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.

Alexander Wortberg is appointed Jaguar Land Rover Operations Director of the new Jaguar Land Rover vehicle plant in Nitra/Slovakia, currently under construction.

Previously, he was Director of Production at Qoros Auto, leading the Changshu production plant near Shanghai. Alexander has 20 years of automotive experience with BMW, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Qoros Auto in Germany, the UK and China. Past responsibilities include diverse project lead roles in manufacturing strategy, new vehicle programmes, vehicle and plant launch, as well as leading vehicle manufacturing operations.

Alexander holds a Masters degree of Production Engineering of RWTH Aachen in Germany, and an MBA from INSEAD at Fontainebleau in France. He is married with three daughters and lives in Slovakia.

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.

Simon Garbett leads Squire Patton Boggs’ UK and European Automotive Group.  Areas of key focus are automotive cross-border issues and disputes, manufacturing, supply chain and product liability issues, including automotive and tech cross-overs. Simon has also represented a significant number of automotive and other clients at successful mediations.  Simon is also a member of Squire’s Global Automotive Industry Group, as well as co-author of the firm’s Global Supply Chain Law Blog. Simon speaks regularly across Europe on legal issues associated with connected and autonomous vehicles.

Study of mechanical engineering and vehicle technologies finished in 1982.

1982 – 1996: Teves, responsible for brakes engineering and ESC development

1996 – 2006: Audi, responsible for Brake System, Driver Assistant Systems and Fuel tank

2006 – current: Continental Teves AG, responsible world wide for development and application of hydraulic brake systems

John Uriga received his PhD. at the Institute of Experimental Psychology at Slovak Academy of Sciences where he dealt with research and application of social intelligence and leadership decision-making. From 2003 to 2009, he worked as HR manager in public administration and international corporations. Since 2010, he has been involved in consulting projects in the field of strategic management of change, innovation, leadership and corporate culture. He taught externally at the FSEV and leads the MBA Module of Change Management and Innovation for the Automotive Sector in cooperation with the Vienna Technical University. Since 2018, he is the leader of the Prague Experience Center, which is focused on innovation in the area of modern technologies and business models.

A global futurist and founder of Fast Future Research. Rohit works with global business to help them understand and create the future, and is an award winning speaker noted for his provocative content. He advises global firms, industries and governments on how to survive, thrive, spot and manage emerging risks and develop innovative growth strategies in the decade ahead. His interests include the evolving role of technology in business and society, emerging markets, the future of education, sustainability and embedding foresight in organisations. Rohit helps clients understand how mega trends, emerging ideas, new business models, and disruptive developments in science and technology could impact individuals, society, business, industries and government. He currently leads studies on transformative drivers of change for the next decade, science and technology developments over the next forty years, impacts of emerging technologies on the legal sector, human enhancement and the Shadow Economy.

Dušan Okénka (42) is the founder and owner of X-COMPANY company, which focuses on the development of companies with a focus on management, leadership, logistics and purchasing. During his 10 years of experience in the automotive industry, he has gained experience in logistics management, purchasing and running of several projects.

At the present, he is focusing on the development of training programs for Volkswagen Slovakia, DHL Exel Slovakia and reputable suppliers. X-COMPANY itself has a sophisticated training system in logistics and purchasing, constantly developing educational management and leadership practices. On the supply day of Volkswagen Slovakia, X-COMPANY was introduced as a partner for supplier development this year (mainly project startups, pre-series and serial logistics).

X-COMPANY’s vision is to contribute to the development of logistics and purchasing training with a focus on the automotive industry at high and high schools.

Dušan Okénka is an alumnus of the University of Economics in Prague with a focus on business economics and management, with secondary specialization being logistics – international transport and forwarding.

Dušan Valient has worked in the automotive field at Adient for the past 10 years (15 years in the automotive field in total). He is currently leader of the PG Complete Seat department in technology center in Trenčín/Slovakia. He first began his career in 2003 as a Mechanical and Electrical R&D Engineer  responsible for thedesign, industralization and launch support for the global Automotive Tier 1 wire harness supplier.

In 2008, Dušan Valient joined Adient Slovakia (former Johnson Controls International) company to the Complete Seat department, where his role was initially to lead the team dedicated to Seating design, tactical planning, budgeting, testing and launch support in JIT plants for the French and Czech OEM’s. He suceeded and in 2016 he assumed full responsibility for Product Group Complete Seat department in technology center Trenčín/Slovakia with the Seating design resposibility for up to15 OEM’s. He is a cross-functional leader for product development and supporting functions (Prototyping, Testing, Release Coordination, etc) and supervising a multicultural  workforce in EMEA and APAC region.

Researcher at Fraunhofer Institute (Germany) for Machine Tools and Forming Technology for a long time.

Expert in metal foaming, fibre reinforced plastics, hybrid materials and light weight design.

2009 University degree FH Joanneum in Graz

2009 Development Engineer, AVL, Graz

2011 Development Engineer, Daimler AG, Stuttgart

2013 Development Engineer, Miba Frictec

2017 Manager R&D Application Engineering, Miba Frictec

Pavel is a graduate of the University of Economics. During the years 1986-1990 he worked at the Economic Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.

From 1990 to 1991 he was the chief economic advisor to the Minister for Economic Policy. In the 1990s, he served as vice-governor and executive governor of the Czech National Bank. He was responsible for the preparation and implementation of the Czechoslovak currency and the introduction of the Czech crown. In 1994-1997, he worked as an expert of the International Monetary Fund and participated in the introduction of national currencies in a number of eastern European countries. In the 1990s he was president of the Czech Economic Society. In 2000 he started working for Česká spořitelna as chief economist, in 2004 he was elected a member of the Board of Directors and since January 1, 2011 he has been serving as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors since January 1, 2011. He was named Banker of the Year three times (2011, 2012 and 2013) He deals with the economic, business and social impacts of the digital revolution.

He is the founder and chairman of the board of the 6DAcademy.

Tomáš Mičík is leading the department Technology planning and digitalization at Volkswagen Slovakia. Previously, he was responsible for department Planning of Press shop, later Planning of Body shop Audi Q7 and Body shop VW Touareg.

Tomáš holds master degree of Production management at the University in Vienna, studied Mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Miami and holds PhD. degree of Production quality studies at Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.