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.

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 Möllmann earned a degree from the University of Aachen (RWTH) as Dipl.- Ing. for process technologies. Between 1987-96, Ullrich worked as a sales engineer at Eisenmann, one of the world’s leading companies in painting technologies. From 96-02 he was head of sales at Hager + Elsässer, a leading company in industrial water treat­ment. In 2003, Ullrich joined Dürr Systems AG as a key account manager for assembly sys­tems, and since 2008 he has been the head of product management worldwide for EcoEMOS.

Sigun Bergstedt is a creative and skilled colour, material and finish (CMF) senior designer with longstanding automotive experience. She has a master of fine arts in interior architec­ture. At the end of the 90s she was recruited to Saab Automobile. Later, she worked with the other major Swedish transportation brands Volvo Cars and Volvo AB. She has worked in the range from concept cars and sustainability concept studies to implementation of interior and exterior colour palettes, grains and décor materials. Since 2013, she has worked at Volvo AB as senior designer in all Volvo AB business areas: Volvo Trucks, Volvo Bus, Volvo Penta and Volvo Construction Equipment.

Tolga Diraz is a chemical engineer specialised in corrosion engineering and protective paints and coatings with diversified experience in the automotive and steel painting/coating related to technical managerial positions for more than 15 years. He holds several interna­tionally recognised professional certifications from SSPC and NACE, such as certified coating inspector certifications (SSPC PCI, NACE CIP Level 3) and SSPC protective coating specialist. He’s also an instructor of these certifications, organising trainings for numerous painters and inspectors in the industry.

Stefan Picker is currently the head of sales for Northern Europe and global KAM of Henkel. He has an education in biochemistry and business chemistry from Germany and the USA. Having started his career in the consumer adhesives business in product development and international marketing, he moved on to Henkel’s adhesive technologies strategy department in 2011. Afterwards, he held positions in sales and business development – for example as director of business development for Henkel’s automotive parts business in North America.

Semih Ertürk was born in 1977 in Bursa. He graduated from Ege University in 2001 as a chemical engineer. He has been working in the automotive research and development area for 12 years. He is a senior technical specialist for plastic materials at Fiat Chrysler Auto Turkey. He does interior, exterior, under hood and under body plastic material activities for produced cars in Turkey. His competencies include self-pigmented (opaque and metallic) plastic materials, which allow for paint elimination, weight reduction methods (glass bubble filled polymer, chemical and physical foaming process, etc.), and thermoplastic composite materials for metal replacement. He also follows India project activities in plastic materials for FCA. He has a great, young and very passionate team at FCA R&D Turkey. His last proj­ect, the Egea family of automobiles, was named the Best Car of Europe in 2016 by AutoBest.

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.

Dr. Stalmach studied chemistry in Mainz, Germany, earning his PhD in 1997. After a postdoctoral period in Groningen, NL, he started his coatings career in 2000, first in R&D and later in supply-chain controlling.

He joined ORONTEC GmbH & Co. KG in 2019, taking care of projects for process optimisation and automation as well as general digitalisation in the coatings industry. Besides hosting the XING group “Smart Paint Factory”, Ulf is the initiator of “Stammlack”, a virtual roundtable focussing on coating topics, and a co-founder of the Smart Paint Factory Alliance. He also moderates two roundtables of the VCW, a subgroup of the German Chemical Society (GDCh), actively promoting networking within the chemical community.

Alexander Back has been engaged in automotive computer-aided design (CAD) since 1983. Because of his experience in CAD companies like CDC, ComputerVision, PTC, ICEM and Das­sault Systemes, he worked in the last two decades – besides his sales-support, marketing and training activities – in close cooperation with automotive OEMs and ICEM R&D Lab Hannover. The main focus was to specify new features and functions in the area of automotive class-A surface modelling. Today he leads the ICEM CAD department of systemworkx AG Munich.

Meiko co-founded AOM-Systems in 2013 as a spin-off from Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany). Besides other areas, he is responsible for the business development at AOM-Systems. He managed the market introduction for the analytical measurement division, the market introduction for the automotive paint division, and he is currently managing the business creation for AI-driven sensor solutions at AOM-Systems.