Dr. Büttner, Head of Electronics Factory Amberg, Siemens (Germany)

After completing his studies and doctorate in information technology at the Technical University of Dresden, Karl-Heinz Büttner started his professional carrier at Carl Zeiss Jena in 1982. At the beginning he worked as a hardware and firmware development engineer and later assumed responsibility as R&D Manager for electronic design.

In 1990 he joined Siemens.  Starting in the drives business in Erlangen, Mr. Büttner took over several management positions in R&D, quality, and production until he became Operations Manager for electronics production in Fürth in 1995.  After having been in Fürth for about five years, he was assigned the position of the Operations Manager for PC based systems in Karlsruhe.

At the end of 2001 Mr. Büttner started working on the Manufacturing Strategy USA team in Alpharetta, Georgia , USA.  After successful completion, he assumed the leadership of two factories in the US.  In 2004 he became General Manager of Siemens Electrical Drives Ltd., Tianjin, China.  Since November 2008, Mr. Büttner has been heading the Electronics Factory in Amberg, Germany.  As Vice President of Manufacturing, he is responsible for the worldwide manufacturing activities of the Business Unit.

Tony Christian, Director and Principal Analyst, Cambashi (United States)

Tony Christian's career has spanned engineering, manufacturing, energy and IT. His early career was in technical R&D roles, which led to a move into computer-aided engineering. His subsequent roles included divisional head of the IT subsidiary of a major international engineering and construction firm, then leadership of teams developing and implementing state of the art manufacturing control systems at British Aerospace. More recently, Mr. Christian was a director of the UK Consulting and Systems Integration Division of a major international consulting and systems firm, leading a practice for manufacturing industries; the activities of which included implementation of enterprise and shop floor control solutions. From there he became services and technology director at a leading provider of plant design and operations solutions, where he was responsible for all product development and the company's worldwide consulting and managed services business.

Mr. Christian has a BSc degree (Mechanical Engineering) and MSc degree (Engineering Acoustics, Noise and Vibration) from the University of Nottingham.

Karel Crombach, Director EMEA, Manufacturing & Resources Industries, WW Industry & Global Accounts Organization, Microsoft Corporation (The Netherlands)

As the EMEA Industry Director, Mr. Crombach is a key member of the WW Manufacturing & Resources leadership team.  In this role, he works closely with selected industry partners, the field sales community and marketing teams to align and implement the sector strategy in EMEA. He drives the EMEA business metric goals, together with the EMEA and WW Manufacturing & Resources sales leadership.

Mr. Crombach brings more than 25 years of experience as consultant, manager and sales director for transportation, logistics and manufacturing industries. Before joining Microsoft, he spent 10 years with Logica with his last position being Group Director for Manufacturing.

Marc Gallant, Business Development Executive, OSIsoft, LLC (United States)

Marc Gallant has over 25 years of experience working in or for the Manufacturing Industry, primarily focused on Pharmaceuticals and Specialty Chemicals.  His experience ranges from Process Control and Database Administration at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago, IL to his current role in Business Development for OSIsoft.  His formal education includes a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a BA from Saint Anselm College.  Mr. Gallent has worked with OSIsoft's clients to drive horizontal scalability of their Real Time Data Infrastructure to address a wide range of their business needs and goals.

Rik Geerts, Senior Solution Architect, Cargill (United States)

Rik Geerts is a senior Solution Architect specialized in Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) at Cargill.  He has been involved in automation system design and implementation in a wide range of solutions in the manufacturing space.  His focus during a more than 25 year journey has been Electrical, Instrumentation, Automation (EI&A) and Plant IT.  He has led the effort in Cargill to foster a strong relationship between admin and plant IT.

Starting in the late 1980's he was a leader in CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) at Cargill.  That turned into MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems).  In the mid 1990's he was driving the Corporate MES strategy in Cargill US.  Returning to Europe in 1999 he implemented his first MES solution.  In the years after that he was leading the European Oilseeds EI&A where he added specification management and quality solutions to his portfolio.  In 2007 he returned to the US joining Cargill's ERP implementation project.

Over the years Mr. Geerts has become an evangelist for MOM.  He has an electrical engineering degree from Belgium.

Titus Krauss, Director Sales & Marketing, Systec & Services; Director ISPE DACH Committee (Germany)

After achieving the degree of Master of Sciences at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences Titus Krauss started his career at ABB Fertigungsleittechnik GmbH in Mannheim in 1993.  In 1995 he moved on to Propack Data GmbH in Karlsruhe. During his eleven years at Propack Data he acted first as Project Manager, later as Sales Consultant and finally as Marketing Manager. During that time Titus Krauss built up his expertise in the Life Sciences Industry.

In 2006 Titus Krauss moved to Siemens AG.  Initially he was responsible for the MES Business in the Life Science Industry and later he took over a position as Business Development Manager Life Sciences for the Automation and IT portfolio where he could bring in his wide expertise in the Life Sciences industry.

Since March 2010 Titus Krauss has been a member of the committee of the ISPE-DACH-organization.

At Systec & Services, Titus Krauss heads the Business Unit Sales & Marketing.

Kees Lambregts, Business Development Manager, Novotek (The Netherlands)

Kees Lambregts studied Biomedical Engineering at the University of Technology in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. He received a Master's degree at the Stan Ackermans Institute for a research project on Computer Assisted Production Management. In 1996 he started his career as project engineer in process and production automation. He has built up practical implementation expertise of today's industry standards like ISA-88 and ISA-95. He was involved in large-scale MES implementations as a technical consultant. Currently he is assigned as the business development manager of Novotek, master distributor of GE Intelligent Platforms in Europe.

Barry Lawlor, Automation Technical Services Lead for Janssen Biologics, Johnson & Johnson (The Netherlands)

Barry Lawlor joined Johnson & Johnson in 2005 as an Automation Engineer.  He worked in partnership with global Engineering to deliver the control system infrastructure and support mechanisms for the Centocor Greenfield start-up.      

In 2007, he lead the rollout of the alarm consolidation in Janssen Biologics which delivered a fully integrated site alarm system, currently being adopted by other companies with the API manufacturing group. 

In 2009, he was appointed as the Project Manager & IT Lead (Biologics) for the development & implementation of an MES core for API manufacturing.       

In 2011, Mr. Lawlor was appointed as Automation Technical Services Lead for Janssen Biologics with responsibility for the development, support and maintenance of Manufacturing Systems (Automation, MES and the associated interfaces).

Prior to joining J&J, Barry worked in various Automation roles with Pfizer, Emerson and Douglas Electronics.

Stefan Malmsten, Global IT Leader, AkzoNobel Eka (Sweden)

Stefan Malmsten is Global IT Leader based at EKA's headquarters in Bohus, Sweden.  Mr. Malmsten regularly speaks at events on the subject of Manufacturing IT.  In 2008 he accepted the GE Progressive Manufacturers Award in Las Vegas for the company- wide, global platform for daily decision support (EPI).   He works in a global role for Eka Chemicals, a business unit within AkzoNobel, a leading manufacturer of bleaching and performance chemicals for the pulp and paper industry. Eka Chemicals has 2,700 employees worldwide and production at 36 locations in 19 countries.

Headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, AkzoNobel are a Global Fortune 500 company and are consistently ranked as one of the leaders on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. With operations in more than 80 countries, AkzoNobel employs 55,000 people around the world.

Pier Manenti, Research Director, IDC Manufacturing Insights (Italy)

Pierfrancesco Manenti leads the IDC Manufacturing Insights research practice in EMEA and is the global lead for the Operations Technology Strategies advisory service. In his role, Mr. Manenti provides insights, consulting and advisory support to leading manufacturers and specialty IT vendors into the key challenges and trends affecting manufacturing industries. Among the process domain areas, Mr. Manenti specializes in Manufacturing Operations, Supply Chains, and Product Life-Cycle strategies. A senior executive with about 20 years of industry experience in manufacturing operations and supply chain strategy consulting and IT solutions, as well as product management, marketing, and business development, Mr. Manenti is a thought leader with a strong focus on the business value of technology in manufacturing.

Magne Nesvold, Project Manager, Norbitech (Norway)

Magne Nesvold is the production manager at Norbitech.  He holds a master degree in Electronics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.  In 2006 he started as a trainee at Kitron Microelectronics (now renamed to Norbitech) in the thick film department.  Mr. Nesvold has since then had different roles in the company, from project manager to technology manager, and therefore knows the company well.  For the last year, together with David Sollander, he has been mainly responsible for following up on the MESA Metrics project at Norbitech.

Olivier Dréan, Sr. Director Solution Strategy and Business Development, Apriso (France)

Olivier Drean has been working for Apriso for over 8 years. In his role as Alliance Director, he's responsible for developing the European partner channel.  He entertains the existing partners, is responsible for their education and is targeting joined prospects with our partners.  Prior to this position, Mr. Drean was EMEA pre sales manager, working on global projects for Apriso customers like Valeo, L'Oreal, Essilor, Bombardier and many others.   Before joining Apriso, he spent two years as a change management consultant at Celerant consulting on Lean Manufacturing and 6 sigma practices.   Prior to this, he was production manager for 5 years.

Dave Shaw, BRM Portfolio Manager Plant Floor Systems, Jaguar Land Rover (United Kingdom)

Dave Shaw is currently responsible for over 20 mission critical Manufacturing Systems at Land Rover. He oversaw the introduction of the first computer controlled wheel alignment facilities in Rover in 2001 and the move to In-Process vehicle electrical testing and has several published articles around the use of IT in Automotive Manufacturing. In 2006 he assumed overall responsibility for IT solutions for Plant Floor and Logistics Operations, supporting Jaguar Land Rover's business transformation program.

Mr. Shaw studied Production Engineering at the Manufacturing Engineering Department of Rover Group before moving into Plant Floor Automation and IT. He is a member of the BCS for Chartered IT Professionals and the MESA UK working group.

Jan Spijkerman, IT System Engineer, Bolletje Bv (The Netherlands)

Jan Spijkerman studied Business Information at the Hanzehogeschool, University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, The Netherlands. In 1992 he started his career at Bolletje BV and is still working for the company today. During his years at the company he has been responsible for several ICT-projects.

Over the last few years he has been one of the pioneers concerning production automation. He has built up practical implementation expertise of today's industry standards like ISA-88 and ISA-95. Today he is project leader for the automation of two new major production lines.

Prof. Dr. André F.M. Wierdsma, Professor at Nyenrode Business Universiteit (The Netherlands) and CEIBS (China Europe International Business School, Shanghai)

André Wierdsma is professor 'Management and Organization' at Nyenrode Business Universiteit (The Netherlands) and at CEIBS (China Europe International Business School, Shanghai). He holds a degree in Business Administration (Nyenrode) and a Psychology Msc.(Free University, Amsterdam) with a double specialization Organizational and Clinical psychology. His Ph.D. Social Sciences (University of Tilburg, The Netherlands)  is based on his research on change.

Professor Wierdsma is one of the founders of the Executive Management Development Centre (EMDC) of Nyenrode. He was programdirector of 'Nyenrode's Executive MBA',  'In-company programs' and the 'Advanced Management Program (AMP)'.

He has more then 30  years experience working at the interface of management development and organization development. He designed and executed a wide  variety of in-company programs for companies as ABN/Amro, Aegon, EAC, Akzo, China Development Bank, DHV, Deloitte., Ernst &Young,  DSM, Dutch Railways (NS), EPO, Ecadi, GE, Getronics, Johnson & Johnson, Kema, KPN Telecom, KPMG, IBM, ING, Randstad, Schneider, Nationale Nederlanden, Shell, Siemens, Vitens and VVAA.

Professor Wierdsma has been teaching in China since 1986. He worked in numerous executive programs and seminars in Europe, Asia, North and South America and South Africa.

His research and publications focus on leadership, management of change, and the learning organization & self-organization. Co-author of 'Becoming a Learning Organization; Beyond the Learning Curve' (1992, Addison Wesley OD series). This book was in the Dutch original (1990) a nation wide bestseller and an award winning book. His book 'Co-creatie van veranderingen' (Co-creation of change. Delft: Eburon,1999) was nominated as best book 2000 by the Dutch Association of Organizational Consultants. His book 'Leading Change; Working with the Fragility of Processes' (2001) reflects on the competences for leaders who engage in co-creating change. His latest books are 'Organizing for Learning' (Lerend Organiseren, als meer van hetzelfde niet helpt, 2003) and 'Organizing and Changing; a Learning Perspective (Lerend organiseren en veranderen, 2011) offer a new perspective on organizing and changing based on continuous learning.