Our 2021 Speakers

Develops and executes strategies to advance Toyota’s global business goals. Coordinates cross-functional teams to gather intelligence, devise trade strategies and advocate policy positions. Advise senior executives on geopolitical trends, market developments and risk mitigation measures. Appointed by President Obama to support the goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years following the 2008 financial crisis. Previously managed multi-million-dollar portfolio of grant funding for infrastructure projects in the Middle East and Africa. Career spans finance, management consulting, public affairs and infrastructure development in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Master’s in economics from Columbia University.

Greg is the Global Vice-President of Materials, Logistics, and Demand Planning at AGCO Corporation, a global manufacturer of farm equipment with revenues of over $9.0 billion (2019) He is responsible for AGCO´s global materials and logistics management across 41 assembly and manufacturing sites and leads the transformation of AGCO’s global materials, logistics and demand planning functions into an integrated and innovative global organization. Greg assumed his current role in 2012 after three successful transformational assignments within AGCO´s Global Purchasing organization in Brazil, Switzerland and the United States. Prior to joining AGCO in 2004, Greg held senior supply chain and operational roles with CIENA Corporation, PACCAR, Peregrine Nippondenso Corporation.

Adam is responsible for the development and implementation of state-of-the-art logistics processes and activities across Magna Powertrain in North America, including optimizing material and information flows for products and components across the logistics network. He first joined Magna 15 years ago and has held a number of positions including Production Planner, Supervisor, Cycle Count Coordinator, SAP Warehouse/Shipping Lead, and Production Control Supervisor – Raw & Purchase Parts. Adam joined the MPT Corporate Purchasing Team in 2012 as Supply Chain Manager for US and Mexico plants. Most recently, he is the Logistics Manager – North America; US, Canada & Mexico. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration from Syracuse University and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the State University of New York – Oswego.

Lars Bäumann recently played a lead role in defining and shaping digital strategies for corporate IT processes across global Volkswagen passenger car operations. He worked and lived in Germany, Slovak Republic and Mexico over the last 40 years and has held a variety of roles across the carmaker in areas IT and Operations. Lars also is a long-time member of Bundesvereinigung Logistik (BVL), the German Logistics Association, where he has helped oversee scientific logistics projects. Since he now lives again in Mexico he was appointed in 2020 as BVL Representative for Mexico.

Rick Wishon has 22 years with Toyota Motor North America. He worked 14 year as a Senior Application Technology Manager on the Toyota Vehicle Systems. Rick has worked in Toyota Logistics Services since 2012 as the Highway Transportation Manager and Planning and Communications Manager. As the Highway Transportation Manager, Rick was part of the team that helped Toyota navigate through the 2013-2014 Polar Vortex supply chain disruptions. In moving into the TLS Planning role he has led large scale Finished Vehicle Transportation Network changes across North America. Rick’s efforts have helped Toyota realize a more cost efficient and resilient Finished Vehicle Logistics Network.

Brian began his current role at ICL as VP, Sales, Marketing, and Products in October, 2020. His responsibilities in this position include the planning and execution of ICL's global sales, marketing, and product development initiatives. Prior to his current role, Brian served as ICL's VP, Operations, where his responsibilities included managing ICL's customer support teams, as well as the project and technical teams. Brian played a key role in implementing ICL's logistics management software solutions for all customers and integrating their logistics service providers. He has more than 20 years of Finished Vehicle Logistics experience, all with ICL.

Daniel has over 10 years of experience in business intelligence and now leads the new business intelligence unit at Ultima Media producing reports, analysis, forecasts and market commentary on a wide range of industry issues. Daniel began his career in automotive research as an Equity Research Analyst at Lehman Brothers researching automotive emission reducing technologies by quantifying and predicting the financial impact that European Commission CO2 targets would have upon the major European automotive groups BMW, Daimler, Fiat, PSA and VW Group. Previously, Daniel worked for business intelligence specialist Visiongain as the Head of Reports, leading the automotive market intelligence reports on a wide range of CASE technologies.

Jethro Felton leads sales and business development at Cognosos, Inc, a leading provider of real-time asset intelligence. With more than 40 years of experience in software and technology, Jethro has led the development of strategic partnerships across companies of all sizes, and has a history of driving growth and building accomplished sales teams. In his role at Cognosos, Jethro oversees global sales strategy and business development, with a focus on presence-to-market expansion and customer success.

Patrick McGinn has been with Glovis America since 2011, joining their business development team in 2020. He's held a variety of roles in port management in Philadelphia, Port Hueneme, and National City, and was most recently in construction management for the new auto facility in Philadelphia, PA. He holds a Bachelor of the Arts in English from SUNY Stony Brook.

Achim is a passionate business developer and has been working for Kuehne + Nagel for 20 years in various positions and locations. A professional freight forwarder with particular expertise in sea freight and air freight he has been directing the company’s global automotive business since 2015 with particular expertise in inbound logistics, aftermarket services and logistics of lithium batteries. Achim holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management studies from Oxford Brookes University in England as well as an Executive MBA in logistics from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. He is based at Corporate Head Office in Switzerland.

Alexander Katsouris left England to join Europartners Group in 2009 creating a vertical dedicated to specialized logistics operations for the Automotive Industry, attracting global accounts whilst offering customer-centric solutions across the Americas. Now based in Guanajuato, Mexico, in the heart of the thriving automotive sector of North America, Alexander and Europartners Group are positioned in the region as experts in Time Critical Cargo and tailor-made plans for leading Tiers & OEMs alike. Over the last 4 years Alexander has been responsible for the global automotive strategy across the +70 offices of EP Group.

Sharon is responsible for leading and developing the parts distribution business sector for Hyundai Glovis, the logistics leg for the Hyundai Motor Group. Since joining Glovis in 2005, she has been involved in international and domestic transportation, as well as development and implementation of multiple new business sectors. Her experiences includes participating in logistics system developments and focuses on logistics flow optimizations.

Warren Ali is the Senior Vice President of Innovation for the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA) based in Toronto, Canada. Warren’s primary responsibility is to manage the APMA’s Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Testing and Demonstration Zone as part of the Province of Ontario’s Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN). He is Chair of the Digital Manufacturing Committee that is comprised of industry leaders from Global OEMs and Tier 1s along with SMEs and Global Leading Technology Startups. Warren’s venture capital and economic development experience in both the private sector and at the Federal and Provincial levels of government are key contributions to the APMA’s efforts to lead Canada’s auto sector towards the broader opportunities in Future Mobility. Warren has expanded the APMA’s reach and efforts beyond the automotive and auto tech sectors and is a member of the Board of Advisors to ventureLAB’s Hardware Catalyst Initiative as well as Canada’s Advanced Air Mobility Consortium. He has led Canadian trade missions and spoken at events around the world in leading mobility jurisdictions such as Germany, Japan, Singapore, the UK as well as across North America including Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Atlanta and Monterrey.

Matt Pohlman has more than 20 years’ experience leading global supply chain operations at major automotive and commercial vehicle companies and Tier-1 suppliers, including executive roles at Delphi, Icahn Automotive, Federal-Mogul, WABCO and ZF. Matt most recently oversaw WABCO’s global logistics strategy covering its 27 sites and 14 distributions centres and played key role in the recent NA supply chain integration. His expertise includes including inbound and outbound parts logistics, aftermarket, warehouse management, production planning, procurement, trade compliance and lean principles. He has an MBA from Benedictine University.

Frantz Saintellemy is an internationally recognized expert in advanced technologies with over 20 years of experience in automotive, IoT, sensing, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence. An entrepreneur, angel investor, mentor, and philanthropist, he is President and COO of LeddarTech, a leader in ADAS and AD sensing, fusion and perception technologies and chairman of Groupe 3737, an incubator / accelerator and entrepreneurial innovation hub that helps entrepreneurs leverage technology and innovation to massively scale their businesses and transform one of the most underprivileged neighbourhoods in Canada.

Antonio, who graduated in international business and has a master’s degree in sales and marketing, has been part of the growth story at the Port of Veracruz over more than 15 years with the CSI Group. He has been responsible at the company for a wide range of areas including port and VDC operations, yard processing operations, logistics and finished vehicle transport operations.

Sean Mario Hazaray is leading a new auto-tech start-up with a software-focused vision for the Canadian automotive industry, incubated by University of Oxford. Previously, Sean led the digital strategy at Karma Automotive, a luxury EV automaker in Southern California. Including technology concept vehicles with tech partner such as Amazon, Blackberry, and Panasonic. Prior to Karma, Sean led the UX strategy at Subaru, featured in ’17 Impreza and ’18 Outback/Legacy.

Founder of Havelaar and inventor of core patents. Led development of the Bison, the world’s first electric pickup truck designed and prototyped in Canada. CEO, Automotive Die Manufacturing Software Solutions, Shanghai. Research team leader on automotive and technology development projects in Japan, Canada and Germany. Galbraith Scholar, MASc Electrical Engineering & BASc Engineering Science, University of Toronto.

TBC.