Andrew Anagnost

President and CEO

Autodesk

Andrew Anagnost is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Autodesk. Dr. Anagnost’s career spans more than 25 years of product, business, and marketing experience focused on driving strategy, transformation, and product development — and includes positions at Autodesk, Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company, and EXA Corporation. He also completed a doctorate degree at Stanford University and worked at NASA Ames Research Center as an NRC post-doctoral fellow. Anagnost began his career at Autodesk in 1997 and has held a wide range of roles in the areas of marketing, new business development, product management, and product development. Prior to becoming President and CEO in June 2017, he served as Chief Marketing Officer and SVP of the Business Strategy & Marketing organization. In this role, Andrew served as architect and leader of Autodesk’s business model transition—moving the company to become a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions provider. Previously, Anagnost held various executive positions across Autodesk. Early in his Autodesk career, he led the development of the company’s manufacturing products and grew Autodesk Inventor revenue to over $500 million. Anagnost is a member of the Autodesk Board of Directors. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and holds both an MS in Engineering Science and a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering and Computer Science from Stanford University.

Elisabeth Reynolds

Lecturer, Policymaker

MIT, The White House

Elisabeth B. Reynolds, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning in Innovation and Competitiveness. She was former Special Assistant to President Biden for Manufacturing and Economic Development at the National Economic Council during 2021-2022 where she helped lead the Administration’s work on supply chain resilience, national manufacturing strategy, regional economic development and the broader industrial policy agenda. Before working in the Biden Administration, Reynolds was the executive director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center from 2010-2021 and co-led the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future. Reynolds’ work and research focus on manufacturing-related issues including growing innovative firms to scale and digital technology adoption by small and large firms. She has worked on rebuilding manufacturing capabilities in the U.S. at the federal and state level, serving on the scale up committee of the Obama Administration’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) as well as for several Massachusetts Governors’ on the state’s advanced manufacturing strategy. She sits on the board of the non-profit, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America, one of the 16 Manufacturing USA innovation institutes. Reynolds received her B.A. from Harvard, a Master’s in Economics from the University of Montreal and a Ph.D. from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning in urban and regional economic development.

Max Lobovsky

Co-Founder, CEO

Formlabs

Max Lobovsky is co-founder and CEO of Formlabs. Formlabs pioneered the new category of professional desktop 3D printing when it launched the world’s first affordable, powerful desktop stereolithography 3D printer. Prior to starting Formlabs, Lobovsky led the efforts at Fab@Home, one of the industry’s earliest open-source 3D printing projects which has been instrumental in setting up labs in schools worldwide. A Forbes’ 30 Under 30 recipient and World Economic Forum Pioneer, Lobovsky holds a B.S. in Applied Engineering and Physics from Cornell University and a M.S. in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT.

Natan Linder

Co-Founder, CEO

Tulip

Natan Linder is co-founder and CEO of manufacturing technology company, Tulip, and co-founder and chairman of Formlabs, the pioneer and industry leader in professional desktop 3D printing. Drawing from over 15 years of experience and accomplished careers at companies like Samsung, Sun Microsystems, and Rethink Robotics, Linder holds a depth of expertise in computer science, product design, and entrepreneurship. Prior to starting Tulip and Formlabs, Linder was co-founder and general manager of Samsung Electronic’s R&D Center in Israel, spearheading the group’s innovation efforts in mobile and shipping multiple products to the global market. He’s served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Jerusalem Venture Partners, the leading Israeli venture capital firm. Linder holds a PhD from MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group and a S.M. in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. Linder’s work aims to fuse design and engineering to create novel human experiences.

Blake Moret

Chairman and CEO

Rockwell Automation

Blake Moret is Chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation, the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation. As CEO, Blake is dedicated to delivering the company’s strategy to bring the Connected Enterprise to life. Under his leadership, Rockwell Automation integrates control and information to help make industrial companies and their people more productive and the world more sustainable. Blake is accelerating the Rockwell Automation strategy by focusing on understanding customer needs and their best opportunities for productivity, combining our technology and domain expertise to deliver positive business outcomes, and simplifying our customers’ experience. Key to this strategy is Rockwell’s culture, the foundation for the company’s accelerated profitable growth. Joining Rockwell Automation in 1985 as a sales trainee, Blake has built his career with the company and has held leadership positions in many areas of the business, including international assignments in Europe and Canada. In his previous role, Blake served as Senior Vice President of Control Products and Solutions, one of the company’s two business segments. Blake became CEO on July 1, 2016 and was elected Chairman of the Board effective January 1, 2018. He is passionate about workforce development and creating a diverse worldwide team of employees that can and want to do their best work. Blake serves on the PTC, Inc. Board of Directors, the Executive Committee of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and is a member of the Business Roundtable. He also serves on the board of the Advanced Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and the Georgia Tech Advisory Board. Blake is Chairman of the Rockwell Automation Charitable Corporation and is on the boards of FIRST Robotics, the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha, and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Blake graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He and his wife Cheryl have four children.

Yvonne Hao

Secretary of the Executive Office of Economic Development

State of Massachusetts

Yvonne Hao is the Secretary of the Executive Office of Economic Development. She has had more than 25 years of executive business experience as a senior executive, including as Co-founder, Advisor, and Managing Director at investment firm Cove Hill Partners and as an Operating Partner at Pillar Ventures. Previously, she was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of PillPack, an online pharmacy that was acquired by Amazon in 2018. She is also a former Operating Partner at Bain Capital. In addition, Hao has been a Board Director of companies such as CarGurus, Flywire, Gentherm, ZipRecruiter, and Bose. She also has been involved in the community, is the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Beth Israel Lahey Health, and a Trustee Emeriti of her alma mater, Williams College. She lives in Williamstown and Cambridge and is a graduate of Williams College and the University of Cambridge.

Scott Reese

President and CEO

GE Digital

Scott Reese is the CEO of GE Digital, a $1 billion industrial software business that enables customers to accelerate the digital transformation of their operations by improving productivity, reliability, safety, and sustainability. Today, GE Digital serves the energy (electric utilities/grid operators, power generation, oil & gas), manufacturing, and aviation industries. Alongside customers, GE Digital is shaping and leading the energy transition by enabling decarbonization through software. Scott is a veteran of the software industry. Before joining GE, Scott served as executive vice president, Product Development & Manufacturing Solutions, at Autodesk. During his tenure at Autodesk, Scott held various leadership roles in manufacturing, cloud, production, operations, simulation, digital factory, and general management. In these roles He managed product development, strategy, experience design, and data and process management, for a wide-reaching portfolio of design and manufacturing products. He joined Autodesk in 2003 with the acquisition of VIA Development Corporation, where he served as vice president. Scott serves on the board of directors at Model N, Inc. (NYSE: MODN), a leader in cloud-revenue management solutions. Scott earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems and a Master’s in Business Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Cynthia Hutchinson

CEO

US Center for Advanced Manufacturing

As Head of Centre, Cynthia Hutchison leads efforts to engage the national manufacturing ecosystem through local, national, and international projects and activities that accelerate the transition toward advanced manufacturing. She directs programming that helps shape the global agenda on the future of production, strengthen the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector in the United States, and marries new technology and processes with valuable, tried manufacturing practices. Immediately prior to being named Head of Centre, Hutchison completed a 12-month World Economic Forum (WEF) Fellowship in the United States and Geneva, Switzerland, managing the development of the WEF’s Global Network of Advanced Manufacturing Hubs (AMHUB). The fellowship was awarded based on Hutchison’s achievements as the Vice President of Automation Alley, where her championing of Automation Alley’s Industry 4.0 efforts were instrumental in shifting the organization from a business and technology networking association to a globally recognized Industry 4.0 knowledge center. Ultimately, these efforts led to Automation Alley’s partnership with WEF to launch Michigan’s AMHUB, which is working to collaboratively accelerate digital transformation for small and medium-sized manufacturers across the state. With an innate ability to authentically connect people and organizations for actionable and measurable outcomes, Hutchison develops and maintains strong relationships with corporate leaders, elected officials, academia and strategic partners in the United States and abroad. A charismatic speaker and raconteur, her professional career began in sales in the telecommunications field, but she switched gears to establish the international outreach organization Band of Angels to advocate for individuals with Down syndrome, including her son Jordan. Because of her work with Band of Angels, Hutchison was appointed by two Michigan Governors to serve on non-partisan commissions for inclusion. Among her many awards, Hutchison was named a Crain’s Detroit Business 2019 Notable Women in STEM, a Michiganian of the Year by the Detroit News in 2007 and one of Woman’s Day Magazine’s “Women Who Inspire Us” in 2006. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

Scott Kirsner

CEO and Co-Founder, Columnist

InnoLead, Boston Globe

Scott Kirsner is CEO and Co-Founder of InnoLead, a Boston-based media and events company that focuses on helping innovators in large organizations deliver results. Scott has spent two decades as a business journalist, columnist, and contributing editor at the Boston Globe, Wired Magazine, Fast Company, Variety, The New York Times, BusinessWeek and other publications. His focus on how innovations that matter get introduced to the world has taken him to the White House, the Sundance Film Festival, the United Nations, and the innovation labs of Google, Disney, General Motors, Delta Air Lines, Home Depot, Marriott, and many other companies. Scott is the author of several books on innovation and technology, including a highly-acclaimed collaboration with George Lucas, “Inventing the Movies,” which explores the challenge of bringing new ideas to a century-old, change-resistant industry: Hollywood. He has been a speaker or moderator at Harvard Business School, the MIT R&D Conference, South by Southwest, the Consumer Electronics Show, HubSpot Inbound, New York Internet Week, the Churchill Club, Tijuana Inovadora, the Connected Health Symposium, and the NAB Futures Summit. Scott has also appeared on NBC's Today Show, NPR's Science Friday, the Discovery Channel, and WBUR's Radio Boston. He is the co-founder of a new nonprofit that is changing the way Boston is perceived by visitors, The Innovation Trail. It won a 2023 “Best of Boston” award from Boston Magazine: theinnovationtrail.org.

Kim Dabbs

Global VP, ESG + Social Innovation

Steelcase

Kim Dabbs is a change agent and advocate who builds cultures of opportunity as the Global VP of Social Innovation and ESG strategy at Steelcase. She is leading organizational change projects around the world and has given talks on her specialities in social innovation, cultural transformation, and belonging at MIT, the Aspen Institute, the Drucker Forum, and the Guggenheim. She has received numerous recognitions in the process including a Joyce Fellowship, an executive residency at the d.school at Stanford and led a White House honored nonprofit organization that is a national best practice in both adult and teen learning models. Her personal experience and professional history of two decades creating, leading, and scaling cultures of belonging across multiple borders have given her unique insights into systemic change. As a Korean-born, American adoptee currently residing in Munich, Germany, she is currently focused on her research and writing on Belonging. Her debut book on this topic, launching in 2023, focuses on helping leaders and organizations with the tools to create cultures of belonging to create a more equitable and inclusive world.

Randy Altschuler

CEO

Xometry

Randy Altschuler is the CEO and co-founder of Xometry, the global AI-powered digital marketplace for manufacturing. A successful entrepreneur, Randy co-founded Xometry in 2013, took it public in 2021 (NASDAQ: XMTR) and continues to lead it through a period of significant growth. In FY 2022, Xometry’s revenue grew 75% year-over-year. Xometry’s proprietary portfolio of technology solutions is rapidly disrupting the $2 trillion+ manufacturing industry. Xometry helps clients shorten development cycles, achieve efficiencies and stabilize their supply chains. The company’s AI-driven Instant Quoting Engine, cloud-based software and digital sourcing tools are deeply embedded with procurement managers, buyers and engineers on one side and thousands of manufacturers on the other. The company’s popular Thomasnet.com brand, which Xometry acquired in 2021, is the leader in product sourcing, supplier selection and digital marketing solutions for manufacturers. Prior to founding and leading Xometry, Randy co-founded and was Executive Chairman of CloudBlue, a leading provider of recycling services for electronic equipment. CloudBlue was acquired by Ingram Micro in 2013. Before CloudBlue, Randy was the co-founder and co-CEO of OfficeTiger, a global BPO company that would eventually employ 4,500 people. OfficeTiger was acquired by RR Donnelley in 2006. An expert in the application of Artificial Intelligence in manufacturing, Randy serves on the Boards of Directors of the Maryland Tech Council. He graduated from Princeton University, earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and also studied at the University of Vienna as a Fulbright Scholar. Randy is a driving force in reshaping the manufacturing landscape through the transformative power of AI and digital marketplaces.

Michael MacKenzie

GM, IoT, Enterprise + Industrial IoT, Edge, and Robotics

AWS

Michael MacKenzie is the GM of Industrial IoT and Edge Services at Amazon Web Services, helping customers in manufacturing, oil & gas, food and beverage, smart grid, and intelligent buildings connect and manage their critical operations from the cloud. Before coming to AWS in 2019, Michael was the Global Vice President of the EcoStruxure IoT Platform for Schneider Electric, a global automation and energy management company specializing in Industrial IoT. Michael holds an MBA from Royal Roads University with a specialization in Innovation Management from the Grenoble Graduate School of Business. He also holds a Certificate in Managing Cyber Security Risk from Harvard University. Specialties: Industrial IoT, Professional Services, R&D management for IoT Cloud, IoT Edge, IoT Connected Sensors and Intelligent Devices. Offer marketing & strategy, offer creation, product management, energy efficiency expertise, industrial automation, technical solution architectures, software design & implementation, new business development.

Miles Arnone

CEO

Re:Build Manufacturing

Miles Arnone is the CEO of Re:Build Manufacturing (www.rebuildmanufacturing.com), a highly integrated family of industrial businesses combining cutting-edge technologies, operational superiority via Lean, and strategic M&A to build America’s next generation industrial company. Its goal is to help revitalize the U.S. manufacturing base over the coming decades, creating substantial opportunities for its employees and the communities where the company operates. Built upon a set of well-defined core principles (The Re:Build Way), the company’s 900+ employees (and ~350 engineers) provide design and manufacturing services inclusive of industrial design, mechanical engineering, software and firmware design, electronics, composites, metallics, automated production equipment, systems manufacturing, and chemical and continuous processing plants. The company’s latest manufacturing facility (170,000+ sq-ft), is slated to open later this year on the site of the former Alcoa facility in New Kensington, PA. Miles received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering (1991) and MS degrees in engineering and management (LFM ’93) from MIT. Prior to co-founding Re:Build he worked in private equity rehabilitating engineering and industrial businesses and was the CEO or President of several machine tool builders in the United States and Europe.

Ken Gall

CCO, Professor and Entrepreneur

restor3D

Ken Gall is a tenured Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Orthopedic Surgery at Duke University and an active entrepreneur in the medical device space. He received his BS, MS and PhD from the University of Illinois in Mechanical Engineering. His expertise is in engineering design and materials science with a particular emphasis on the creation, modification, understanding, and commercialization of synthetic biomaterials. On the academic side he has published over 300 research articles that have been cited over 24,000 times (top 5% of Biomaterials researchers worldwide). He has been a co-founder of 10 companies and a director of 15 different early stage ventures. To date, his startup companies have been acquired through a series of five different transactions: Vertera (Nuvasive), MedShape (Conmed), MedShape (Enovis), Kinos (restor3d), and InnAVasc (W. L. Gore)

John Hart

Co-founder, VulcanForms

Dept Head, MIT Mechanical engineering

John Hart is Professor and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He also serves as Director of the Center for Additive and Digital Advanced Production Technologies and Director of the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity. John’s research focuses on additive manufacturing, materials processing, precision engineering, and computational design. He is a co-founder of Desktop Metal and VulcanForms, and is a Board Member of Carpenter Technology Corporation.

James Womack

Author, Chairman

Lean Enterprise Institute

James P. Womack, was the Research Director of the MIT International Motor Vehicle Program when the term lean production was introduced in 1987. In 1990 he was co-author, with Daniel T. Jones and Daniel Roos, of the MIT program’s report The Machine That Changed the World, which explained the full lean enterprise system of product and process development, supplier coordination and development, support of the customer through the use cycle, fulfillment from order through production to delivery, and general management. This volume, which has been translated into 23 languages and sold more than a million copies worldwide, also measured the performance consequences of transitioning from mass production with modern management to lean production with lean management. Jim co-authored Lean Thinking (1996) with Daniel T. Jones and founded the Lean Enterprise Institute (1997), with which he has been associated for 26 years, currently in the role of Senior Advisor. He also co-founded the Lean Global Network (1998) of 31 organizations in as many countries promoting the concepts of lean production and lean management. Subsequently he co-authored Seeing the Whole (2003) and Lean Solutions (2005) with Daniel T. Jones and authored Gemba Walks (2013). He joined the MIT Mobility Initiative in the spring of 2020 (through mid-2023) as team leader of a working group on the roll-out of an electric vehicle charging network for the United States. Jim received a BA from the University of Chicago in Political Science in 1970, an MCP (master of city planning) from Harvard in 1975, and PhD in Political Science (public policy) from MIT in 1982, for a PhD dissertation on the dynamics of the global motor vehicle industry.

Joshua Foer

Author, Co-Founder

Moonwalking with Einstein, Atlas Obscura

Journalist and entrepreneur Joshua Foer is the author of the international bestseller Moonwalking with Einstein, which has been published in 37 languages, and which was a finalist for the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, National Geographic, the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, and other publications. He is the co-founder and chairman of Atlas Obscura, and the co-author of the #1 Amazon bestseller Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders. He is the co-founder of several innovative Jewish enterprises including Sukkah City, Sefaria, Leviathan, and Lehrhaus. He was a 2013 Guggenheim Fellow. He is currently completing a book chronicling a decade in the life of a hunter-gatherer community in the Congo.

Dayna Grayson

Co-Founder, General Partner

Construct Capital

Dayna Grayson is Co-founder and General Partner of Construct Capital, an early stage venture firm that invests in extraordinary founders building technology to transform the most foundational industries of our economy from manufacturing to mobility. Dayna was one of the first venture capitalists to turn her attention to transforming these sectors of our economy through software based models. She backed companies creating new advances in manufacturing, automation, and vertically integrated consumer brands. During her time as a partner at NEA (2012-2020), she was the lead investor from the earliest stages and was on the board of companies including Desktop Metal (2015 - today), Tulip (2017 - 2020), Onshape (acqd by PTC) (2013-2019), and Framebridge (acqd by Graham Holdings) (2014-2020) among others. She also led investments in Guideline, Formlabs, Evenly and Neuralmagic. At Construct, along with her co-founder Rachel Holt, Dayna is exclusively focused on early stage investments and investing behind the accelerating changes in foundational industries that together make up half our economy’s GDP are failing to meet customer expectations. Some of their investments include Copia, Veho, Hadrian, The Rounds, and Verve Motion. Dayna started her career in product development and led design efforts at Blackbaud [BLKB], the leading global provider of software to nonprofit organizations, as the company grew to over $130 million in revenue and completed a successful public offering and was an investor at North Bridge Venture Partners from 2007-2012. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia (Systems Engineering) and Harvard Business School, where she serves as a venture partner today.

Jane Arnold

Venture Partner

Momenta

Jane Arnold is a seasoned industry executive with over three decades of experience in chemical, discrete, and additive manufacturing. As a digital leader in Industry 4.0, she is dedicated to enhancing the impact of manufacturing through the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. Throughout her career, Jane has held executive positions at Stanley Black and Decker and Covestro, where she was responsible for spearheading digital transformations. Most recently Jane started her own advisory business, joined Momenta as a Venture Partner, and Aperio.AI as an independent board member. Jane is interested in improving the state of manufacturing for the betterment of the worker, and the planet.

Patrick Marr

Director Prototype Development

Hasbro

Sath Rao

Head - Global Manufacturing Strategy

Zebra Technologies

Sath Rao, is part of Office of the CTO at Zebra Technologies in his current role as Head – Global Manufacturing Strategy. He is responsible for enhancing industry capabilities, manufacturing strategy, synthesizing solutions, and delivering on the digital transformation agenda. Sath in his prior roles worked with Hitachi Vantara, PTC, Schneider Electric and analyst and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan among other companies. Sath is thought leader on transformative industry vision, with track record of driving growth acceleration and innovation in areas that include SaaS, Human-to-Machine convergence, edge-to-cloud technologies, IIoT and AI. He is also the Chairman of the Intelligent Manufacturing IOT Center of Excellence. He was also a former member for the Board of Governors of the Manufacturing Leadership Council, part of the National Associate of Manufacturers.

Jeff Kinder

Executive Vice President, Design and Manufacturing

Autodesk

Executive with over 20 years of experience, including general management of mid to large-sized organizations, product development, digital transformation, business operations, and strategy. Currently EVP of Design and Manufacturing at Autodesk, global leader in design and make software. Prior to Autodesk, was Head of Consumer Products and Global Marketplaces at OpenTable. Primarily focused on demand, restaurant marketing, and international expansion. Previously served in key leadership roles for JP Morgan Chase including Head of Digital Products, COO of Mobile, E-commerce, and Payments, and President of Chase Offers. Before JP Morgan Chase, served as Senior Vice President at Yahoo, leading global product development for Yahoo’s Front Page, Media, and Marketplace products. Earlier at Yahoo, was Senior Vice President of Small Business and Recruitment Advertising which included search, web hosting and e-commerce services. Prior to Yahoo, was Senior Vice President at Cendant Corporation, a provider of travel, real estate, and transportation services with brands like Avis, Budget, Wyndham, Travelport, Orbitz, Coldwell Banker, and Century 21. Before Cendant, co-founded internet travel company, worked as a strategy consultant with The Boston Consulting Group, and served as an officer in the US Navy.

Jenny Wu

Founder, Principal

Oyler Wu Collaborative

Jenny is the founder and principal of the Los Angeles based architecture firm, Oyler Wu Collaborative. The firm is recognized for its innovative designs that span multiple scales and project types, ranging from small scale urban activations to large scale infrastructural projects. Her office was the winner of 2013 Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record, 2018 ACADIA Digital Practice Award of Excellence, 2017 The J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipient, and most recently the 2021 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award. In addition to her architectural practice, she also founded LACE by Jenny Wu, a line of 3D printed fine jewelry in 2014. Since its launch in 2014, LACE has been widely featured in publications such as Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Los Angeles Times, etc. Her design, the Catena Necklace, was acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in their permanent collection. Jenny is a senior design faculty member at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. She is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Graduate School of Design.

GIjs Hoppenbrouwers

CEO & co-founder

Twikit

Tom Raun

CTO

Iscar Metals

Thomas Raun is Chief Technical Officer at Iscar Metals, the USA subsidiary of ISCAR – an industry leader in supplying precision carbide metalworking tools. Tom has 31+ years of manufacturing industry experience. Starting in 1991, Tom spent 12 years as a CNC machinist and CAM programmer, mainly working for companies within the Die & Mold industry. Tom joined Iscar in 2003 and has performed various roles focused on project/product management, while engaging with manufacturing companies throughout the USA to improve CNC machining processes through education and implementation of cutting tool technologies. In his current role, Tom leads a team of cutting tool product specialists in the responsibility of developing/articulating cutting tool application strategies that drive productivity improvements for the many manufacturing customers/industries served by ISCAR. Tom has achieved the highest certification in Lean Six Sigma (Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, LSSMBB) and has completed coursework through Villanova University related to Lean & Six Sigma and Strategic Organizational Leadership.

Jason Fullmer

Chief Operations Officer

Formlabs

Jason Fullmer is currently the COO at Formlabs, where he oversees all aspects of operations. Jason and his team help drive operational excellence that allows the company to manage its global supply chain and deliver great products to customers around the world. With over twenty years leading teams in high tech, speed, cost and evolutionary change are keys to how his team delivers more value to more customers.

Dan Middleton

Head of Innovation

Edwards, Atlas Copco

Dan’s role as Head of Innovation is to develop the operational strategy embedding the latest industry 4.0 technologies and digital systems to enable operational teams to deliver value to our customers. Connected products, systems and factories will allow us to deliver value ensuring we are first in mind and first in choice for our customers. His journey within engineering and manufacturing began at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, UK where continuous improvement, LEAN principles and treating everyone the same are core skills and behaviours. Dan’s journey then continued with Rolls-Royce Aerospace being the world’s most efficient jet engine into service, international assignments in the US and China improving manufacturing performance and leading strategy and deployment of digital systems. Now in his current role technology has moved on ever faster which has enabled connectivity with greater ease, but the technology is only half the solution as to become a true digital organisation you need to ensure the people have the right balance of skills, embrace the technology as an enabler, are engaged to fail, and the strategy needs to be bi-directional – these are the beginning of a digital culture.

Jonas Hellgren

CEO

Aperio

Jonas Hellgren is the CEO of APERIO, the trusted leader in industrial-scale data integrity solutions. A senior executive with a passion and proven strategy for building and growing high-tech companies, Jonas applies his 30+ years of software development experience in operations and product for advancements in automation, data, services, consulting, and enterprise IT. Jonas has a computer science background with key roles in multiple high-tech companies.

Dipankar Choudhury

Vice President, Research

ANSYS

Dr. Dipankar Choudhury, leads advanced technology and exploratory R&D in several areas at Ansys Inc. including High-Performance Computing. In addition, he leads Ansys’s Academic Program which includes coordinating collaborative research and education partnership programs with Academia centered around engineering simulation. Prior to taking this role, Dipankar was responsible for Ansys Inc.'s product strategy and planning, and corporate product management functions. Dipankar obtained his Ph.D. in the area of Computational Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer from the University of Minnesota. After his graduation, he held engineering and product management positions at Creare Inc. and Fluent Inc. where he was part of the founding group and ultimately, the Chief Technology Officer. He is a member of the ASME and the AIAA and has technical publications in journals, conference proceedings, and trade magazines. Dr. Choudhury is an adjunct faculty at the University of Notre Dame and an invited lecturer at institutions such as Stanford University.

Dr. Tilman Buchner

Partner + Director

Boston Consulting Group

Tilman Buchner is the global leader for Boston Consulting Group’s Innovation Center for Operations (ICO). ICO is BCG’s network of capabilities and offerings that features 11 model factories in France, Germany, Singapore, Ireland, Brazil, China, and the US. He is an expert in the (industrial) metaverse & internet of things ecosystem as well as a recognized thought leader in software -defined automation & cognitive robotics. With over nine years of C-level experience in multinational corporations, his executive leadership has been instrumental in steering complex organizations through digital transformation programs. He is a frequent keynote speaker and author, especially on emerging technology as well as patent holder of various SW patens. In addition, Tilman serves as an advisor and coach to various corporate startups. Before his role at BCG, Tilman led as Director of Engineering at BCG Digital Ventures, effectively building up the global engineering cohort. His previous positions include Chief Mobile Officer at ProSiebenSat.1 Group and Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at SevenVentures, roles that honed his multi-faceted perspective on technology and business. Tilman received a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Aachen Technical University (RWTH) and holds a master`s degree in business administration. Studies abroad at Seoul National University as well as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have shaped his academic career.

Carsten Hochmuth

Senior Director of Product Management

aPriori

Sarath Krishnaswamy

Vice President, Operational Technology

Smith & Nephew

Sarath Krishnaswamy is Vice President for Operational Technology at Smith and Nephew, where he has worked for 4 years on the company’s automation and digitization strategy. Prior to this he spent over 20 years as a senior R&D executive primarily in the medical device and adjacent spaces both in startup and large corporate environments. He also spent 3 years leading Advanced Robotics at Amazon evaluating cutting-edge technologies in robotic grasping and perception. He has built and led multidisciplinary product development organizations that deploy manipulation, sensing, and machine vision technologies. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lives in northern Massachusetts

Joe Gordon

VP Innovation and Technology

Veranex

Throughout his 25+ year career, quarterbacking over 300+ projects, Joe has been at the core of Veranex’s ability to develop breakthrough solutions and overseeing nascent technology development. Joe’s role is to guide through the chaos to bring clarity to innovation and to distill it into practical digestible concepts. Correspondingly, Joe is highly skilled in navigating the most crowded of patent landscapes while architecting robust patent protection strategies for our clients. Joe has a seasoned breadth and an uncommon depth of demonstrated expertise in developing commercialized solutions across a wide range of specialized healthcare fields. From complex capital systems, next-gen wearables, or integrated drug delivery product platforms, Joe is our valued expert that sets our innovation compass in the right direction.