a safe manner. In 2019 Cerys moved to the newly created "Digital Transformation" division at PGS and since April 2021 is the Vice President of Analytics and Digitalization.

Kiran Midha’s career spans digital strategy across consumer technologies to enterprise SaaS. At Cognite, Kiran leads product definition and strategic vision for Cognite’s suite of products and solution sets. Prior to Cognite, Kiran led product strategy and digital marketing at Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam, Opera Software, and Cxense. Kiran has held various positions in international markets such as India, Norway, and the US.

Sean McCormick leads the engineering and technical operations teams at Element Analytics. Previously, he worked at Quantcast, where he held various technical leadership roles and was most recently Director of Engineering. During this time, he was responsible for the Quantcast Measure product, more than 10 PB/day of compute, the company website, several machine learning systems, plus the operations for each of these areas.

Before that, he was the Lead Engineer at SonicLiving and ran the Strategic Projects team at AdBrite, prototyping new products for technical feasibility and market fit.

Sean studied Computer Science at San Francisco State University. When he's not at work, he likes to spend his time riding his bicycle around Oakland with his daughter.

Stefan Krämer is a chemical engineer and leads the group “Process Performance Improvement” at Bayer, which is globally working to improve the operation and energy efficiency of production processes with the help of simulation, data analysis, digitalization and process control. At NAMUR, he is the lead of work area 2 "Automation Systems for Processes and Plants". Stefan also teaches "Batch Process Operation" at TU Dortmund University and has participated in several EU projects dealing with resource efficiency, which resulted in the co-authored textbook "Resource Efficiency of Processing Plants". He represents Bayer in the project KEEN - Artificial Intelligence in the Process Industry.

Rodrigo Fernandes is director of ES(D)G (Empowering Sustainable Development Goals) in Bentley Systems, leading the company’s sustainability strategy and initiatives. Rodrigo’s charter is to empower sustainable development goals through Bentley software and services, advocate for a culture of sustainability inside the company, and evangelize Bentley’s environmental handprint externally. Rodrigo is also European Climate Pact Ambassador and serves as an external expert for the European Commission and the Portuguese Ministry of the Sea.

Amjad Alkhater is a Chemical Engineer in Saudi Aramco with experience in the environmental field and digital technologies related to it as well as the oil refining industry.

Ali comes from a deep academic and real-world industrial operations in process simulations and operations management. He has managed onshore/offshore/war zone logistics as well as batch, continuous, and discrete manufacturing setups. At Schlumberger, he became one of the youngest Geomarket Production Services, pioneering 3 projects and serving 50+ industrial clients. His production teams were responsible for billions of dollars of hydrocarbon output to the global economy. Ali joined his first tech startup while still an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. Since then, he has been eliminating one global bottleneck after another, with his current focus on optimizing supply chains that extend to Mars.

David Humphrey is Research Director at ARC Europe based in Munich, Germany.  In addition, he is a member of ARC’s hybrid manufacturing, packaging, and industrial networking teams. David has over 30 years of experience in industrial automation, including specifying, designing, and programming control systems in areas ranging from automobile to packaging, implementing projects involving PLCs, HMI hardware and software, industrial networks, drives and motion control.  Prior to ARC, he was Area Manager for automation solutions in Rockwell Automation's Munich, Germany office. In addition, he has worked for Raytheon and Termiflex in the US.

Dirk Didascalou currently serves as Siemens Digital Industries’ Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He’s responsible for the company’s overall technology and architecture strategy while also overseeing strategic industrial engagements with partners and joint customer initiatives, e.g. with the automotive industry. Additionally, Dirk plays a leading role in the companywide IoT board and is currently driving digital transformation across all Siemens divisions. Dirk previously held senior executive positions at several global tech companies including AWS, Microsoft, and Nokia and has international work experience spanning Europe, Asia and the United States.

Dr. Christine Maul is Teamlead, Advanced Process Control, as part of the Process Technology organization in Digital Projects & Knowledge Management department at Covestro. There she focuses on:

• improving Advanced Control concepts at all production sites of Covestro world-wide.
• developing and maintaining Operator Training Simulators for new and running production units.
• applying data analysis and supporting digital projects to optimize production.

Christine holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA.

Corrado Iorizzo joined Philip Morris International Operation Center in Lausanne (CH) during 2017 as Vanguard Enterprise Architect with the purpose of scouting, piloting and scaling innovative technologies in the company’s practices and eco-system with a specific focus on Industry 4.0, IoT and Cloud Computing.

In 2019 moved to the new role of Global Lead Architect of IT Manufacturing, Track,&Trace, Sustainability Systems and Technologies  and member of IT Operations Leadership Team.

Before joining Philip Morris International, he spent seven years in IT consulting, holding the role of CTO in Atos Consulting Switzerland, being also a member of Atos Scientific Community, and contributing to Cloud Continuum and Edge Computing tracks. Previously he was Head of Technology in Cambridge Technology Partners, engaging on IT projects mainly with multinational companies operating from Switzerland.

In the past, was among the founders, board member, and head of Product and Software Practice in TiQ and TiQ Industrial operating in Italy, UK, Belgium, and Spain, acting on digital technologies for Manufacturing and industrial systems recognized with the opportunity of presenting seven different innovative projects at AIST conferences (Association for Iron and Steel Technology) on process control systems modernization.

Dr. Christine Maul is Teamlead, Advanced Process Control, as part of the Process Technology organization in Digital Projects & Knowledge Management department at Covestro. There she focuses on:

• improving Advanced Control concepts at all production sites of Covestro world-wide.
• developing and maintaining Operator Training Simulators for new and running production units.
• applying data analysis and supporting digital projects to optimize production.

Christine holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA.