Dr. Oliver Grünberg studied physics at the Technical University of Braunschweig, where he subsequently obtained a doctorate in mechanical engineering. He has been working for the Volkswagen Group since 1995. From 2007 to 2009, he headed vehicle production at the Volkswagen Group Rus plant in Kaluga. In 2010, he held the position of Managing Director and Director of Technical Affairs at ŠKODA AUTO India. Two years later, he took over responsibility for the VGR-GAZ project in Nizhny Novgorod. From 2014 to 2017, he headed the ŠKODA AUTO brand planning department in Mladá Boleslav. From there, in 2017, he returned to Russia, where he worked as Technical Director and Deputy General Manager at Volkswagen Group Rus in Kaluga. Since 2019, he has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors and a member of the Board of Directors for the technical area at Volkswagen Slovakia.

Thierry Willemarck is FIA Deputy President for Automobile Mobility & Tourism since December 2017 and Vice-President of Touring Club Belgium since January 2020 (was CEO of Touring Club Belgium since 2001). He was Vice President of FIA Region I from 2005 to 2013 and President of FIA Region I from 2013 to 2017. He is Mentor of the FIA University and member of the World Council of Automobile Mobility and Tourism. Trained as an Industrial Engineer, he also holds a PhD in Business Administration, an MBA from Harvard University and a PMD from MIT. His interests are photography, Old Timers, Motor biking.

Štefan Rosina is currently the President of MATADOR Group and the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Matador Holding, a. s. In 1984 he started his career in Matador working at various positions in production. Since 1985 he held number of positions as a research employee, technical engineer at Investment Department and Director at Technical Development Department. Since 1997 he served as a Vice-President for Development of Science and Technology, Vice-President for Strategy and Chairman of Supervisory Board. In these days, he presents a major leader in the whole MATADOR Group. He tries to prepare all key aspects in the company for the significant technology decade.

He heads the External Relations / Environment / Social Services department at Volkswagen Slovakia, a.s. In the past, he was responsible for the management of the entire logistics at Volkswagen Slovakia and also held several management positions within the Volkswagen Group in Portugal and the USA. Since 2018, he is the President of the Automotive Industry Association of the Slovak Republic (second term). In 2018, he was elected Vice President of the Federation of Slovak Industrial and Transport Associations.

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).

Milan Šlachta has been working for Bosch in various functions since 1994, mainly in the automotive field. For eight years he worked as Sales Director and Managing Director at the Bosch branch in České Budějovice, which deals with the production and development of automotive technology. Since 2017 he has become a Bosch Group Representative in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Rastislav Janota has over 20 years of experience in IT and telecommunication sectors.
Over his career, Mr. Janota holds successfully various expert, managerial, and supervision positions in the field of information and communication services and cyber/information security in private and governmental sectors both at home and abroad.
Currently he serves as Chairman of the Cyber Security Committee of the Security Council of the Slovak republic as well as Director of National Cyber Security Centre SK-CERT under National Security Authority of Slovak republic. From these positions, he bears responsibility for cyber security governance of the Slovak Republic.

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.

Graduated in Business Administration at the University of the Basque Country (UPV) both in Financial and Marketing management, Ms. Piñan has collected over fifteen years’ experience in international industrial fields working for different automotive companies. Ms. Piñaan is responsible for the international network of both ACICAE the Basque Country Automotive Cluster and AIC-Automotive Intelligence Center, defining their international strategy and executing the implementation.
Ms. Piñan takes an active part in programs with several international universities and training institutions sharing her knowledge and passion about the auto sector with other professionals and students.

Jan Burdinski is Head of Government Relations for the Hyundai Motor Group in Europe. Having joined the company in 2017, he is a seasoned government relations professional, who has had senior roles in the automotive sector.

Joost Vantomme is Smart Mobility Director at the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), which represents the Europe-based car, van, truck and bus makers.

Joost has over 25 years’ experience in legal, regulatory and public affairs. He served as legal and regulatory affairs director in the telecommunications, postal, logistics and automotive sector. He had leading policy making roles in European associations such as PostEurop and FEDMA, as well as at the UN level (UPU). Joost has also been member of the cabinet of the Belgian Minister of Economy and director at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, an EU consultancy firm.

Since 1 September 2016, Joost holds the position of Smart Mobility Director at ACEA, bringing his vast experience together to address the challenges of the new ecosystem ‘cooperative, connected and automated mobility’.

As a frequent speaker at conferences and author of papers, he engages with stakeholders on European and international policy issues in a digital agenda context. Joost holds a Master in Economic Business Law, a Master in Law and a Diploma in Teaching Law (Universities of Leuven, Poitiers and Louvain). He is fluent in Dutch, French, English and German.

Ondřej is a Czech Member of the European Parliament (elected for ANO in 2019) in the Renew Europe political group. He is a member of the ECON Committee and in this capacity is the chairman of the Working Group on Access to Finance for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. It also sits on two other committees – the TRAN Committee and the LIBE Committee. Its portfolio ranges from transport and tourism to the practical application of new technologies, such as those based on artificial intelligence, or the wider access and use of digital finance for businesses and consumers.

Ondřej is the chief negotiator and spokesman for the Renew Europe political group and the ECON Markets Committee for Cryptoactive Regulation. He is currently working on a draft EU regulation on cryptoactive markets. He was also the rapporteur for the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the LIBE Committee. It is also currently preparing several legislative proposals across its committees in the field of energy taxation or the establishment of a Social Climate Fund.

As far as legislation is concerned, its current main area of ​​interest is the digital world, especially the growing digitalisation of the economy. In 2020, the rapporteur for the European Parliament was a report entitled Digital Finance: Emerging Risks in Cryptoactive – Challenges in Regulatory and Supervision in Financial Services, Institutions and Markets, which included recommendations for the European Commission.

As part of building European capital markets and moving towards a capital markets union, Ondřej took part in negotiating a number of pieces of legislation, leading Parliament’s work on a number of tax policies, including elements of the new European VAT regime, such as modernizing e-commerce rules.

Roland Sommer serves as Managing Director of the Austrian Platform Industry 4.0 since October 2015. The platform is a public private partnership that aims at improving framework conditions for the introduction of digitalization (‘Industry 4.0’) bringing together relevant stakeholders in Austria. The focus of the work is based on innovation in production technologies and business models on the one hand and high-quality working conditions on the other hand. Moreover Mr. Sommer is lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Wieselburg. Prior to this function he worked as Director of Public-Private Affairs for AVL List GmbH. AVL List is the
world's largest independent company for the development of powertrain systems with internal combustion engines as well as instrumentation and test systems.

Member of the Campus Leadership Team at Danfoss Power Solutions in Povazska Bystrica, responsible for managing production services in the company, including the process of painting hydraulic pumps and motors. He deals with the optimization of material flows and manages the key project of the transformation of the company “PLANT TRANSFORMATION”. Prior to that, he worked as a Logistics Manager at SPPP Slovakia Ltd., focusing on the coating of plastic components for the automotive industry. Throughout his career, he has encountered logistics processes at different levels and with a different focus.

He is a member of the Danfoss Power Solutions Manufacturing Excellence team. It deals with the optimization of production, administrative processes and business transformation to SMART Company. He is responsible for implementing the Danfoss Productivity Program into practice. He manages and collaborates on strategic corporate projects Lean / SixSigma. Previously, he worked as an industrial engineer at Continental Matador Truck Tires in Púchov. He started his career as a researcher at the Research Institute of Matador Púchov.

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.

Ivan Kebísek is Director Engineering of Yanfeng International Automotive Technology, located in Trenčín, Slovakia. He is responsible for Yanfeng Technical Center in Trencin, Slovakia and he is Engineering lead for Customer Business Units of FCA brands in Stellantis group (Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Maserati) and for Suzuki in Europe. His responsibility covers R&D and Engineering for Yanfeng products, mainly focused on Interiors – Instrument Panels, Cockpits, Floor Consoles and Door Panels.

Graduate of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering STU in Bratislava. He has dedicated his entire professional life to digitization and automation in the industry. He started his career at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering SVŠT, he dealt with the automation of pre-production phases for the ZTS Group. In 1991, he co-founded SOVA, now known as SOVA Digital. For six years, he led the commission for research, development and innovation of the Automotive Industry of the Slovak Republic. He was a member of the Government Council for Science, Technology and Innovation. He is one of the initiators and leaders of the Association of Intelligent Industry – Industry4UM.

Jana Michelová has joined Continental Zvolen in 2017, taking position of Innovations manager after 10 years of professional experience in the automotive industry. In 2018 production plant in Zvolen has been named as one of two Industry 4.0 Model plants for the Automotive divisions in Continental. Model plant projects are covered under the lead of the Innovations department and include activities such as automated material flow, big data, digitalization and automation, HMI and many others. Jana Michelova has international academic background with major in Quality management and Master´s degree in Project management from University L´ENSAM in France.

Industy professional – 20 years in Automotive industry – Operations and General company management/turnarounds and green fields. Lean SixSigma Management Champion and BB. During carrier was starting up running and restructuring operations for Tier1/Tier2 in Czech and Slovak Republics. Last 3 years specializing in digitalization of the operating processes and organizational turnarounds to achieve efficiencies in productivity, automation, data mining, energies and waste savings/elimination in support of constant continuous improvements for operating flexibility and costs.

Dr. František Simančík is a member of the Presidium of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. He is the head of the academic innovation center for light metals and composites (INOVAL) and coordinator of Centre of excellence for R&D on structural composites for engineering and medical applications. His research is focused on the development of novel lightweight structural materials including metal matrix composites or metallic foams. Main research results include the development of metal foaming technology with several successful applications in car body structures and applications of MMCs parts where efficient heat management is required. He coordinated more than 30 research projects including 13 international projects and successfully supervised 9 PhD students.

An economist by training, Gwenole COZIGOU has been an official in the European Commission since 1985. He is Director for Sustainable Industry and Mobility, in Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SME. His main responsibilities today cover: circular economy, energy union and energy-intensive industries, construction, automotive and rail industries, raw materials, maritime and engineering industries.

In 1971 he finished his studies at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology. Then worked at the state-owned company Autopal. From 1989 to 1993 as CEO of AUTOPAL. After the acquisition of Autopal by Ford Motor Company in 1993, he became the Managing Director of Autopal-Ford. From 1995 to 1996, he worked at Ford Motor Company in the United States as Head of Business Planning in Lighting Technology and later as Production Manager at Ford Sheldon Road Plant. From 1997 to 2007, he was the CEO of Visteon-Autopal. He was also the Executive Director of Visteon Slovakia and Executive Director of Japan-USA JV, Visteon Nichirin Czech.
Since 2007 he has has been working as Executive Director of the Moravian-Silesian Automobile Cluster, and as a university teacher at the Ostrava Private Business School.
He graduated from Strategic Management and Leadership courses at Michigan State University and Duke University in the US.
He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Czech automotive industry for many years and in 2003 he won the prestigious Dale Carnegie Leadership Award for Central Europe.

She graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Prešov, specializing in adult education, specializing in personnel management. She passed the state examination in psychology, pedagogy, sociology, economics, marketing, management and human resources. For more than 20 years, as a consultant, but also as a consultancy team leader, she has been involved in comprehensive personnel and organizational consulting for small and medium-sized companies. She also works as a lecturer in human resources and project management, designer of educational programs, designer and project manager of innovative international projects. In 2009, the company she owns became a co-founder of the Slovak Plastic Cluster. Since that year she has been a member of the SPK presidium where he is responsible for education, strategy and projects. From 2014 to 2020, she also served as the Executive Director of the SPK, where she prepared the SPK Strategy and other conceptual materials.

I have been working in Industrial Engineering already for 13 years. Currently I head up team of 5 Lean Engineers and 4 Industry 4.0 specialists. Our mission is to realize digital transformation of the factory by team work.

He was born in Slovakia, where he studied design in Bratislava.
He graduated from the prestigious German school Fachhochschule Pforzheim with a Master of Transportation Design degree.
His career as a designer began at Ford in Cologne in 2004, where he became the author of the instrument panel for the B-Max.
Since 2007 he worked for seven years in the Italian studio Pininfarina, where since 2011 he participated in the support of the main customer, Ferrari. His most important projects include the Ferrari P540, California T or the Masserati GrandCabrio.
Since 2015, he has been the Chief Designer and Chief Strategist for Design at Aufeer Design.
He speaks Czech, English, German and Italian in addition to his native Slovak.
He is married, has a son and a daughter.

In 2015, he graduated from the Slovak University of Technology with PhD degree in the Mechatronics study programme. In SOVA Digital company he works in the field of research and development of Cyberphysical systems focusing on process optimization in production and logistics.

Deputy CEO and Production Director, Groupe PSA Slovakia plant in Trnava
o General Manager of Assembly Unit
o Production manager
o Responsible for Standardized work
o Responsible for quality engineering
o Launch manager of technology and manufacturing of new projects
o Leader of optimization of work posts
Study: Slovak technical University in Bratislava, Faculty of material and technology in Trnava

As a cost saving analyst, he manages and monitors for GQ systems all cost saving projects in Europe in automotive and non-automotive industry. He has built up his experience in the field of quality management and plant management over the past 25 years from west till the east Europe. He started his career in an American company in the Netherlands, where cost savings was very common and central process in the organization. Over the years he specialized himself in lean manufacturing, process improvement, quality management and cost savings processes. His customers were VW group, BMW, Scania and DAF truck, companies which are specialized from acoustic and plastic parts till high temperature sensor and headlights. Since 2016, he has been working as a consulting & interim and cost-saving manager for GQ systems.