Irene Bader is a member of the Executive Board of DMG MORI COMPANY LIMITED. She is responsible for Global Corporate Communication and Chief Marketing Officer. She joined the company in 2005 and has held various management positions. Under her leadership, the global marketing structure has been established and consolidated across the Group.

She is also Managing Director of DMG MORI Europe Holding. In this role, she defines the strategic direction of the company, manages operational processes in Europe and identifies market potential in the manufacturing industry. Since 2016, Irene Bader has represented the main shareholder DMG MORI COMPANY LIMITED on the Supervisory Board of the subsidiary DMG MORI AG.
Born in Austria, she holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and is currently studying for a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) at Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

Since January 2019, Christian Boelling has headed the Germany-based hub of EIT Manufacturing, the leading European innovation network for the manufacturing industry. Previously, he led the Machining Technology Research Department at the Institute for Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW) of Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.

René Delbé has been working in IT security for over 15 years and was a member of the start-up CyberX (OT&IoT Security), which was acquired by Microsoft in 2020. His focus is on consulting and conception of complex IT/IoT/OT security projects, as well as on the development of the partner landscape and know-how transfer in this area. Through his projects in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, he “thinks outside of the box” and has set himself the goal of ensuring greater sensitivity and security in the field of OT and (I)IoT. He regularly shares his experience and solutions at remote and live events.

Nathalie Errard has been appointed SVP Head of Europe and NATO Affairs of Airbus at the beginning of 2012.

Prior to this position, Nathalie served as SVP Head of Investor Relations and Financial Communication in charge of the financial communication of the group from April 2008 to the beginning of 2012. She had been in the investor relations department since the end of 2005.

Nathalie began her career as an external auditor with PriceWaterhouse in 1995. She joined the Mergers & Acquisitions team of Aérospatiale in 1998 to participate in the merger with Matra and the creation of EADS (previous name of Airbus).

From mid-2000 to the end of 2005, Nathalie held several positions in mergers & acquisitions and business development at Technicolor in France and in the U.S. Her major projects included: doubling of revenues at the California subsidiary; establishment of a TV manufacturing joint-venture with TCL of China; and disposal of the cathode ray tube business to the Indian company Videocon. Nathalie served also as Head of Thomson’s Europe & Asia Corporate Audit.

Filip Geerts is the Director General of CECIMO. He specialises in the management of corporate and governmental affairs departments of companies, national and EU trade associations, and non-profit organizations. He was the deputy-director for the largest Belgian association for the technology industry, the public and regulatory affairs manager for IBM (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), and the secretary general for numerous European trade associations. He has degrees from INSEAD Fontainebleau and Singapore, the London School of Economics, Vlerick, the College of Europe, The Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, and the Catholic University of Leuven in commercial engineering

Kerstin Jorna is a German national and a civil servant at the European Commission where she has held various positions, amongst others as Head of Cabinet of several Commissioners and different Director posts.

Mrs. Jorna is the Director-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Before, Mrs. Jorna was Deputy Director-General for Economic and Financial Affairs. Mrs. Jorna also held positions on the Board of the European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund as well as the European Innovation Council Fund.

Enrico Letta served as Prime Minister of Italy from 2013 to 2014. Currently, he is the Dean of the IE School of Politics, Economics, and Global Affairs at IE University, and President of the Jacques Delors Institute. In September 2023 the European institutions tasked him with the elaboration a Report on the Future of the Single Market.

From March 2021 to February 2023, he was the National Secretary of the Democratic Party in Italy. Prior to that, from 2015 to 2021, he was Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po Paris. In 2019, he was appointed President of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) for a two-year term.

Earlier in his career, Letta served as Minister for EU Affairs (1998–1999), Minister for Industry, Trade and Crafts (2000), Minister for Industry and Foreign Trade (2000–2001), and Undersecretary of State to Prime Minister Romano Prodi (2006–2008).

Maria Linkova-Nijs is the Executive Head of Policy & Strategy at the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), representing Europe’s car, truck, van, and bus manufacturers. She leads a team of policy experts in trade, industrial, and transport policy, as well as public affairs managers, communications&statistics professionals, to ensure ACEA’s thought leadership and proactive engagement with EU decision makers and stakeholders on key issues.

With 15 years of public affairs experience in Brussels, Maria has worked across consultancies, think tanks, and trade associations. Prior to joining ACEA, she spent nearly seven years at the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) as Communications Director. Maria holds a Master’s degree in European Studies, began her career as a broadcast journalist, and speaks English, French, Dutch, and Russian. She is also an avid AI explorer and frequently discusses the application of AI in public affairs.

Andrew Lynch is the Chief Innovation Officer at IMR (www.imr.ie).

He is a member of the EFFRA Made in Europe Partnership Board, and the international Vice President of the EUREKA SMART Manufacturing Board of Directors. Andrew is a member of the ManuFuture High Level Group (HLG) and chairs the ManuFuture ETP Working Group (State Aid Strategies- Research & Innovation). He is the founding Chair of the KDT Lighthouse 4.E Program and is also on the Academic Advisory Board of the UKs Smart Manufacturing Digital Hub (SMDH).

In Ireland, Andrew is on the Board of Directors of the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence (AMTEC), as well as on the Ingenuity and ATiM Cluster Executive Steering Committees. He is the founding chair of the Irish National Steering Committee on Collaborative Robotics, and a founding member of the National Advisory Board for the Digital Manufacturing Futures Centre (AIM) and the Board of the FutureCAST Technology Centre on Construction.

Andrew is a contributing expert on several key international policy directives for manufacturing, including the ManuFuture policy document (Vision 2030), the EFFRA Made in Europe program, ManuFuture ETP Strategic Working Group Initiatives, the ECSEL LIASE I4 Whitepaper on the Future of Manufacturing and the ECS SRA (Electronic Components & Systems, Strategic Research Agenda).

Graduating as an Electrical Engineer, Stephane Perret embarked on his journey with FANUC Switzerland GmbH in 1998, starting as an Application Engineer and steadily advancing through roles such as Sales Engineer, Sales Manager, Deputy General Manager, until his appointment as Managing Director in January 2020. His career further elevated at FANUC Europe Corporation, where he has been the Head of FA Sales Coordination Europe since April 2024, leveraging hisexpertise to highlight the company’s industrialized products and services in Factory Automation, aligning them with real market demands.

Signe Ratso is Deputy Director-General and a member of the Management Board of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission.

She is responsible for Innovation, Prosperity and International Cooperation Directorates and she is Chief negotiator for association policy on Horizon Europe.

She has taken up the direct lead for International cooperation with Europe, Americas and thematic coherence as well as Asia, Africa, Middle East & External Relations.

She oversees some of the priority areas of the Commission in DG R&I such as the Human Frontier Science Program.

Before joining DG R&I in 2018 she worked in different senior management positions in
DG TRADE since 2006.

Signe Ratso has always been involved in international affairs. Before joining the Commission she worked as Deputy Secretary General (from 1994 to 2005) at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of the Republic of Estonia.

She has two University degrees from Tartu University in Estonia.

Dr. Thomas Schneider is Managing Director of Research + Development at TRUMPF Werkzeugmaschinen SE + Co. KG. Born in Ludwigshafen, he studied mechanical engineering at the Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe (KIT) and did his doctorate in the field of electrical engineering materials. Before joining TRUMPF, he held various positions in industry and was a product development expert at McKinsey

Dr. Amaryllis Verhoeven is Head of Unit for Digital Transformation of Industry in the Directorate General (DG) for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) at the European Commission (EU Commission). Before her current position, Dr. Verhoeven held different functions in the EU Commission related to Intellectual Property, Single Market and Energy files. She has also worked as an attorney with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. Dr. Verhoeven holds a Ph.D. in law and political philosophy from the University of Leuven, where she is also lecturing on a regular basis.