CRISTIAN PAUN

Cristian is a change maker and an innovator with strong storytelling abilities that inspires growth mindset; a passionate Senior Executive from the Chemical / Insurance / FMCG / Banking / Telecommunications industry. He has focused on the connection between IT and successful business outcomes, both with bringing top-line growth as well as cost reduction programs. Cristian served as technology thought-leader & adviser, implementing technologies like artificial intelligence, robotic process automation or IoT (internet of things) to generate high business value. As a certified business designer and international keynote speaker, he helped companies to transform business ideas into viable digital business models. Lead globally Innovation, M&A, integration and separation programs. He crafted procurement and vendor strategies that allowed to achieve multimillion EUR savings.

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.

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.

Erik Grakist

Experienced leader in Maintenance, Reliability and Engineering as well in Operations in an international food industry environment. Mechanical engineer by education, having had the opportunity to develop myself throughout the last 28 years at Mars Wrigley in multiple local and international roles such as Regional Engineering Manager, Plant Manager, Global Maintenance leader. Leading change is a key-competence, in which my personal involvement and people-focus are crucial for achieving sustainable results. Current focus as Technical Leader are areas such as investment programs in Extra Ordinary Maintenance, Capacity Extension and Digitalisation.

Erik Grakist

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.

Brecht Vanlee

“Technical adventurer, worked in project based engineering, OEM engineering, Sourcing, Project lead, International marketing, sales and business development the last decade. Gathered my experience in three different companies, all of them in the Compressed Oil-Free Air business.

Joerg Recklies

Joerg Recklies has been in the semiconductor industry for 27 years with responsibilities ranging from Chip design to IDM.  He is currently in charge of the General Manager 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

Alp Akçay

Alp Akçay is an Associate Professor in the department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences at Eindhoven University of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Operations Management and Manufacturing from Carnegie Mellon University. His research expertise is data-driven decision making in smart industry applications including planning and control of manufacturing processes and the after-sale services of capital goods. Dr. Akcay is a core-team member of the AI-enabled manufacturing and maintenance lab in Eindhoven Artificial Intelligence Systems Institute. He has worked closely with industry in EU projects MANTIS (Cyber Physical System based Proactive Collaborative Maintenance) and DayTiMe (Digital Lifecycle Twins for Predictive Maintenance) and in several national projects on data-driven decision making.