Dirk Michels studied chemical engineering at Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences in Krefeld, Germany. Since September 2000, he has been a member of the scientific staff at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) in Stuttgart. From 2006-14, he held various positions with responsibility in projects and personnel in various companies in the paint processing industry as well as in consulting. Since 2014, he has been working as a project manager in the department of coating systems and paint­ing technology at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA). His major topics are the development and planning of innovative coating processes as well as the optimisation of existing coating plant concepts.

Dejan Nestrovic is the director of manufacturing engineering paint at APAC. Prior to joining APAC, Dejan worked at several paint-related roles at Volvo in China and in Sweden. He started working for Volvo in 1991 as an industrial and process engineer. It was after this that he took up roles in painting.

Ulf Eriksson has been working with surface treatment in different ways for over 25 years. He has spent most of his career in automotive engineering but started working within corrosion and protection materials as development/service en­gineer. In the automotive sector, Ulf has worked for Volvo Cars and AB Volvo (trucks, busses, engines) as material developer, project manager, and supplier quality engineer. He currently works at CEVT (China Europé Vehicle Technol­ogy) where he is responsible for manufacturing engineering and material de­velopment of paint-shop materials and chemical products for BiW and assembly shops. He currently focuses on finding and developing materials and systems for future demands for global use in cooperation with colleagues at Geely China.

Christian Hainz is a senior automotive analyst at EY based in Germany. Be­fore this role, he was leading EY’s global automotive analyst team. Christian has over 10 years of experience with strategic projects and analyses in the automotive industry and in total over 15 years of experience in consulting and private equity/M&A. He has extensive experience in international com­mercial due diligence projects including both automotive manufacturers and suppliers. In addition, Christian is well-experienced in business plan valida­tions, strategic market and company analyses, and strategy workshops. He also worked on several thought leadership publications and was speaker and chairman of various automotive conferences.

Coulon Laurent has worked for Faurecia Interior Systems since 2011 in Lille, France. His responsibilities are in the area of decoration engineering where he works with painting, technical coating, synthetic, wood, aluminium, and insert moulding pig­mentation. He has worked within painting since 1986, starting at Plastic Omnium, where he worked for 14 years. From 2000 to 2003, Coulon worked for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Europe, in which he was responsible for sector primer and topcoat body paint. Following this role, he was senior manager of vehicle production engi­neering paint and plastics at Toyota. Coulon left Toyota in 2008 and became the director of industrial performance for Mecaplast and worked there until 2011.

Richard Caetano is a paint process expert for ovens and paint booths, and he has a PhD in fluid mechanics. His experience includes a three-year tenure at AEC and five and a half years at DÜRR Systems. He has served as an expert for PSA since 2006 and his responsibilities include paint booths, ovens, VOCs, air filtration and process energy management.

Auto Exterior based in France. He is a worldwide Plastic Omnium paint network manager and is dedicated to premium customers including JLR, Volvo, VW, Daimler, and BMW. He studied to become an industrial engineer and has 36 years of experi­ence in plastic painting parts within the automotive sector. He is a green belt in 6 sigma, an internal (PO) master trainer, and is skilled in waterborne and solventborne paint technology. He has started up several plants and is a tutor for young students.

After working in the steel making industry for ten years, Roberto moved to FCA Man­ufacturing Engineering and has worked there since 1987. He followed new processes from study and industrialization phase in EMEA-LATAM-APAC. He also followed har­monization processes with NAFTA. For 7 years, he was responsible for materials and environment projects and currently works with innovation and benchmark projects.

Raquel Machado is a smart surfaces engineer in GTS films and coating. She is a chemical engineer by education, obtaining her degree from FEUP. Raquel went on to study envi­ronment management at De Montfort University and completed an MBA in business from Barcelona University. She joined KPI as a painting process engineer in 2000 and then joined Faurecia in 2010. She started at Faurecia as a pole of competence engineer of painting and then became the painting GTS team leader of Faurecia in 2013. She took up her current role at Faurecia in 2017.

In 1987, Ullrich earned a degree from the University of Aachen (RWTH) as Dipl.-Ing. for process technologies. Between 1987 and 1996, Ullrich worked as a sales engineer at EISENMANN, one of the world’s leading companies in painting technologies. After that, he was head of sales at Hager + Elsässer until 2002, a leading company in in­dustrial water treatment. In 2003, Ullrich Möllmann joined Dürr Systems AG as a key account manager for assembly systems where since 2008, he performs as the head of product management worldwide for EcoEMOS.

Mr. Andreas Buechel studied at the University of Applied Science in Erfurt, Germany and graduated with a degree in supply engineering in 2002. From 2002 until 2008, Andreas served as technical project leader at TRW Automo­tive GmbH. Since 2009, he has worked at JENOPTIK Automatisierungstechnik GmbH where he has been project manager since 2010.