In this episode of the Elite Experts Conferences Podcast, host Dr. Ludmilla Derr welcomes the extraordinary Han Hendriks, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer at Trinseo. Han brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective, having transitioned from a distinguished career in the automotive industry to leading sustainable innovation in the chemical and materials sector.

Join us as we delve into Trinseo's bold strategies and cutting-edge advancements in high-performance materials, sustainability, and the future of plastics. Han shares insights on balancing short-term profitability with long-term sustainability goals, the game-changing potential of chemical recycling technologies, and the exciting innovations shaping the industry.

We also explore Han’s fascinating career journey, from his architectural design beginnings to leading global organizations, and his approach to leadership, self-development, and fostering a culture of innovation.

Key topics include:
* The strategic shifts driving Trinseo’s sustainability goals and market leadership.
* Insights into chemical recycling technologies and their environmental impact.
* Overcoming technical challenges in sustainable materials production.
* Leadership lessons from managing diverse global teams and inspiring transformation.
* Han’s personal strategies for decision-making, self-development, and motivation.

Whether you’re from the automotive world, the materials science field, or simply interested in the intersection of sustainability and technology, this episode offers inspiration and valuable insights for leaders and innovators alike.

Tune in and enjoy!

Legal Disclaimer: The statements made and views expressed by Mr Hendriks are his own and do not represent the positions of his employer, Trinseo PLC.

In this podcast episode, we have the honor of welcoming Nais Désirée Graswald to this digital stage. Nais is the HR Lead Leadership Development & Performance Measurement at CARIAD and was previously Head of Executive & Digital Communications at Volkswagen working directly with Dr Herbert Dies who was Chairman of the Board of Management at Volkswagen.

You will hear insightful discussions about leadership development, performance, and lifelong learning, with Nais bringing remarkable energy to the conversation, making it both knowledgeable and engaging.

The discussed topics are:

* Nais’ journey from her Master's degree in Political Science to becoming the Deputy Head of CEO & Digital Communications, working directly with Dr. Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Board of Management at Volkswagen.
* The motivations behind Nais’ professional milestones.
* Why communication is considered one of the core skills of modern leaders.
* The evolution of leadership within the automotive industry.
* The importance of putting humans first in leadership development.
* The evolving skill requirements for automotive leaders in the age of AI.
* Nais’ personal path to self-development and her methods to recharge.
* And so much more.

If you are a leader—whether from the old or the new generation —it doesn’t matter. If you are interested in developing your team and yourself, this episode is for you.

Tune in and enjoy!

The topic of this premium panel within the Elite Experts Conferences’ technology podcast is: „Empowering Innovation: The Rockwell Automation Vision for Future-Ready EV Battery Supply Chains“.

Imagine that there is a reliable method for predicting the future of the automotive industry, the expansion of electrification or other industry trends with a high probability - would you be interested in this method? Let's hypothesise that there is a reliable 'crystal ball', so to speak.

For the 'crystal ball' to work, we need an independent industry that stands for itself, but which extends throughout the entire automotive industry. This is very important, because there has to be a certain neutrality.

For example, you can't ask OEMs themselves about trends in the automotive industry. They have their customers, their suppliers, their shareholders, society in general, to whom they have to look good. In short: neutrality looks different, right? So, and furthermore, for this method we need knowledgeable experts at decision-maker level and their years of experience and good skills of observation.

THAT is the reliable way to get the best information.

And THAT is why this episode is relevant to anyone interested in the automotive industry well beyond automation topics.

Yes, our guests are all three automation experts from Rockwell Automation, but their experienced view goes much further than just automation topics. We promise it's worth listening to.

Let’s talk about battery supply chain - its past, its present and its future, about cybersecurity, about partnerships - this part is worthwhile for both established companies and start-ups, about networks, leadership and much more.

Let’s welcome to this premium panel:

💡 Pierre Teszner as Regional Vice President Central EMEA

💡Ted Stockburger as Global Director Electric Vehicle and Advanced Mobility

💡Christian Leitner as Business Leader Future Mobility EMEA

Listen in and be inspired - at the end the guests share great insights from their lives: Pierre shares his insights from 16 years in Asia, Ted gives us his brilliant learnings on how to deal with your own failures and defeats and Christian brings a good summary of what good networking is all about to form stable business partnerships.

Enjoy listening as we enjoyed creating this episode for you, our dear listener!

In this podcast episode, we have the honor of welcoming Maurizio Corbi to this digital stage. Maurizio is the Senior Designer at Pininfarina. Anyone in our community working with car design will immediately recognize Maurizio and his legendary achievements in the design world. For everyone else, here's a brief overview.

Car design has been Maurizio’s lifelong passion, and it wasn't enough for him to merely design cars – he wanted to design Ferrari cars. His first Ferrari project was the F116 (F456 GT) project, and his interior proposal was chosen. Then, in 1990, the iconic F50 emerged. The design process was unique, as Ferrari selected different elements and parts from the proposals of the entire team. In the end, Mr. Ramaciotti, the Director of Pininfarina Studies & Research at that time, built a unified proposal that featured a significant part of Maurizio’s work.

In 1992, Ferrari assigned his team the project to restyle the F348. From this exercise, Ferrari selected Maurizio’s proposals for the front and the side, giving birth to the F355 (Project F129). In December of the same year, he began the first sketches to define what later became the F550 Maranello (F131A). Over the decades, Maurizio has consulted on numerous projects, with a more recent contribution to the front end of the California in 2008. All in all, Maurizio is perhaps the only designer in the world who has designed the most Ferrari cars.

Join us as we dive into the evolution of Ferrari's iconic designs, exploring the delicate balance between tradition and innovation. We discuss insights into sustainable car design, navigating the changing landscape of mobility, and envisioning a future where elegance seamlessly merges with environmental consciousness. As in every episode, you will have many opportunities to learn from Maurizio, not only about car design but also about his personal lessons learned along the way.

Enjoy!

Today we are celebrating our 25th episode on the Elite Experts Conferences Technology Podcast. As we already announced last month we've prepared a little surprise for our audience. One of the guests on this new panel will look familiar to you. Yes, it's Gustav Tuschen from AVL, who was already on our panel with Andrea Hees from Yanfeng and Joerg Brandscheid from Polestar. Well, the panel was outstanding and there are so many more stories to be told.

Here are three guests from AVL in a completely new constellation:

1. Gustav Tuschen, EVP Business Development Truck & Bus and Industrial & International Operations.
2. Mario Brunner, EVP Engineering & Technology
3. Matthias Dank, EVP Global Business Development, Sales and International Operations Instrumentation and Test Systems

Which topics & questions were discussed?

- Developments in the automotive industry over the last 15-20 years
- Where we can expect the most dynamic transformations
- Where is the biggest potential in digitalisation and data management
- Decarbonisation: technology-wise feasible vs economically viable
- Links to energy sector & why it's so important
- Technology openness: risky path or incredibly smart?
- How to choose ‘crazy & bold’ projects - and listen if Dr. Ludmilla Derr was allowed to get a small insight there?
- What can we learn from the motorsport industry
- What value is generated by startup hub “Creators Expedition - an AVL initiative”
- and many more

In this episode like in every episode we stay true to our motto “educate, entertain and inspire”

Tune in and enjoy!

The topic of our next premium panel within the Elite Experts Conferences’ technology podcast is: "Power Electronics - Navigating the Challenges and Seizing the Opportunities”.
If Volkswagen changes its strategy and 'suddenly' develops its own power electronics in-house, then we have to talk about it. If the CEO of VisIC Technologies says that in 2027/28 she will drive up with a car with GaN power electronics, then we have to talk about that too.

Our excellent guests this time are:

- Dr. Tamara Baksht, CEO at VisIC Technologies

- Dr. Christian Wachtendorf, Head of Power Electronics Hardware Development, Volkswagen AG

First of all, if you are expecting a long and boring discussion, you are at the wrong place. The guests were exciting, very transparent, entertaining and provided some real surprises.

We can reveal a few surprises right away. It is often the case that the technical leaders in large companies like Volkswagen refer the startups that approach them with exciting innovations to the internal startup programmes and startup hubs. Christian has a completely different approach. He wants people to approach him with bold and exciting developments, he wants to receive pitches on the topic of power electronics and filter them himself. So to all the start-ups that are reading this and are active in this field, take advantage of this opportunity and get in touch with Christian directly.

The second surprise came from Tamara, but you'd better listen in to hear why someone who comes from the start-up world appreciates the processes of large companies and finds them better for the field of power electronics.

So, if you want to experience knowledge combined with entertainment and inspiration, you've come to the right place. The motto of this episode is as always "educate, entertain and inspire”.

Tune in and enjoy!

In this podcast episode we do something quite unusual. For the very first time a guest that was participating in one of our premium panels is invited right away for the next episode in an one-on-one interview.
Let’s welcome on this digital stage Jörg Brandscheid, as CTO at Polestar.

Also this time Jörg answered many interesting and challenging questions about:
💡Development of the product portfolio at Polestar
💡Sustainability and electrification
💡Polestar’s approach regarding automated driving abilities
💡Collaborations, especially with competitors - yes, it’s possible - tune in to know how to do it;
💡Collaboration between Volvo Cars, Geely and Polestar
💡How to innovate as a relatively small company
💡And of course some life wisdom about productivity and leadership

Jörg has a simply fascinating background. He worked for over 19 years at General Motors, starting as a Project Engineer and finishing in the role as Head of GM Powertrain Electronic Development. Afterwards he moved on to the role as Head of Electronics Development at CLAAS in agriculture machinery. In 2014, he joined Chery Automobile in China where he had the role as Executive Director Engineering. Later in 2017, he started as VP Engineering Powertrain/Drivetrain Electronics at Continental. After two years he moved on to HELLA as EVP Electronics and became a Member of the Executive Board. In October 2021 Jörg joined Polestar.

Tune in and don't forget to subscribe - we continue having more exciting tech topics and outstanding personalities in the future.

Enjoy!

The topic of our next premium panel within the Elite Experts Conferences’ technology podcast is: "Innovation Scouting and Strategic Partnerships in Automotive Industry". We recommend this episode to every startup, every global player, every supplier, every OEM - in short, EVERYONE in the automotive industry who in some way works on tech innovations.

Our outstanding guests this time are:

1. Jörg Brandscheid, CTO at Polestar;

2. Andrea Hees, Director Product & Program Management Global XBU Innovation at Yanfeng;

3. Gustav Tuschen, EVP at AVL for Industrial & International Operations and Business Development Truck & Bus

The atmosphere of the discussion was so pleasant that an interesting exchange of knowledge and insights took place. As always according to our usual principle: "educate, entertain and inspire". There were very transparent answers about where the focus is at the moment, where the challenges are, how the topic of innovation and especially innovation scouting is approached in every company. Of course, the discussion was also about all possible facets of strategic partnerships, a few example stories were shared and the key learnings collected.

And as in every episode, the guests answer not only the technical questions, but also a few questions about their personal path, outlook on life, etc. So if you want to know, for example, which book influenced the guests the most and why is that, stay tuned for the episode until the end.

Tune in and enjoy!

In this episode we introduce Wayne Burgess and frankly in the design world he needs no introduction. There are some star designers who have had a massive impact on the automotive industry over the last few decades. Wayne Burgess is one of those personalities who has become so well known around the world - that man IS A LEGEND. The design world knows him. The design world loves him.

Why? Because Wayne doesn't know kindness, empathy and compassion from textbooks, but really lives them. Wayne constantly helps others, celebrate other's success, supports people in his network and actively lives kindness as one of his core values. In this episode you will discover how he became such a kind and empathetic leader.

Of course, this episode is very much about the design world - its past, present and future, the highlights of Wayne's career working on TXI taxi design, later at Aston Martin and his very long time - over 17 years - at Jaguar Land Rover, most recently in the role Design Director for Jaguar production and SVO vehicles. Additionally, Wayne talked about his new responsibilities at Ola Electric and the challenge of delivering great design for everyday mobility solutions versus exciting concept cars of the past.

Yes, it is the most personal and moving interview that was ever done on this podcast. Design related part is fascinating and personality related part is moving and inspiring. May many, especially young leaders of this world, be inspired and follow this example of Wayne.

Tune in and enjoy!

It’s time for the next Elite Experts Conferences’ podcast episode. The topic of this episode is „Automotive cybersecurity in a highly connected world - a battle that can be won at all?“. Our guests this time are two experts from Upstream Security team, an Israeli scale-up providing industry-leading cyber threat protection:

- Giuseppe Serio is the VP Market Development and
- Yaniv Maimon is Director of Vehicle Security Operations Center (VSOC)

Why are these two the perfect people to talk to about this topic? Well, Giuseppe knows both the startup and the corporate world and worked at IBM for over two decades on the very topic of cybersecurity before his start at Upstream. In addition, due to his role as VP Market Development, Giuseppe has excellent knowledge about the developments in the market and the latest trends.

Yaniv complements this perfectly with his deep technical knowledge and also has many years of experience in cybersecurity at IBM, Deloitte and also Boston Consulting Group and their clients. The fact that Yaniv started his career with studies in management and psychology but also in security and diplomacy for executives results in an explosive mix of knowledge. One of the skills of such experts is, for example, predicting the hacker's thoughts and actions and taking appropriate measures to stop the hacker. You always have to be smarter than your opponent - not an easy task.

The topics of discussion were: security of application programming interface (API), some real life scenarios, digital twins, trust and verify‘ approach in cybersecurity, some usual and unusual cases of cyberattacks, traditional IT SOCs and the VSOCs, requirements for the hardware etc. As you can see we approached that topic on the technical level and also always when it was possible showing some practical examples.

Additionally, we talked about collaborations, search for talents - btw Upstream team is always looking for new talents - and future challenges and opportunities. And of course, as in every episode, we get to learn from the life wisdom and insights of these two exciting personalities - that is no less captivating than the technical part of the podcast 💡

Feel free to tune in and enjoy our approach to "educate, entertain and inspire”!