Ivan Hodač is a Founder and President of the Aspen Institute Prague. He was Secretary-General of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) from 2001 until October 2013. He is the Chairman of the Board at cabinet DN. The Financial Times listed him among the most influential personalities in Brussels politics. Before joining ACEA, he was Senior Vice-President and Head of the Time Warner Corporate office for Europe. Previously he was Secretary-General of the trade organization IFMA/IMACE, Senior Economist at Didier & Associates, and Assistant Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges. He was born in Prague, where he studied mechanical engineering. He completed his education in economics and political science at the University of Copenhagen and the College of Europe in Bruges (European studies).

Stefan Deix graduated as physicist at the University of Vienna. Since 2015 he has been Director of EUCAR, the European Council for Automotive R&D, the research association of the major European passenger car and commercial vehicle manufacturers. Stefan Deix was Director for Research & Innovation at CLEPA (European Association of Automotive Suppliers) facilitating the Research and Innovation Working Group activities. Before that he was working at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology in the Department Mobility. He was appointed research coordinator for Austria, research area leader for road safety and elected Chairman of the research coordinators at FEHRL (Forum of European Highway Research Laboratories). He was member of the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC) WG on Road Safety, iMobility WG on Automated Driving and Member of the EARPA task force safety.

Petr Knap is the Head of the Consulting Division for the Czech Republic. After having worked at Procter & Gamble, he worked in consulting since 1996, and joined EY in 2002. His professional experience is based mainly on work in the automotive and manufacturing sectors, in the past he also worked for clients in the telecommunications and public sectors. Over the years, he has led management consulting projects focused on strategy development, organizational change, process improvement and cost optimization. Petr is actively involved in initiatives addressing innovative trends of the manufacturing future such as digitization, Industry 4.0, autonomous cars, e-mobility, etc.

He completed studies at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, in 1982. In the same year he started working at the same faculty as a research worker. His focus was on Management Information System, with a specialization on preproduction processes. Since 1989 he was a leader of the division of Automatization of Engineering Work in the company called Inorga Praha, Bratislava branch. In 1991 he was a co-founder of SOVA Ltd. enterprise. Since then he has been the director of the company named SOVA Digital a.s. today.

An economist by training, he has been an official in the European Commission since 1985 in the fields of Enterprise and Industrial Policy and of External Relations.

First working in the area of food industry within the Internal Market and Industrial Affairs Directorate-General (DG), he joined the service in charge of relations with Central and Eastern Europe and the USSR in 1989, and became Assistant to the responsible Deputy Director-General in 1990 until 1996 when he came back to Enterprise and Industry DG.

A former Deputy-Head of Office of Commissioner Liikanen in charge of enterprise and industrial policy, he has occupied several management positions:
– Food Industry and Biotechnology;
– Coordination of the internal market legislation for goods;
– Enterprise and Industrial policy;
– Defence, Aerospace and Maritime Industries.

Since December 2008, he has been Director in DG GROWTH (DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs), in charge of competitiveness issues and EU internal market legislation for several industrial sectors, including REACH, engineering industries, medical devices, raw materials, etc..

His main responsibilities today cover: circular economy, energy union and energy-intensive industries, construction, automotive industries, raw materials, engineering industries.

Since 2015 a Head of Quality CEEMEA at Schaeffler, where he works more than 20 years on quality architecture of high precisions processes. In 9 plants, 2 of them in Czech Republic and 2 in Slovak Republic, with more than 20.000 employees in Subregions CEE and MEA, we produce super precision bearings and components.