25th – 26th May 2027, Chicago
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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
Mr. Charbonneau is a worldwide-renowned speaker and an industry-leading influencer on the best strategies for asset-intensive organizations to transition to a planned work culture and ensure the right maintenance is performed at the right time to prevent equipment failure and maximize production capacity. He founded the Maintenance Excellence Group, 25 years ago, assembling a team of asset reliability experts to help asset-intensive organizations worldwide maximize asset performance while minimizing maintenance costs.
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.