José Zozaya took over as president of the Mexican Automotive Industry Association (AMIA) in August 2020. AMIA is one of the most important automotive manufacturers’ body in Mexico, speaking on behalf of OEMs to the government, on international trade, regulation and supply chain issues. Zozaya has more than 40 years of experience in government relations, legal affairs and international affairs, as well as in mergers and acquisitions. Prior to AMIA, he served as President, General Manager and Executive Representative of the class one railroad Kansas City Southern de México, a subsidiary of Kansas City Southern, from April 2006 to July 2020. Before joining the management team of KCSM, he was the Legal and Governmental Relations Director of ExxonMobil México, a position he held for nine years.

Francisco Bravo Gómez has been responsible for Audi’s logistics in Mexico since December 2021, where he has helped to make the carmaker’s plant in San José Chiapas a global benchmark for logistics. He has worked at VW Group for more than 27 years, including 15 years in IT, where he was CIO for VW's plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee; later he was GM for IT for the group’s global production network and helped to establish Volkswagen Group IT Services in multiple locations. Bravo joined Audi Mexico in 2017 and has worked in programme planning, production control, vehicle and inbound logistics. He has further been involved in tech startups, including as cofounder of Blonic.com in Spain. He has an MBA from Ibero-American University and a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Puebla Institute of Technology, Mexico, along with other qualifications and trainings in executive leadership from the US, Mexico and Europe.

Roberta Palacio is Head of Supply Chain North America, at Contitech, a division of Continental, responsible for locations in Mexico, Canada and US with a key focus on standardizing operations, balancing efficiency with cost control. Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, she started her career in the automotive industry in 1999, working for several global tier 1 suppliers including ZF and Cummins before joining Continental in 2012, holding positions of increasing responsibility, leading various teams across different divisions. Her last role was Head of Plant Supply Chain in a plant located in Guarulhos, Brazil. As of June 2022, she is working on her first international assignment in Fairlawn, Ohio. She holds a degree in Foreign Trade and an Executive MBA in Operations.

Mauricio Magdaleno Cabrera is Supply Chain Director of American Axle Manufacturing (AAM) Americas region, responsible for Customer Service, Production Planning & Control, Supplier Scheduling, Material Handling, Data Integrity, Transportation, Customs and Packaging at 10 automotive manufacturing facilities in the US, Mexico and Brazil. He joined AAM in 2012, initially providing IT and Network support at the Guanajuato Manufacturing Complex and has held numerous supply chain roles since, including Service Parts and Aftermarket Coordinator, Production Planning & Control Manager, Sr. SCM Manager. He played an integral role in the development and implementation of AAMs SCM Management Playbook, standardizing AAM’s SCM processes across the company globally. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from Universidad de Guanajuato.

Patricia Pérez has direct responsibility of Maersk, Hamburg Sud, and the integration of newly acquired companies Pilot and Senator in the Middle Americas (MA) region. Before starting her role in June 2022, she held various roles across the business, including most recently as Sales Director for MA and prior to that assumed commercial and operational control for Maersk’s sister brand Sealand Mexico. She started her career with APM Moller group 15 years ago through the Maersk International Shipping Education program at Maersk Logistics, gaining experience and increasing her responsibility since. Patricia holds an international business bachelor’s degree from ITESM University with business and language studies at ESSEC University in Paris and Fudan University in Shanghai.

Wiebe Helder is the founder and chief executive officer of Cargobase, an enterprise software company that aims to make the lives of logistics professionals as simple as possible. Once working for a logistics service provider, where he found himself at the receiving end of convoluted – not to mention antiquated –processes including emails, phone calls and spreadsheets, Wiebe Helder’s operational experience spurred him to develop a solution that meets the objectives of senior management, gives operational users a unique user-friendly experience and works across any region or industry. His no-nonsense approach took his vision from concept to reality via Cargobase. Today, Cargobase serves as transportation management software supporting Fortune 500 companies across 50 countries.

Adrian Jennings joined Cognosos as Chief Product Officer in March this year, a newly created position in which he has responsibility for leading on the company’s product vision, roadmap, new feature development and commercialization. He has more than 20 years’ experience in real-time asset location technology, including most recently as Chief Product Advocate for Ubisense, where he led on the company’s digitalisation and digital factory initatives for customers. Prior to that as Chief Technical Officer of Time Domain Corporation, where his role involved aligning a roadmap focused on the company’s core markets and navigating the required research funding – mostly from military research contractors – to advance that roadmap. Jennings has also worked at the UK Ministry of Defence and has an MA in physics from Oxford University. He describes himself as a ‘recovering rocket scientist’.

As Vice President of RPM Mexico, Raul Ambriz oversees the organization’s growth and strategy within the region. Ambriz is focused on providing cross-border and 3PL solution-driven services to the finished vehicle logistics industry that includes, strategic planning, network design, capacity planning, information technology, and transportation solutions. Over the past 10 years, Raul has witnessed first-hand the transformation and growth of the industry and has actively collaborated with many different industry participants to drive impactful, supportive solutions across different segments. Ambriz will continue to provide a differentiated outlook and approach for RPM's customers in both Mexico and North America.

Dr. Mostafa Hajiaghaei-Keshteli is an Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering, Tecnológico de Monterrey, which is one of the most prestigious universities for industry and supply chain in Mexico. He is also the head of the research department at the Center of Sustainable Smart Logistics (CLIS), which was established in May 2022 by the department to offer sustainable logistics solutions to the public and private sector in Mexico. Prof. Hajiaghaei-Keshteli is one of the top 2% of scientists worldwide, according to Elsevier-Stanford reports in 2021 and 2022. According to SciVal, he is one of the top five scientists in supply chain and, according to Research.com, one of the top eight scientists in engineering in Mexico. He has developed famous metaheuristics, including algorithms such as Keshtel Alg., Red Deer Alg., Tree Growth Alg., and the Social Engineering Optimizer. He is also an Associate Editor in the Journals of Applied Soft Computing (ASOC), Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence (EAAI), and Expert Systems with Application (ESWA). He has a strong industrial and consulting background in different industries such as agriculture, food, automotive and engineering.

Since joining WWL in 2007, Roberto has held a range of positions including Project and Commercial Manager for WWL Mexico and Global Commercial Strategy Manager, based in New Jersey and in Oslo, Norway. From 2014, he was appointed as overall responsible for WW Logistics Operations in Mexico, where the company currently employs 1,800 people and serves various OEM customers at 14 locations. Roberto previously worked as Sales Manager at the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad in Mexico. He is an accredited civil engineer from the National University of Mexico and holds an MSc in the management of logistics and transportation from the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.