Confirmed Speakers

Dennis Nobelium joined Polestar in 2020 as COO, responsible for scaling the electric vehicle carmaker’s operations and manufacturing as well as in sales. He is also focused on helping Polestar achieve a fully digital business model in selling direct to consumers. He was previously CEO of Zenuity (now Zenseact), a joint venture between Volvo Cars and Veoneer for ADAS and autonomous vehicle technology. He has 20 years of R&D, quality, manufacturing and leadership experience in the automotive industry, including nearly 15 years at Volvo Cars in manufacturing roles such as Programme Leader for the all-new XC90 / S90 / V90 and the new SPA platform, and Plant Director for the final assembly shop at Volvo Cars Torslanda. He was also MD of Volvo Cars Switzerland. Since 2021, Dennis Nobelius is an advisory board member at battery developer StoreDot, and the founder of MobilityXlab, a start-up business interface, which sees collaboration between Lindholmen Science Park, big Swedish companies like Ericsson, Zenseact, Volvo Cars and start-ups from all over the world. He is also part of the founding team of AI Sweden, a national centre for applied Artificial Intelligence.

Hans Pehrson is leading on the Polestar 0 Project, the carmaker’s lighthouse project to create a carbon neutral vehicle by 2030 without offsetting emissions, with a total lifecycle approach to sustainability in manufacturing and supply chain. He joined Polestar in 2018 as Chief Technical Officer of R&D from Volvo Cars where he was Technical Director for the C30 Electric and Manager, Electric Propulsion System Engineering. He brings over 30 years of industry experience across R&D and manufacturing.

Mohan Savarkar is responsible for the product lines of ICE vehicles at Tata Motors across A to C segment vehicles, including the Tiago, Tigor, Nexon, Altroz, Punch, Harrier and Safari. He has oversight of cycle management, capacity and profitability, working closely in line with engineering, operations, sales and marketing. Savarkar is also on the board of Fiat India Automobiles, a joint venture between Tata and Stellantis in India. He has played key roles in developing and implementing strategy and continuous improvement across operations. Mohan Savarkar has worked across automotive, aerospace and production tooling, and at Tata he has led powertrain, planning and new product launches, logistics and supply chain. He has a masters technical degree in aircraft product technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai, and a degree in bringing technology to market from ESMT in Berlin. He is a fellow of the Institute of Engineers in India.

Francisco Carranza leads strategy, sales and marketing, and a member of the executive committee for battery cell producer ACC, a venture between Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and Saft. He is part of a new generation of leaders in the automotive industry, transitioning from working with diesel engines to working to transform the automotive industry into a fully electric and sustainable sector. He is passionate about fighting climate change and succeeding in the energy transition. During his career he has worked in vehicle R&D, external affairs, corporate planning and in managing new business opportunities such as connected services, electric vehicle grid integration (V2G, smart charging), renewable energy generation and stationary energy storage using second life vehicle lithium batteries. Francisco Carranza has two engineering degrees (Escuela Superior de Ingenieros of Sevilla and Ecole Nationale Superieur de Petrole et Moteurs) and an MBA (EM Lyon and Cranfield School of Management).

Cengiz is working with Magswitch Technologies since 2012 and established the European subsidiary at the end of 2013. He is in charge of Global Automotive Sales and simultaneously covers the position of Executive Director Europe. Starting his career as a proposal engineer and gathering a lot of experience in the area of body-in-white manufacturing, he has over 20 years of experience in the industry including assignments in China and the US within supplier and OEM organisations. He now is focusing on revolutionising the conventional methods of automotive manufacturing using single sided Magswitch clamping technologies combined with new and innovative concepts to meet the needs and exceed the expectations of the industry.

Ignazio Dentici is playing a key role in electric vehicle and battery production at Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence Divison. He is an experienced automotive professional with many years' experience working in the sector for OEMs and with Tier 1 organisations. He has previously worked as Head of Product Management (Electric Powertrain) for a Global Tier 1 where he led the product development function and had global responsibility for the BU business plan. Prior to that he was the Head of Systems Engineering and Innovations Manager for Electric Powertrain. He’s used to driving product strategy in fast paced and transforming environments, supporting the shift to the new automotive industry landscape. Based in Italy, his career has always been driven by a strong passion for the automotive world.

Edgar Faler joined the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in January of 2020, and has more than 25 years of experience as an automotive analyst. Most recently, he was a member of the M&A Transaction Advisory team at Ducker Worldwide LLC, a strategy consulting and transaction advisory firm, and consulted on projects related to lightweighting vehicles, powertrain technology and container tracking. He also has 10 years of experience as an equity research analyst, for an NYSE/NASDAQ member firm, and for a boutique investment research firm that served institutional investors. He was previously also previously head of a non-profit, The Empowerment Plan (TEP), which focused on breaking the generational cycle of homelessness. Career highlights include being twice-named to the Wall Street Journal “All-Star Analyst Team / Best of the Street – Automotive Industry” and honorable mention twice more by Fortune Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. He was also lead financial analyst on the $9 billion financial assistance proposal for automotive suppliers, as presented by OESA to the U.S. Treasury Department (2009). Edgar Faler has a BBA from the University of Michigan, with dual concentrations in Finance and Accounting.

Jason is a seasoned product manager with more than 11 years of experience in engineering, purchasing, and strategy with a focus on electric vehicles. At Li-Cycle,he leads business development for customers in the mobility and transportation sectors, managing and growing existing customer accounts.Before joining Li-Cycle in 2021, Jason was Product Planning Manager, Electrification at Dana Incorporated where he led vehicle integration product strategy for batteries and power electronics. Previously, Jason was Product Manager, Battery Cells at A123 systems where he maintained a high voltage battery cell portfolio product strategy and roadmap. Prior to that, Jason held severalroles at General Motors with a strongemphasis onelectrification.

Dr. Peter Wilson is an engineer with extensive experience in developing processes, including specification of production equipment and defining equipment validation criteria, and managing the installation of new products to manufacturing processes. He is currently a senior research association at Lancaster University in the UK, where he works closely with research, technology, OEM and suppliers. He has also been a process specialist at aerospace manufacturer Rolls-Royce. He has a PhD from Loughborough University in data analysis and machine learning for manufacturing, as well as an MBA in technology management from the Open University.

Ken Royce is a Sr. Global Automotive Solution Architect at Infor, where he works with customers to help solution business process challenges, Leveraging Data Sciences, Sustainability, Compliance and Data to guide customers through their transformation journey. Innovation is of keen Interest to Ken, as with over 20 years of providing enterprise solutions to customers in the Automotive space, Ken has solved many complex process Issues and helped customers to become more agile, overcoming regulatory, compliance, sustainability and architectural issues. Ken is currently involved in delivering Solutions for Aston Martin, GM and UniPres among others – focused on aligning data, to meet business outcome objectives. Ken is based in the Sonoma Valley, with his wife Anastacia and sons Jake & Nikko.