Speakers of ExA-SUMMIT Mobility 2017
June 1st, 2017 – Taipei
(in alphabetical order)
Thomas Balland
Managing Director, IPSA
Thomas Balland is the Managing Director of IPSA, an independent asset management company based in Paris. He has invested in and serves on the boards of CMC Biologics, EyeGate, SpineGuard, SymbioFCell and Traqueur. He was also on the boards of Aupeo (sold to Panasonic in 2013), gate5 (acquired by Nokia in 2006), Immutep (sold to Prima Biomed in 2014), Ingen Biosciences (acquired by Diaxonhit in 2012), NavX (sold to OPIS in 2015) and Technolas Perfect Vision (acquired by Bausch + Lomb in 2013). He was also actively involved with BioVex (acquired by Amgen in 2011), Digiplug (sold to Faith in 2002), Paion (listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange in 2005) and ProStrakan (listed on the LSE in 2007, subsequently acquired by Kirin in 2011). Thomas Balland has 15 years of venture capital investment experience. Prior to joining IPSA in 2002, he held various positions with firms such as Mars Inc., Up&Up and Vivendi. He received dual degrees in engineering and finance from INSA Lyon and ESCP-EAP.
Dr. Cheng-Foo Chen
SVP, CUBTEK
Cheng-Foo Chen received his Ph.D. degree from UC Berkeley in 1985 and joined General Motors R&D Center and Engineering Groups in the following technical areas: Powertrain Control, Body Control, ABS, Integrated Chassis Control, Electronic Stability Control, etc. In 2007 he joined HAITEC, the R&D Branch of Taiwan’s only domestic automotive OEM. In that position he led the Advanced Engineering Division in the development of Vehicle Telematics/Infotainment Systems, Hybrid Vehicle Control, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, Engine Management Systems, Active Safety Systems and other advanced R&D activities. Cheng-Foo joined CUBTEK in May 2017, he is currently leading the ADAS activities at CUBTEK.
Philippe Chiu
Managing Director, UnaBiz
Philippe Chiu is the Managing Director of UnaBiz, an end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) solutions company dedicated to accelerate the adoption of IoT worldwide and exclusive operator of sigfox service in Singapore and Taiwan. He previously held various positions in large/strategic French companies such as ACCOR (world leading hospitality group), IONIS Education Group (leader in private higher education in France) or CEIS (leading competitive intelligence company). Born in Paris, France, Philippe Chiu holds an MSc in Computer Science and an Executive MBA from EPITECH (European Institute of Technology).
Edward Chyau
Managing Partner, Mesh Ventures
Edward helps early-stage technology companies succeed by working closely alongside founders and connecting them with global strategic resources. He specializes in multidisciplinary engineering and business strategy and leverages his experience in bringing numerous technologies from proof-of-concept to market.
Edward received both his Bachelor’s in Materials Science and Engineering and Master’s in Applied Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Jean-Loïc De Jaeger
Sales Manager, Witekio Holding
Jean-Loïc De Jaeger is a Regional Sales at Witekio, an high-tech company providing high value added embedded software services and consultancy.
Jean-Loïc has a technical background and a good understanding of Asian culture which makes him you're point of contact at Witekio Taiwan.
Alexander Diehl
CEO, KKLD* GmbH
Alex Diehl is a German-born entrepreneur. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1999 he entered the field of digital media and e-commerce, working for various companies in Europe. In 2005 he founded KKLD*, which was acquired by WPP in 2012. In 2009 he co-founded Architizer in New York City. Alexander has been a Senior Advisor to BMW i Ventures in New York City since its launch in 2011 and is a partner at Joschka Fischer & Company.
Dr. Patrik Ekdahl
Head of Platform Security Research, Ericsson Research
Dr. Ekdahl joined Ericsson Research in 2007 and is the head of the Platform Security research team. His research interests include platform security, trusted execution environments and cryptography in general. Dr. Ekdahl holds an M.Sc. in Electronic Engineering and a Ph.D. in Cryptology, both from LTH, the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University. His Ph.D. thesis includes the co-authored work on the stream cipher SNOW, which in a modified version is the primary air encryption algorithm for LTE.
Royce YC Hong
Co-founder & CEO, XING Mobility
Royce is a designer by training, entrepreneur by circumstance, and car fiend by obsession. Born in Hollywood, he now lives in Taipei and spends his time driving, designing and connecting technology to people. In 2015, he co-founded XING Mobility with fellow speaker Azizi Tucker, developing advanced vehicle technologies by designing and building electric race cars and super cars. Royce also has two other day jobs as Chairman of Panasonic Taiwan and CEO + Big Head of Design at IPEVO, a creator of interactive classroom tools that is currently in use in 60% of K12 Public Schools in America.
Steve Hsu
CEO, Tronxin Accelerator (TXA)
Mr. Hsu is the Chairman of Innovation Research Institute Corp. The TXA Private Board of Directors he found is the largest Advisory Board organization in Taiwan and South East Asia/North East Asia region with records of over 145 board meetings in major cities in Asia. Mr. Hsu has nurtured over 500 startups with over 20 listed in Taiwan Stock Market. He has been certified to be the official partner by France government’s La French Tech program. Mr. Hsu has over 20 years of experience on business consultant, new business development, venture investment, startup incubation and has been the judge and mentor of international startup contests in many different regions.
Christian Jansen
CTO, Gaius Automotive Inc.
At Gaius Automotive, a company specializing in sustainable urban mobility solutions, Christian is responsible for the engineering development of Gaius’ electric cargo scooters, vehicle charging networks, autonomous vehicles and carsharing systems. Mr. Jansen received his Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada in 1997.
Nathan Kaiser
Partner, Eiger
Nathan Kaiser is a founding partner of Eiger, a law firm with offices in Shanghai and Taipei. Nathan Kaiser has almost two decades of professional experience in the Greater China area, advising international clients in technology law, data protection and privacy, AI and the legal framework surrounding IoT. He serves on the board of companies in Greater China, as well as in his native Switzerland. Eiger is ranked as a leading law firm for its technology, media, and digital practice, and Nathan’s commitment to new technology also extends to his firm’s day-to-day operations. Nathan Kaiser regularly speaks at events related to emerging technologies and the law. He speaks Mandarin Chinese as well as English, French, and German.
Daniel Kipowski
Head of Business Unit, Invest in Skåne
In his role, Daniel advises and works with international tech companies as well as venture capitalists, facilitating their investments in Sweden. To date, he has successfully facilitated over 50 investments, from a long list of clients including IBM, Mediatek, RBVC, Huawei, and several venture capitalists.
For Daniel, the world is his arena. He has lived, worked, or studied in the Philippines, France, and the United States. Daniel has also made a few early-stage investments himself, and is the co-founder of one of the most well-respected, invite-only tech investor summits in the Nordics, Nordic Next. The summit’s aim is to strengthen the investor community and celebrate entrepreneurship in the Nordic region.
Roland Koch
Senior Engineer, BCG Digital Ventures GmbH
Roland Koch is an experienced backend engineer. After close to 10 years in Berlin’s tech startup scene, Roland joined BCGDV, a company builder that invents, builds and invests in startups with the world’s most influential companies. As part of his work at BCGDV, Roland took a special role in crafting the high-performance backend system behind Coup, a Berlin-based eScooter sharing platform.
Remi Laoubi
Business Developer & Customer Support, hap2U
Since 2016, Remi has been Manager of the Hap2u office in Taiwan, in charge of Business development and parternships set-up over the Asia area, and responsible for Technology transfer and customer support.
He is an Engineer with a strong education in Electronics and Physics at Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP), complemented by multiple international experience at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and at the Lawrence National Berkeley Laboratory (LBNL - California).
Jang-Hwa Leu
Acting Director General, Industrial Development Bureau, MOEA
Prior to his post at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Mr. Leu served in Ministry of Transportation and Communications. Mr. Leu holds degrees in B.S. Physics (1990), M.S. Electronic Engineering (1992) and EMBA (2004) from National Taiwan University.
Prof. Chih-Ching Li
CEO, SkySentry
Assistant Professor of Department of Electronic Engineering, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C.
PhD, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University,
Taiwan.
ST Liew
Vice President and President, Qualcomm Taiwan
ST Liew began his position as Vice President and President of Qualcomm Taiwan in October 2016, responsible for Qualcomm’s businesses in Taiwan. Liew has more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Most recently, Liew was Co-President of Acer Inc.’s Smart Products Business Group, which focused on smartphones, tablets and wearable devices. Prior to that, Liew was the Associate Vice President of Acer’s EMEA Smartphone Business Unit.
Before joining Acer, Liew worked at Motorola, where he led the company’s design centers as well as in product management, product development, manufacturing and test engineering. Liew was also responsible for Motorola’s R&D projects ranging from walkie-talkie, pagers and cellular products in various markets.
Liew received his MBA from the National University of Singapore, and holds a BSc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Leeds, UK.
Mikael Lindholm
VP Internet of Things, Telenor Group
Mikael currently drives IoT in Asia with Telenor’s newly formed Digital Businesses. His task is to form the new basis in Telenor´s transition from traditional telecom operator to modern digital service provider. Main areas include: digital marketplaces, adtech, financial services and IoT. In IoT, Mikael’s focus is supporting Telenor’s 13 Business Units in their IoT journeys, including strategy, new business opportunities and partnerships, support in special projects, M&A activities, etc.
Mikael is a founding member of Telenor Connexion and has previously been responsible for forming and heading their APAC operations. Prior to Telenor, his telecom experience comes from various senior commercial and strategic roles in global companies such as Vodafone Global Enterprise and Tieto. With nearly 20 years of strategic and operational experience from various geographical markets and industries, Mikael is nowadays seen as a thought leader and frequently used as keynote speaker throughout Asia.
Timo Littke
Chief Analyst, ATS Advanced Telematic Systems GmbH
Timo Littke is Chief Analyst and founding member of ATS Advanced Telematic Systems. He develops and evaluates new business models and products for innovative cloud technologies and mobility services around the connected car. In this role he focuses on automotive over-the-air updates, V2X and V2I as well as the exchange with and contribution to international software alliances and the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). ATS leads activities for the development of over-the-air software updates (OTA) for connected cars at GENIVI and Automotive Grade Linux (AGL).
Timo Littke has actively contributed to the internet industry since the 90s. In addition to working on early online projects at corporations like IBM, Siemens and Telekom he has also found a home at internet start-ups like Aupeo, Scout Group and Webtrekk. During this time he also graduated in Business Administration.
Luke Liu
Founder & CEO, LIPS Corporation
Research Scholar, MIT, USA
MS Computer Science, Fu-Jen University, Taiwan, ROC
Cho-Wen Lo
CMO, Y5Bus
I studied business at Thompson Rivers University in Canada. I have had over 14 years of experiences in Marketing and business development for a franchise brand since graduated, and now proceeded to work in a new high tech environment. I love my job to be a challenged and work with different people and team in different field. So that I could always learn from them. I have passion in life and I have learned that's the way to learn the market.
Guenther Loll
VP Market Segments, Rohde & Schwarz
Guenther is the Vice President for Test and Measurement in the Market Segments Industrial and Components, Automotive and A&D and responsible for operational sales, marketing and product related activities. After his Master Degree Dipl.-Ing. (FH) in electrical engineering 1980, in Munich, Guenther started his career at Rohde & Schwarz. He worked as a Product Manager for Network Analysis and as a Sales Area Engineer before he started in 1995 as Area Manager for Asia/Pacific. He is passionate, hands-on and has high affinity for exploring new markets. After developing the Business in Japan as Managing Director over 6 years he came back to Munich in 2009. His rich working experience at Rohde & Schwarz is essential for the Market segment and customer development in the Test an Measurement field.
Julien Mialaret
Operating Partner, Idinvest Partners
Julien Mialaret is an Operating Partner for Idinvest Partners, the largest venture capital firm in continental Europe. Julien is active investor in the US and in Europe in deep technologies. He also works with early and growth-stage portfolio companies in Asia to accelerate their growth. Julien focuses on key technologies in the digitalization of industry and enterprise: AI, IoT, cybersecurity, data analytics, robotics, new mobility.
He has mainly invested in B2B digital technologies: Neurala Inc. (Deep neural networks, US), TrustInSoft (Automated code analysis, FR), Enlighted Inc. (IoT networks for buildings, US), First Fuel Software (Energy data analytics, US), Organica Water Inc. (Decentralized waste water treatment, US/HUN) and Actility (Low power IoT, FR).
Julien holds degrees from ESCP Europe, La Sorbonne University, Beijing University and the French School of Oriental Studies. He is a fluent Mandarin, English, French, Spanish speaker with working capacity in Japanese.
Barry Nagel
Engineering Lead, BCG Digital Ventures GmbH
Barry Nagel is an engineering lead at BCG Digital Ventures in Berlin. BCGDV is a company builder that invents, builds and invests in startups with the world’s most influential companies. As part of his work at BCGDV, Barry is currently driving the engineering efforts as Venture CTO of Coup, a Berlin-based eScooter sharing platform. Previously he has been working in the gaming industry creating real-time massive multiplayer online games. Besides that he also founded his own startup in the HR sector.
Vincent Nallatamby
Founder & CEO, Tempow
Throughout his studies at ESSEC (a French top Business School) and Berkeley, he quickly specialized in business management, sales and digital marketing.
He co-founded Tempow in January 2016, with the objective of bringing new audio experiences for everyone, thanks to Bluetooth. Within a few months, Tempow developed a solution enabling to connect several Bluetooth speakers or headsets, simultaneously, only with software.
Now living between Paris, San Francisco and Asia, he is offering Tempow products and solutions to the largest hardware manufacturers.
Dr. Ilja Radusch
Director Business Unit ASCT, Fraunhofer-Institute FOKUS
Dr. Ilja Radusch is head of the competence center for Automotive Services and Communication Technologies (ASCT) at the Fraunhofer-Institute FOKUS and the Daimler Center for Automotive Information Technology Innovations (DCAITI). He is actively working in the fields of Vehicle-2-X Communication, Field Operational Testing, Sensor and Ad-hoc Networks, and Mobile Services. His responsibilities include various projects for industry partners such as Daimler AG and Deutsche Telekom as well as national and international research projects (simTD, DRIVE C2X, FOT-Net). Ilja Radusch leads the project coordination of TEAM, which is co-funded by the EC. Furthermore, he is also giving several lecture courses at the Berlin Institute of Technology (TUB).
Theo Saville
CEO, CloudNC
Theo is the co-founder and CEO of CloudNC, which is developing next-generation autonomous manufacturing software.
Our focus is CNC milling machines, which are at the heart of manufacturing with more than $100B worth of components produced by them each year. Despite this, their software is in the dark ages.
We’re researching and applying breakthrough AI methods to control these machines autonomously and more optimally than ever before, revolutionising how the things around us are made. From MacBook cases, to injection moulds, to jet engine turbines.
We are making milling machines one-click devices that can produce a part easily, efficiently and with minimal human intervention.
Tobias Schirmer
Managing Partner, JOIN Capital GmbH
After graduating from the University of Exeter in 2003, Tobias started his career in the finance sector, working for Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank in Europe. After his MBA from IE Business School in 2007, Tobias founded two startups before joining the Bertelsmann Entrepreneur Program in 2008. During this time Tobias worked for Random House in New York, Antena 3 in Madrid and BMG Rights Management in Berlin before joining Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments as Principal, where he made direct and fund investments across Europe. In 2015, Tobias co-founded JOIN Capital, an early stage venture capital firm based in Berlin.
Armin G. Schmidt
CEO, ATS Advanced Telematic Systems, Director, Wangdao Alliance e.V.
Armin G. Schmidt is a successful entrepreneur and thought leader in the field of cloud-based products and services. As founder and CEO of ATS Advanced Telematic Systems, Schmidt designs and guides the development of software solutions for connected and autonomous driving from offices in Berlin and Tokyo.
ATS is involved in initiatives run by leading automakers and suppliers which aim to establish industry-wide standards. Furthermore, ATS leads activities for the development of over-the-air software updates (OTA) for connected cars at GENIVI and Automotive Grade Linux.
Before founding ATS Advanced Telematic Systems, Armin G. Schmidt founded AUPEO!, a provider of cloud-based audio services for cars; the firm was sold to Panasonic Automotive in 2013. In the course of his fifteen-year career, Schmidt has held a variety of positions at innovative technology companies in Asia, Europe and the United States.
Armin G. Schmidt is initiator of the Wangdao Alliance which founded the ExA Summit.
Dr. Gerhard Schmidt
Former CTO, VP Research & Advanced Engineering, Ford Motor Company
Dr. Gerhard Schmidt is an experienced technology officer and the former CTO and Vice President Research and Advanced Engineering at Ford Motor Company. Before his retirement, he led Ford's worldwide research organization in Michigan and Germany for 10 years, overseeing the planning, development and implementation of the company’s global technology objectives. He served (amongst other roles) as a member of the Board of Directors of the Automotive Fuel Cell Corporation, as the Chair of the Ford-MIT Alliance, in the Honorary Committee of the International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies, in the University of Michigan Advisory Council and in the German American Chamber of Commerce. In 2007-8, he held Advisory Professorships at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Chongqing University (China). Prior to Ford, Gerhard Schmidt spent 21 years at BMW AG, 10 years as senior Vice President Powertrain Development.
Bodo Seifert
Global Director Advanced Engineering, Magna Electronics
Bodo Seifert is working as Director, Advanced Engineering for Magna Electronics in Auburn Hills, MI, USA. In this role, Seifert manages the Advanced Engineering team focused on innovative development for ME's products and in autonomous driving technologies.
Seifert has been working in the automotive industry since 1999 for companies like GM, Audi and FCA (formerly Chrysler) supporting the electronic control unit development and test process.
Maverick Shih
President, Acer BYOC Smart Products
Maverick Shih, Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, president of Acer’s BYOC, takes a pivotal role in the Company’s significant change in approach to the Cloud Computing. By leveraging Acer’s BeingWare concept, the BYOC is combining hardware, software and services for vertical markets with intelligence and computing capabilities. Shih joined Acer in 2011 as special assistant to the president of the Cloud Technology Business Group, renamed as the BYOC later, to oversee personal cloud services. In 2013 announced the support across multiple devices and platforms on versatile operating systems. In February 2014, and Shih was promoted as the group president. Prior to joining Acer, Shih worked at ALi Microelectronics Corp. in the U.S. In 2004 he started his own company, MAVs Lab Inc., specializing in IC design and multimedia research and development. He later joined EgisTec as vice chairman focusing on fingerprint sensor and security software.
Stan Shih
Co-Founder & Honorary Chairman, Acer Inc., Chairman of Stans Foundation
Stan Shih is the Chairman of Stans Foundation, Co-founder & Honorary Chairman of the Acer Group. From Jan. 2017, he served as the Honorary Chairman, Major League IoT to promote Taiwan industry transformation and upgrading aggressively to face critical challenges in the future.
Shih dedicated his efforts to promoting public interests after his initial retirement from Acer at the end of 2004. In recent years, he has been publicly speaking on the Wangdao ideology in relation to organizational sustainability in modern times, and hopes to engrain its principles into Acer to reshape the corporate culture. He is a former chairman and current member of the Asia Business Council, and the member of the Asian Corporate Governance Association. Shih has received numerous accolades. Time featured him in the article “60 years of Asian Heroes” for turning Taiwan into a PC-manufacturing powerhouse.
Azizi Tucker
Co-founder & CTO, XING Mobility
Azizi likes to go fast. Whether it was racing mountain bikes in the 1990’s or developing vehicles for Tesla Motors, the faster the better. He understood that his education on speed would continue if he chose to work on the correct projects. His search for an educational work environment lead him to the Detroit car industry, then on to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and finally to Tesla Motors, where he was responsible for Asia Supply. In 2015, he co-founded XING Mobility with fellow speaker Royce YC Hong, developing advanced vehicle technologies by designing and building electric race cars and supercars.
Catherine Wang
CEO Assistant, BotPartner
Studying master degree in management in EMLyon Business School in France, have a master degree in engineering. Love challenge and dare to try new things.
Dr. Ting-An Wang
Deputy CEO, Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency (ASVDA)
Dr. Ting-An Wang serves as Deputy CEO of Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency (ASVDA) and concurrently Counselor of Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan. From 2012-2016, Dr. Wang was the Director of Science and Technology Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural office (TECO) in San Francisco representing the interest of MOST in Silicon Valley. Dr. Wang graduated from National Taiwan University in 1988 and received his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, USA, in 1996.
Ting Wu
Partner, McKinsey & Company
Ting is a partner at McKinsey & Company’s Shanghai office. He is affiliated with the firm’s advanced industries practice. Ting has served extensively global automotive and components companies. He also has broad industry experience in chemicals, private equity, banking and health services. Ting recently co-authored McKinsey’s latest perspectives on NEVs in China and has been driving McKinsey’s activities in NEV and new mobility space.
Supported an NEV focused fund to identify investment opportunities and formulate fund strategy
Helped several OEMs to adjust their overall strategies and product planning in light of development of NEV and new mobility trends
Supported a leading shared mobility player on a series of strategic topics related to market entry, new business models and partnership selection
Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart
Technical Design Director, Jaguar Land Rover
Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart studied Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University Munich and received a PhD in Material Science. He work for BMW for 23 years, starting as a design engineer and finishing as Member of the Board in charge of R&D and purchasing.
He then joined the german automotive supplier Continental, where he was in charge of the electronics and the brake business.
He then became CEO of german semiconductor manufacturer Infineon.
After retirement, he joined several boards, including ASML and Autoliv Inc. and is chairman of german wind turbine manufacturer Nordex SE.
He was head of engineering at Jaguar Land Rover from 2013 - 15 and since then focusses on the development of JLR´s first electric vehicle.