SPEAKERS

Rick Ainsworth joined Frost and Sullivan as Chief Financial Officer in early 2020, helping reorganize the financial, operational and business structure while leading COVID-19 related business adjustments. In mid-2020 Rick moved into the Chief Commercial Officer role responsible for providing global leadership for the sales, marketing, product portfolio and long term strategy for the organization. He has over 20 years of strategic commercial, operational and financial leadership experience working with companies to accelerate insight-driven profitable growth.

Yoshito Ando is head of service planning group at Nissan.It is first dedicated team to create innovative service concept in Nissan. 
Ando joined Nissan in 2018 as head of connected service business development.Established and led three important PoC project such as “Charging+”, “Travel Trigger”, “Travel experience box” in 3 years as a project leader. Ando started service planning group lead in 2022. Create service package rapidly including idea, business model, tech feasibility study and partnership. Aiming on L4 autonomous driving paradigm shift preparation as new service creation point of view.   
Previous work is at SoftBank(2007-2018) as project leader of new IoT product planning and business development. Created 700+ new IoT concepts from toy to medical equipment and achieved $400million sales.  
Graduated from Tokushima university holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.

Ryan Bax has more than 8 years of automotive research and consulting experience, having worked extensively on go-to-market and strategic initiatives for clients. He is currently working as a Senior Consultant in the London team on projects spanning lubricants, new retail formats, alternative powertrains and shared business models.

Gary Brotman is a passionate technology maven and leads Secondmind as Chief Executive Officer. He brings 20+ years of leadership experience building, commercializing, and evangelizing of product and service lines for leading Fortune 500 companies and startups with machine learning, mobile, and technology at their core. When spare time arises Gary hacks at golf balls, spins records, and hunts follies while exploring England with his family.

Pierre Chehwan is Director of Strategic-Alliance and Institutional Relationship at NAVYA Group. His mission is to support institutions and governments regarding Autonomous Vehicles, legal framework, and related funded projects from European Union or governmental as well as building strategic alliances. With 27 years of experience in fast paced technologies within market game changer companies, he worked in entrepreneurial pioneer startups, as well as international organisation challengers. Pierre contributed to 2 major disruptive technologies that changed our daily lives: the birth of Internet and the rise of the mobile phone. Today he is contributing to the 3rd one: Autonomous Vehicles. Before joining NAVYA, he worked 7 years for one of the first internet providers in Europe. Then he moved for more than 10 years in the mobile industry as head of product strategy for Tier 1 operators at Alcatel Mobile Phones and Sales Director at Huawei. He developed later the B2B Mobile business of Ingram Micro. Today, Pierre is handling Strategic Alliance as well as EU & Public affairs within NAVYA to deliver sustainable mobility with Autonomous Vehicles.

Grégory Ducongé is an entrepreneur, business angel and the CEO of Vulog (www.vulog.com), global leader in shared mobility software solutions. Over the past 15 years, he has harnessed his experience in Europe and North America to launch and grow start-ups in the mobility, telco and social media industries. Gregory previously served as the CFO of Powertrain Systems Business Group at Valeo, the multinational automotive supplier. Greg also holds an MBA from Texas A&M University.

Anuj Jain is the Vice President at Bosch Mobility Solutions. He leads Bosch’s Connected Mobility Solutions offerings in the East Asia market. Prior to this assignment, Anuj was based at Bosch HQ in Germany, working on Bosch’s Mobility Strategy. An loT specialist with extensive knowledge across various innovative technologies, Anuj is deeply engaged in realizing the unlimited possibilities that lie at the intersection of smart sensors, connected assets, advanced visualization technologies, and insightful analytics. Joining the company in 2009 as Managing Director for Bosch Software Innovations (Asia Pacific), Anuj assumed global responsibility for loT Ecosystems in 2013. Later he relocated to Germany to lead Global Sales, Marketing, and Product Management for Bosch Connected Devices. Raised in India and having worked in Japan, Singapore, and Germany, Anuj is an agile global frontline leader, specializing in loT value chain and new mobility solutions.

Kirk James leads a global team of brand, design, and marketing innovators at Gogoro. We’re working together with riders and industry partners to accelerate the shift to more sustainable energy and urban mobility ecosystems that are cleaner, connected, and way more enjoyable.

For over 30 years I’ve worked with pioneering brands in sport, technology, entertainment, and style helping leaders navigate rapidly shifting markets and deliver 360˚ brand experiences that motivate consumers to embrace new ideas and inspire them to take action.

Mr. Kaul leads Frost & Sullivan’s Commercial Mobility Program. With over 20 years of combined consulting and automotive industry experience, Veerender has led well over a hundred consulting engagements with vehicle manufacturers, component suppliers, service providers and financial institutions operating across the motor vehicle industry. Mr. Kaul’s professional career includes extensive experience in engineering functions (Production and Industrial Engineering) at automotive OEMs and Tier 1 supplier, which provides him profound understanding and appreciation of automotive business operations and decision environment. He’s a trusted advisor to senior executives in the motor vehicle industry with deep domain knowledge and functional skills to tackle strategic and tactical business issues. Veerender has also authored and led numerous studies covering vehicle systems and services for passenger cars; commercial vehicles; and off-highway vehicles, with a heavy focus on advanced technologies and novel business models. Mr. Kaul has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a diploma in Business Management.

Aniruddha Kulkarni is Vice President and Head Engineering Commercial Vehicles at Tata Motors Engineering Research Centre and has distinguished career of three decades in the field of Automotive R&D and Project Management in India and Europe. Before joining Tata Motors, he worked with three major automotive companies at senior leadership role. In Tata Motors, Aniruddha Kulkarni is responsible for Research and Development of entire Commercial Vehicles range, i.e., MHCV, ILCV, Buses, Small Commercial Vehicles, Vans, Pick-up including Battery Electric, Fuel Cell and Defence Vehicles, which also includes ICE, Alternate Fuels, Connected Vehicles, Autonomous vehicles and other Advanced Automotive technologies.
With graduation in Mechanical Engineering and Post-Graduation in Systems Management, he is very passionate about R&D, future technologies, short term and long-term strategies, regulations & Government policies in the automotive sector.
Having worked on Projects from Concept to Launch, both in Personal and Commercial vehicles segment, he is uniquely positioned to bring good value to the products and technologies, Innovation, Technology transfers, NPI processes, and cost reduction.
He considers himself fortunate automotive R&D professional to have experience on all the products ranging from Two wheelers to Heavy trucks, buses including Agricultural tractors, both in India and abroad. He chairs some of the initiatives at SIAM and ARAI including PEMC. Currently he is the Member for Screening & Apex Committee in Ministry of Heavy Industries, under the Scheme for “Enhancement of Competitiveness in the Capital Goods Sector – Phase II. In addition, he is distinguished speaker at various technical forums as Keynote Speaker and for panel discussions. Mr Aniruddha Kulkarni underwent Executive Leadership programs by Michigan ROSS School of Management, USA and MIT-Sloan School of Management, USA. Mr. Kulkarni is also on the Board of Tata Motors subsidiary and other professional organization.

Julian Legazpi serves as the Chief Commercial Officer of Scorpio Electric. Prior to this, he the was Managing Director for KTM Asia and was a director for KTM Asia Motorcycle Manufacturing Inc., which served as the manufacturing hub for Asia.

Carl-Magnus Norden is Founder of Volta Trucks, a company that he started investigating in 2016 and founded in 2019, having previously worked in the electrification of existing commercial vehicles. He has over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience with a proven history of starting and scaling businesses in multinational settings, having lived in six European countries, and started business in most of them in industry’s as diverse as real estate, private equity, internet services, crowdfunding and now electrification of transport. He has extensive experience in Business and Technology Development, and Venture Capital markets. Carl-Magnus is a Swedish national who graduated from INSEAD in Fontaine bleau, France, and until 2020, was the Chairman of the Board of its Swedish Alumni.

Stéphane Maravel is Global Head of Strategy and Digital Offer for eMobility business at Schneider Electric. His mission is to define and provide innovative solutions for the
electrification of transportation, key enabler for a net-zero future. He is a business and team leader with strong strategic vision, entrepreneurial spirit, and passionate on creating value for customers and shareholders, with more than 26 years of experience in the industry and a deep expertise in energy management, services, and digital transformation.

Mr. Luca Martin is an executive with more than 10+ years of experience in the automotive sector and strong background in supply chain, finance and business development. He lived and worked in 5 different countries, currently based in Singapore. At present he is the CEO of KTM ASIA, Managing Director, COO and board member of KTM Asia Motorcycle Manufacturing since June 2018. KTM AG is an Austrian public company and the biggest European power 2 wheels manufacturer. He is responsible for leading all the operations in Asia, known for cost effective resource management and strategic influencer among international board of directors. He has a wide experience in the launch new products in Asia and in the setup of new business in the emerging markets. Previously he was the Head of Strategic Sourcing at Ducati. From June 2013 to January 2017 he was the APAC Supply Chain Director. He helped to scale up the Ducati business from 500 unit up to 10´000 in just 3 years. He was one of the key players for the launch of the new Scrambler, the Ducati bike most sold ever. From March 2012 to June 2013, he was Global Sourcing R&D PM at Ducati headquarter and he started his career as Project Engineer R&D Diesel Engines at BMW AG. Moreover, he is mentor, business angel and partner of several start-ups in different tech fields. He got a master degree cum laude in Mechanical Engineering.

Mubarak Moosa heads the advisory services of Frost & Sullivan’s Mobility practice in Europe. He is a seasoned market consultant working with clients (C-suite & management level) to design fact-based growth strategies. He has led over 100 consulting assignments in the last 14 years at Frost & Sullivan. He has covered diverse topics such as electric mobility, commercial mobility, telematics-based mobility services, Car fleet & leasing, urban mobility, and Aftermarket and retail related subjects. His professional experience is complemented by MBA and engineering courses that focused on logical thinking capabilities.

Soma has 10+ years of experience developing state-of-art Autonomous Driving and ADAS functions at companies such as ZF, Bosch, Qualcomm and Ibeo. In his current role as Chief Software Architect, Soma is leading the development of next-gen Autonomous Driving functions with a strong focus on Software-Defined capabilities. Soma has a keen eye for spotting trends in the automotive industry at a very early stage and loves to talk about them at automotive and software conferences. He also offers advisory services to Investors and Startups looking for Automotive insights. He has helped several startups to find the right product-market fit and helped several investors to understand new technologies without the marketing hype.

Paulo Mutuc has 9 years of experience in the Mobility Practice. Currently based in Tokyo, Paulo leads strategy and research consulting projects for automotive and transport industry clients in the Asia-Pacific. He has a Master Degree in Public Policy from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (Tokyo, Japan) and is an alumnus of De La Salle University (Manila, Philippines).

Jack Palmer has 8 years of experience in consulting and advisory services. Currently based in London, Jack has expertise lies in the area of automotive connectivity, telematics & the Internet of Things. He has been a researcher for a Member of the UK Parliament in the House of Commons in London and also a driving force behind SBD Automotive’s Data Utilization and Monetization Practice. He is also a foundational team member of TU-Automotive’s connected car/mobility events and products.

Dr. Jose Pereira started his career in passenger vehicle powertrain technology R&D, before moving to industry where he spent 8 years at Jaguar Land Rover in the UK, in roles spanning vehicle performance & efficiency development, including vehicle infotainment features, CO2 compliance & Long-term product and technology strategy & planning. He joined Frost& Sullivan in 2019 and supports the Automotive & Transportation Group’s Mobility Advisory group as a Director, managing global project teams and advising clients on their growth pipeline challenges, with particular emphasis on the impact of technology and regulation on future industry disruption and new opportunities.

Vijayendra Rao has 15+ years of experience in Automotive sector which include tracking automotive markets globally especially in terms of Automotive Research. He is an experienced Research Director with a demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry.Vijay is highly Skilled in Business Planning, Market Analysis, Market Research, Management, and Project Management.He holds a Master’s degree focused in Automotive Engineering Technology from Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen,Germany. Vijay is a prominent speaker at many conferences in APAC and Europe region such as Ford in Australia, Proton in Malaysia, Nissan, Honda, Toyota in Japan to name a few.

Shwetha Surender leads the Future Mobility team at Frost & Sullivan, providing detailed market research and consulting advice on these topic areas. Shwetha is a recognised thought leader on urban mobility, smart mobility and the future of transport, and worked with leading OEMs, tier 1 suppliers and other key stakeholders to identify and quantify the growth potential of new mobility business models, and how to implement and realise these commercial opportunities.

Prajyot Sathe has more than 11.5 years of automotive research and consulting experience, having worked on several research projects that focus specifically on opportunity assessments globally. He is currently working as a Research manager, tracking the upcoming trends in the electric and hybrid vehicle market, charging infrastructure, advanced battery technologies in EVs and Fuel cell technology.

Abhijit Sengupta is the Senior Director and Head of Business, for Southeast Asia and India at HERE Technologies. Based out of Singapore, Abhijit brings over two decades of experience in Sales and Business Development, Product Management and Product Operations. He has been driving customer successes in the B2B and B2C segments with market-leading organizations in India and Southeast Asia. Abhijit has extensive experience in working in start-up phase in the Indian Telecom and communications sector and has led some “first to the industry” and “first to the market” product launches. In the last 12 years with HERE Technologies, Abhijit has led Product Management and Product Operations to launch themap and location content in high-growth Southeast Asia and India markets. Having worked with many key customers in the region, Abhijit has led thought leadership in defining Product and Content Strategy for the India and Southeast Asia markets. While Abhijit is mandated to drive growth for HERE Technologies in India, SAARC region and Southeast Asia, he is also working with various stakeholders in the ecosystem to drive value and outcome. A regular speaker in many industry forums, Abhijit believes that the world around us has to handle more and more data in the connected environment, location technology is the key and will help us to usher the Autonomous world.

Master of Science, Business Administration with Electrical Engineering (Wirtschaftsingenieur). Master’s thesis at the Hong Kong University, title: Sustainable Transport for Hong Kong.
Managing TES Sustainable Battery Solutions GmbH and leading business development in APAC and EMEA. Being part of the SK Group (100% with SK Ecoplant) my team’s mission is to make TES the global leader in Lithium Ion Battery Recycling and supporting our clients to clase the loop in a circular economy.
Earlier responsible for VDE Renewable APAC Battery Testing and Services. Worked extensively in APAC (15 years) and Europe on sustainable development including Climate Change, Energy Efficiency, EHS and operational excellence with ERM, DuPont and other companies.
Working with my team to build something big and sustainable energizes me. Our children, grandchildren need us to make the planet a better place.

Vivek Vaidya is an Associate Partner and Senior Vice President with the Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Intelligent Mobility Practice. Vivek Vaidya is an opinion maker, strategic thinker and compelling speaker.

He has advised major automotive companies, transportation companies and governments on future scenarios and regulations, market & competitive strategies and strategic partnerships in his career spanning 20 years. He has strong personal relationships with CXO’s in the region. He is a preferred industry analyst for many business channels such as BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, Channel NewsAsia, ET now etc. He has also spoken at various conferences across the world and quoted extensively in newspapers.

William Wei helped launch MIH Open EV Platform, the so called Android of EV. As the CTO of Foxconn group, William is responsible for technology strategy in EV, Robotics and Digital Health. 20+ years veteran in software industry and recent focus in FinTech/Security/Blockchain/Mobility computing researches. William was a former NeXT & Apple system engineer with strong background in System and Tools building. Founder of Tech startups with track records and exits.

Aroop Zutshi is based in Silicon Valley, California, and sits on the corporate board of Frost & Sullivan Inc. As the Global President & Managing Partner, with over 30 years of experience Mr. Zutshi has been involved in developing the growth strategy for the company. Aside from driving the globalization of Frost & Sullivan, he has also been responsible for Frost & Sullivan’s expansion of business across 48 office locations globally. Besides being responsible for managing Frost & Sullivan, Mr. Zutshi also works with fortune 500 companies in designing their growth strategies by evaluating new opportunities for growth. In addition as a global leader he has been working with many local, state and federal government agencies in helping their economic transformation agenda and initiatives. A mechanical engineer by profession he works very closely with global majors in the field of sustainable and smart manufacturing, IIOT (industrial internet of things), Industry 4.0, Intelligent Mobility & Infrastructure, Smart & Safe cities and so on.