As one of the world's leading suppliers of gas springs, damping solutions, and electromechanical drives, Stabilus has for eight decades been demonstrating its expertise in the automotive industry and a variety of other sectors. Gas springs, dampers, and electromechanical POWERISE drives from Stabilus optimize opening, closing, lifting, lowering, and adjusting operations and also protect against vibrations. Employing a workforce of more than six thousand worldwide, the company has its operational headquarters in Koblenz. Stabilus reported sales revenues of EUR 822.1 million in the 2020 fiscal year. Stabilus has a global production network encompassing plants in eleven countries. Additionally, the Group maintains regional offices and relations with sales partners in over fifty countries in Europe, North, Central, and South America, and the Asia Pacific. Stabilus is listed in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and included in the SDAX index.

Dr. Ralf Drauz is the Managing Director of Clarion Europa GmbH, part of Faurecia Clarion Electronics. Shaping the future of mobility and a passion for digital products is what drives him professionally. Doing so, he supports German OEMs with electronics, software, and systems integration as Global Account Director German OEMs. Ralf has started in the management of Faurecia in 2015, focused on Seating, shifting thereafter to Electronics. Prior to this, he worked in management consulting companies and the automotive industry. He received a Ph.D. at RWTH Aachen University in the subject area of manufacturing strategy.

Robbert van den Broek, aged 54, graduated in Business Economics at the R.U.G. in Groningen. He is working 27 years at Snoeks Automotive, a Dutch company developing and supplying concepts for Light Commercial Vehicles. In the last decade Snoeks moved from converting vehicles themselves to designing, developing and producing kits for installation by LCV manufacturers. The concept which is most known in Europe is the Crew van, a second seating row in a Light Commercial Vehicle including all the needed interior parts from B-pillar to C-pillar. Apart from a lightweight, comfortable seat construction, Snoeks expertise is on load shifting protection. Snoeks has extensive experience working with all major European LCV manufacturers offering them variety in relatively low volumes.

Mr. Chris Hillman is a design professional with over 18 years in the automotive field, working with brands in the Americas and Europe in key global roles as diverse as Design Director, Chief Designer, and Advanced Design Manager. Having earned, in 2001, his “Transportation Design” degree from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Chris, in 2021, completed the first-of-its-kind “Circular Economy and Sustainability” Program from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. In 2020, Chris founded “Atlantiska Byrån” (Swedish for “The Atlantic Agency”) as a design firm focused on Sustainability and Circular Design. He serves as its principal and Chief Design Officer.

Claudio is the chairman and vice chairman of Italian and European associations and a university professor of logistics and product support. After attending Italian Navy Academy, he graduated in naval and mechanical engineering. He has worked in the IT Navy ship design committee as head of the hydrodynamic office. Also, he has been CTO, director, general manager, and managing director of world leader shipyards for fast passenger ships and premium yachts. His last employment was with Finmeccanica Spa (now Leonardo Spa) as head of customer services solutions.

Alessandro is the CEO and award-winning inventor of Vacust technologies. An expert in product development, he dedicated himself to the study of polyurethane foams applied to the seats. It has patented repeatable vacuum processes that are capable of generating new extraordinary performance by transforming stupid foam into intelligent foam.
Today he works as a comfort consultant on many automotive and aerospace projects.

Dr. Johannes Ding is a project leader in the product area sensors within Bosch Automotive Electronics in Reutlingen, Germany. After pursuing a PhD in basic research in laser-plasma-physics he joined the Bosch group in 2019. Bosch is the world-leading manufacturer of micro-electro-mechanical sensors for both automotive and consumer applications.

Johannes is the direct interface for external automotive customers with regards to pressure sensors and is responsible for their versatile application, e.g. optimising combustion, battery management systems, and seating systems.

Sascha Klapper is specialised in the automotive interior component market and lighting component market. Since 2016, he has worked as a subject matter expert researching, analysing, and forecasting the vehicle lighting and interior market with focus on headlamp technologies, ambient lighting applications, electronic architecture, and cabin comfort technologies. His responsibility includes managing the in-depth market research, analysis, forecasting efforts, and global project management of forecast updates. He has worked with a broad customer base including OEM, supplier, consultancies, and institutional investors to support the business acumen in the industry.

Sascha holds a bachelor's degree from the Technical University Dortmund, Germany, and a master's in economics from the Università di Bologna, Italy.

Dr. Tim Gorjanc received his MSc and PhD degrees in solid state physics from the University of Ottawa, where he conducted pioneering work on OLEDs and organic electronics at the National Research Council Canada. He moved to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where he was a postdoctoral fellow in the chemistry department working on organic molecular and nano electronics. In 2006, he relocated to Calgary, Canada, where he has been working on pressure sensor design, calibration, and quality at XSENSOR. When he isn’t working on pressure sensors he can usually be found designing and building valve amplifiers and audio electronics for guitar and bass.

Christophe Ponce holds a master's degree in science and technology with a specialty of physico-chemistry of formulation (University of Montpellier, France). He joined ICI (Huntsman) in 1996 and has worked in a number of technology areas including surfactants and polyurethanes. He has held a number of positions in technical and marketing areas and is currently the technical service manager in Europe for automotive seating and flexible foam and part of the automotive global account coordination team based in Everberg, Belgium.