Group Vice President and President “Europe, Middle East and Africa” of Ford Motor Company
Steven Armstrong is group vice president and president of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Ford Motor Company since June 2017. In this role, he is responsible for leading Ford’s European, Middle East and Africa business units, executing the One Ford plan to achieve profitable growth through a focus on new products, a strong brand and increased cost efficiency. Previously, Armstrong occupied various leading positions at Ford, amongst them vice president and chief operating officer at Ford of Europe, president of Ford South America and president of Ford Brazil. Before joining Ford, he served as chief operating officer at Volvo Cars. During his 25-year-plus career, Armstrong worked in a variety of senior management and purchasing positions for Jaguar, Volvo, Ford of Europe and served as chief operating officer of Getrag-Ford Transmissions.

Chief Executive Officer of ZF Friedrichshafen AG
After his graduation in 1987, Wolf-Henning Scheider began his professional career at Robert Bosch GmbH. Until 2010, he worked in different positions at Bosch Group, amongst others as CEO of the Car Multimedia Division and the Gasoline Systems Division. Afterwards, he was appointed as Member of the Board of Management at Robert Bosch GmbH and effective in July 2013 he took over the overall responsibility for the activities of the Automotive Group. In 2015, he took over the position of Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of the MAHLE Group. Wolf-Henning Scheider is Chief Executive Officer of ZF Friedrichshafen AG since February 2018 and thus responsible for Corporate Research and Development, Corporate Development, Corporate Communications, ZF Aftermarket, and Executive Management Group.

Senior Vice President Fully Automated Driving and Driver Assistance of BMW Group
Elmar Frickenstein is Senior Vice President for Fully Automated Driving and Driver Assistance at BMW Group. This area combines research as well as advanced and series development for one of the central issues of the future – the “Fully Automated Driving“ – at the Autonomous Driving Campus of BMW Group.
Elmar Frickenstein began his career in the computer and aerospace industries and joined the BMW Group in 1988. After taking on a variety of management positions at BMW, he was appointed Senior Vice President in 2006 and was responsible for the division Electrics, Electronics and Driver Environment for a total of 10 years. Under his leadership AutoSAR, Ethernet as well as the first apps in the vehicle in 2009 became industry standards. In 2016, remote-controlled parking in the BMW 7 series was introduced as a world premiere under his responsibility.

Head of Powertrain Development of AUDI AG
Dr.-Ing. Nikolai Ardey studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich. In 1998, he received his PhD from the Institute of Thermodynamics with a dissertation on the subject of combustion and flame propagation. That same year, he started his professional career at BMW AG in Munich. From 2000 onwards, Nikolai Ardey held various senior positions in the field of drivetrain technology. Most recently, he was responsible for the development of “Efficient Dynamics Total Vehicle BMW AG”. This included responsibility for performance/consumption/CO2, energy and weight management, as well as the wind tunnel and the Energy and Environmental Test Center. Since January 1, 2017, Nikolai Ardey has been head of the “Powertrain Development” area at AUDI AG. In this position he is responsible for development of combustion and electric engines as well as HV-storage systems of AUDI AG.

Managing Director of the Association of the Automotive Industry
Dr. Joachim Damasky was born in Giessen in 1961, and studied electrical engineering at the TU (technical university) Darmstadt. After gaining his doctorate in 1995 he held a number of posts, including those of product division manager at Hella KGaA in Lippstadt and commercial manager at Behr Hella Service GmbH (Schwäbisch Hall). From August 2008 to September 2015, Dr. Damasky was a Board Member at Webasto SE (formerly Webasto AG) with responsibly for Thermo & Comfort. Since May 2016, Dr. Damasky has been Managing Director for Technology and Environment at the VDA.