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.

With 20 years of industry and consulting experience in the automotive industry, Andreas Tsetinis is a veteran in building up product cost optimization organizations and delivering services regarding all facets of product costing. As a serial entrepreneur, he has built up and exited a costing software, a leading consultancy, and a toolmaker. He is now focusing on building the TSET platform, a software automating product costing and integrating carbon emissions into the total cost of ownership.

After years of leading mathematical software development projects in the finance and energy industry, Jakob Etzel is now focusing on delivering the TSET platform to clients across different manufacturing industries and supply chain positions. Additionally, he leads consulting projects on product carbon footprint estimation and emissions reduction measures.

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.

Mr. Kartikeya Walia is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Nottingham Trent University, UK. Pursuing research in Additive Manufacturing for Modular Robotics. Also, he is an Hourly Paid Lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Nottingham Trent University (NTU). Mr. Walia completed his Bachelors in Engineering with Honours in Mechanical Engineering from Panjab University in India. For his final year, he was selected as a sponsored Visiting Research Student at NTU to conduct a 6-month research project. This was conducted in collaboration with Bridgestone and specifically looked towards “Quantifying Driver Discomfort for Autonomous Vehicles” for the development of comfortable Seating Posture.