Speakers,

IIoT Manufacturing & Supply Chain Day 2024

Hamish has his been running his international consulting practice from Munich, Germany since 2006. A former IDC analyst, he helps small and midsized industrial software vendors in Europe and the US dramatically improve their growth efficiency, based on the principle that “Better Builds Bigger". His consulting expertise covers sales, marketing, customer success, talent recruitment and development, and individual and team productivity. Hamish is married with 3 almost grown-up children and splits his time between homes in Munich and Austria. Outside of work you’ll find him hiking or indulging his passion for fast cars, French red wine and Japanese whisky - but not all at the same time.

An entrepreneurial software engineer with global business leadership experience and a passion for digital transformation. Lucian has worked in the industrial software and automation industry since 1998. He holds a BSEE from Cleveland State University and an MBA in Entrepreneurial Finance from Case Western Reserve University. He has worked in various positions: software development, product development, training, marketing, pre-sales, product management, M&A integration and global marketing. Lucian has served as the World Trade Center Cleveland Representative for Eastern Europe and as a Board Member for the Promisepartner.biz. He teaches in the Electrical & Computer Science Department at Cleveland State University (CSU) focusing on Industrial Automation & Industrial IoT and currently serves on the Board of Industry Advisors, Engineering Technology, CSU. He was selected to represent the United States in Europe for Technology and Services on the economic trade mission lead by Dr. Samuel Bodman, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Interests: skiing, playing soccer, global travel.

Peter Aynsley-Hartwell is the Vice President of Data Solutions at Prometheus Group, a global enterprise asset management (EAM) software provider. Peter is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and he joined Prometheus Group during its acquisition of Utopia Global in October 2020. His global responsibilities include overseeing the development and implementation of Prometheus Group’s data solutions. Peter’s journey into technology began more than 25 years ago when, as an engineer, he swiftly transitioned a dairy company’s environment to an SAP ecosystem after an acquisition. Ever since then, he has been immersed in the SAP, EAM, and data solutions ecosystems. He also worked in various roles for five years at XL Axiata, a leading telecom company in Indonesia.

John Harrington is the Chief Product Officer of HighByte, focused on product management, customer and partner success, and company strategy. His areas of responsibility include market research, customer use cases, product priorities, go-to-market, and financial planning.

John is passionate about delivering technology that improves productivity and safety in manufacturing and industrial environments. He has spent his 25-year career both delivering software to manufacturers and working for manufacturers in operations roles. This experience has given him a unique perspective on how suppliers and end users each play an integral role in implementing new technology solutions.

John has a Master of Business Administration from Babson College and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Erika Franco is a seasoned technical leader with over 15 years of experience in networking and 7 years in industrial automation. As a Technical Leader at Cisco in the IoT Solutions group, she specializes in designing and validating end-to-end architectures for manufacturing, ensuring secure, reliable, and scalable implementations. Erika has been a key contributor to the Cisco and Rockwell Automation Converged Plant-wide Ethernet (CPwE) design guides and collaborates closely with leading automation partners such as Rockwell Automation and Schneider Electric. Previously, she represented Cisco in the ODVA Conformance interest group. Certified as a Profinet network engineer, her areas of expertise include cybersecurity for industrial solutions, Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and Cisco TrustSec. Erika’s work is instrumental in driving the convergence of IT and OT within the industrial sector.

Randy Carr stands at the forefront of innovation as the CEO of World Emblem, leading with passion, insight, and a forward-thinking approach that has transformed the industry. His commitment to excellence and continuous learning is further exemplified by his active membership in the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) since 2008. Randy’s leadership was especially recognized when he served on the YPO Executive Committee from 2019-2021, contributing his expertise to uplift fellow entrepreneurs and visionaries.

Beyond his corporate achievements lies the heart of a devoted family man and a lover of life’s many adventures. Celebrating a bond of over 23 years with his life partner and confidante, Amy Carr, Randy believes in the strength of family and the values they instill in us. Together, they’ve raised two outstanding young men, JC and Jayden, who embody the Carr family’s spirit of perseverance and ambition.

Outside the boardroom, Randy’s zest for life is equally palpable. With four loyal canine companions by his side, he often escapes into the pristine world of skiing – carving through snowy landscapes and seeking inspiration from the serene beauty of nature.

In Randy, we see not just a CEO, but a beacon of motivation. A testament to what one can achieve with hard work, a supportive family, and the will to always aim higher. Whether at the helm of World Emblem, amidst the snowy mountains, or at home with his loved ones, Randy Carr is a symbol of unwavering dedication and an inspiration to us all.

Balaji Palani is InfluxData’s Vice President of Product Marketing, overseeing the company’s product messaging and technical marketing. Balaji has an extensive background in monitoring, observability and developer technologies and bringing them to market. He previously served as InfluxData’s Senior Director of Product Management, and before that, held Product Management and Engineering positions at BMC, HP, and Mercury.

Jason serves as Cognite’s Field CTO. He has spent the last 25 years working with some of the largest discrete manufacturing companies to dramatically improve their Data Operations and Machine Learning Analytics capabilities. Jason’s experiences led him to Cognite, passionate about the value and impact of trusted, accessible contextualized industrial data at scale.

Brian Zakrajsek is a Smart Manufacturing Specialist Leader for Deloitte Consulting. He has 20 years of experience in manufacturing and heavy industry across engineering, project management, sales, leadership, and consulting. Brian gets energy collaborating on his client’s most complex challenges, combining innovative technology with sustainable change.

Brian is a lifelong learner and practitioner of digital transformation in manufacturing. He works in industrial analytics, data engineering, next-gen automation, advanced infrastructure, and cybersecurity across process, hybrid, and discrete industries.

Away from his work, his life revolves around his wife and three boys. He also spends “too much” time on his lawn and tries to fit in the occasional CrossFit workout.

Brendan Conrad is Senior Solution Engineer at CrateDB. He has over two decades of technical leadership expertise in application architecture, development, and technical sales, focusing on real-time analytics, digital transformation, and automation. He designs and leads transformative solutions that optimize data pipelines and leverage cutting-edge technologies for real-time decision-making, business intelligence, application architecture frameworks, and observability. Brendan architects and delivers scalable, secure solutions for enterprise clients, driving multi-million-dollar revenue growth. His expertise in data management, workflow automation, and distributed system integration makes him a trusted advisor, consistently guiding clients to achieve impactful results.

Shinichiro Nakamura is a manufacturing and global thought leader in the secondary steel processing industry. He is the President of one to ONE Holdings, which operates steel tube making factories in Japan and Vietnam and implements inline galvanizing technology for tubing companies around the world. His original family business, Daiwa Steel Tube Industries in Japan, is one of the largest producers of inline galvanized steel tubes in East Asia. Shin is a past Regional Chair of the YPO North Asia region and current member of the Board of Governors at the Asia School of Business. He previously consulted at Bain & Company and received his MBA from MIT Sloan, specializing in New Product & Venture Development.

Ravi is a product marketing and management leader with extensive experience delivering high-quality products and services that have generated revenues and cost savings of over $10B for companies such as Motorola, GE, Bosch, Weir and Parker Hannifin. His expertise spans industries such as Mining, O&G, Industrial Automation, Automotive, Mobile Devices, Enterprise communications, Automotive, Fleet Management and Industrial Motion Management. He is an expert in Industrial IoT, Industry 4.0, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Data Security, Cloud Platforms, SaaS/PaaS, and Agile Methodologies. At HiveMQ, Ravi is in charge of evangelizing, enabling sales of the HiveMQ solution amongst Manufacturing, Energy, Logistics and Industrial Automation customers. Ravi has presented at many events in person and virtually over the past 2 years including Hannover Messe, SPS, ICC, IIOT world, Smart Manyfacturing, Sensor Converge, ITS European World Congress and others.

Brian McGarvey leads the customer success team at Tulip, that focuses on ensuring manufacturers achieve their production and operational goals. His team partners with customer stakeholders to enable adoption of digital solutions like Tulip and build effective digital transformation roadmaps. Prior to Tulip, Brian worked as a strategy consultant for PwC’s Strategy, where he focused on serving clients in the manufacturing and automotive industries for corporate, business, and operations strategy. He previously served in the US Navy as a submarine officer.

Rajeeshwaran Moorthy is a two-time TEDx speaker, distinguished global speaker, and educator, as well as an Executive Fellow at The Digital Economist and the Managing Director & Chair of Space Sector at The Chart Think Tank, two global impact platforms focused on bridging technology, policy, and economics to drive sustainable development and inclusive growth. With over a decade of experience spanning both academia and corporate leadership, Rajeeshwaran has taught at leading institutions worldwide, including Hult International Business School, Ashridge, and ESCP Business School, where he imparts cutting-edge knowledge on fintech, strategic foresight, emerging technologies, and the space economy.

An alumnus of Oxford University’s prestigious executive strategy program, Rajeeshwaran actively contributes to global discourse on innovation, change management, megatrends, and the future of the space economy through his speaking engagements. He works with organizations to help them navigate uncertainties and build sustainable growth strategies by leveraging his deep understanding of global trends and strategic foresight.

A keynote speaker, panelist, and moderator, Rajeeshwaran shares insights from both his academic expertise and practical experience in corporate leadership. He is a respected thought leader, contributing to global discussions on fintech, emerging technology, and strategy at conferences and forums around the world. His independent perspective equips organizations and individuals to navigate uncertainty and drive sustainable growth in a rapidly changing world.

I am the global leader for Industry 4.0 at IBM. I have 30+ years of extensive experience working with clients in over 30 countries to help them improve operational and business performance.
I have accumulated in-depth understanding of the asset-intensive industries, including natural resources, process and discrete manufacturing. Over my career, I have been applying advanced analytics, optimization, AI, IoT and Blockchain technologies to drive innovation. I have the privilege of working with leading clients around the world to create new approaches and technologies to solve their complex business and operations problems. I have the honor of being recognized as one of the top industry experts at IBM and was invited to be a member of the inaugural class of the IBM Industry Academy in 2011. I have chaired and spoken in numerous conferences around the world and published extensively, and have won several awards in recognition of my achievements. I mentor new talents, MBA students at the leading U.S. University and CEOs.

Executive-level marketing, channel/alliance/partner management, strategic business communications, social media development and execution, business development and sales in industrial automation. Event management. Digital marketing and lead generation.

Tim Burke is the CTO & Co-founder of Arch Systems. He is an innovative and compassionate technologist with more than 10 years of embedded electronics experience. He earned a PhD at Stanford discovering the first complete theory of organic solar cell operation. Before that, he independently designed a pico-hydropower power plant as a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama that was used as a model for rural electrification. As co-founder and CTO at Arch Systems, Tim leads a team of experienced data and manufacturing experts who build next-generation products that deeply understand manufacturing processes and surface intelligent actions to automatically improve them. Tim and his technologies have received multiple industry awards including a Forbes 30 Under 30 Award and the 2022 Global Technology Award for Best Product. He is passionate about empowering people to have equal access to basic resources and ensuring that the next wave of IoT devices benefits all people. Tim currently serves on the IPC-CFX technical board.

Senior executive with extensive business development/management experience in manufacturing operations enterprise software, including services, sales, marketing, software implementation, professional services and design and development of complex software solutions. An executive with the ability to apply people management skills, strong writing skills, software development expertise and business acumen to work collaboratively with customers in solving complex business process problems.

Zev Arnold is a technology practitioner in Accenture Industry X with a focus in digital manufacturing and operations. In his career, he has helped industrial clients make improvements in performance and integrity, and helped secure their license to operate.

He has specialized in IT/OT data infrastructure and analytics, working with integrated operations and digital engineering initiatives across Industry 4.0 enterprises, including utilities, oil & gas, and manufacturing. His responsibilities have included digital program delivery, IIoT strategy, and value realization.

He has provided thought leadership on the use of OT data to drive business value and change through industry conference presentations, communities of practice, and project engagements.

Gerry is Copia Automation’s Director of Product Marketing, focused on storytelling with data. Gerry has owned many B2B and B2C roles across software marketing over the last 15 years in both small and large organizations. Most recently, he spent two and half years at Plex Systems and Rockwell Automation, working in Product Marketing, Win-Loss, Competitive, and Analyst Relations. Before working in software, Gerry taught English in Taiwan for a few years, traveled extensively, worked as a plumbing and heating tech, and published two books.

Starting as a Data Scientist, I rolled into the world of Industrial Digitalisation back in 2010. I got quickly passionate about how to involve the human factor into digital projects. I was the industrial digitalization director at BASF Antwerp until 2022. Today I’m leading Analytics For Industry. I’m focussing on IT/OT Convergence, designing the future operational data platform, cyber security, Artificial Intelligence and more related data topics. I'm the founder of The IT/OT Insider. The IT/OT Insider offers insights, practical strategies, and real-life examples that will empower you to lead a successful and innovative transformation.

Starting my professional career as chemical engineer in a productions systems business in 1987. The company I was working for enlarged its portfolio in 2008 by software/digital products, which I took department responsibility for. Thus gaining a lot of practical experience in combining mechanical/electrical expertise with the needs of modern production control tools, platforms and digital products. Since 2018 I do support manufacturing companies as an independent consultant paving their way towards a future-proof digital transformation and an efficient and accepted setup of digital solutions. Important in my daily work is the bridging between IT and OT within these companies enabling a common success.

Audrey Van de Castle is the Senior Director of Operational Excellence Technology at Stanley Black & Decker, where she leads a cross-functional team serving manufacturing and distribution locations globally — driving digital transformation through solution-oriented tech program management. She is dedicated to advancing the manufacturing industry one digitized process at a time, and making the employee experience better while doing it. Audrey is a Baltimore, MD native and enjoys live music, using power tools, and fighting robots.