After graduating from high school in 2007, Jan completed an apprentice- ship as a motor vehicle mechatronics technician at the Porsche Centre in Solingen. From 2010-2015 Jan studied automotive engineering at FH Köln with a practical semester in the R-D department at Porsche AG in Weissach. After starting at Allianz Deutschland AG in Cologne in 2015 as a motor vehicle expert and accident analyst, he joined Allianz Versicherungs AG in 05/2017 as a consultant. He is co-responsible for paint system as to all activity fields. Supports national and international key accounts. Jan is responsible for paint database and calculation tool. He is a part of different project groups.

Paul Brown has a degree in chemistry and subsequent doctorate in sterically substituted organotin compounds from Bath University in 1989. He joined the coatings industry with IDAC (ICI & DuPont Automotive Coatings) in April 1989 (various roles from ecoat technical manager to customer lab team leader). He then joined International Coatings in December 1995 and subsequently Akzo Nobel in 1999, after which in 2000 he moved to Germany as international product development manager – transportation coatings. Paul joined the pigment industry at Ciba Spezialitäten Chemie in Basel in February 2004 and subsequently BASF (2009)/BASF Colors & Effects (2016) in the role of global innovation manager - organic pigments.

A native of Argentina, Daniel Pittaluga also lived in Brazil before relocating to the United States in 1979. He is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English. His automotive career began in 1984 with Ford Motor Company in Atlanta. As a process engineer in paint he focussed on waste reduction – a personal passion – before being promoted to engineering manager at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville. His productivity advances there eventually led him to a career with Toyota in 2002. Daniel began with Toyota at the company’s manufacturing headquarters in Erlanger, Kentucky. There he managed the paint engineering group and expanded its role across North America. In 2010, he joined supplier engineering development, supporting suppliers through quality and capacity improvements. Daniel spent two years at Toyota’s Design Center in Michigan developing a simultaneous engineering group before being promoted to senior manager. He returned to production engineering in 2017. His current responsibilities include productivity improvement projects for Toyota Mississippi plant and new paint shop construction in Alabama, a joint venture with Mazda and Toyota. Daniel holds a BSc in chemical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as an MSc in business administration from Georgia State University.

Ralph Meier has 30 years of experience in paint applications, including over 15 years in developing paint application systems. He has worked for a global paint line builder in several management positions and has a degree as a mechanical engineer. Since April 1, 2018, he has been working for FANUC Europe Paint Group.

Carlos Vignolo graduated in 1991 with a PhD in Physics from Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst DAAD at GSI TU University in Darmstadt, Germany. He has over 25 years of international experience as a Physicist at BASF in Color and Quality Labs. He started in 1992 as Head of Quality and Color Labs at BASF in Argentina. In 2000 he came to Europe as Head of Color Management. Carlos is currently Project Manager at BASF Coatings for Applied Colorimetric, Methods and Data for Automotive Coatings including Color Management and Harmony 4.0. Carlos’ research has yielded several patents including Index for Determining a Quality of a Color.

Andrea has spent 15 years supporting Manufacturing Companies in their Digital Transformation. Ensuring continuous improvement and value realization through the implementation of different IT solutions: Manufacturing Op- erations Management (MOM/MES), Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). After a working experience in LATAM as Founder and Managing Director of a consulting company, has joined Rockwell to work with strategic customers in EMEA. His mission is to bring Industry 4.0 to life, unveiling the benefits of the new technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Augmented Reality (AR).

Professional Automotive engineer with over 34 years of experience in the industry. Areas of expertise includes complete vehicle interiors, body structures and materials technologies. A graduate of University of Hertfordshire in the UK with a Masters in Automotive Design, Manufacture and Management. Has worked in both the OEM and Tier supplier sides of the business and also in US, Europe and Asian markets. Worked in both the high volume, mass market vehicles, with the likes of Jeep, Peugeot and Ford brands and also in the low volume niche vehicle market with Lotus, Aston Martin, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Karma. Current role is designing and developing a new range of luxury high end hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and also leading innovation and new technology initiatives within the organization.

Nicola started to work 20 years ago in the Specialty Polymers Business of Solvay (Solvay Ausimont/Solvay Solexis/Solvay Specialty Polymers) covering mainly Business & Sales Development roles for European and Asian markets mainly for Fluoropolymers. He was then appointed Global Product Manager for Fluoroelastomers and Perfluorelastomers in 2013 and he covered that role until 2018. During that period he led various Capacity Expansion programs in Europe, China and North America as well as launching new products for the Automotive market. Since 2018 he is the Global Head of the Automotive Business development team for Solvay Specialty Polymers with the aim to position and grow the business across the entire portfolio of the company (HPPA, PPA, PPS, PEEK, PSU, PAI, Fluoropolymers).