Jane Arnold is the Vice President of Global SPS Strategy and Industry 4.0 Execution at Stanley Black and Decker. Her focus is to improve Digitalization in Manufacturing with a special emphasis on emerging technologies including Additive Manufacturing. Arnold is a graduate of Oxford University’s Business Economic Program and has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Houston. Arnold has over 30 years of experience in manufacturing technology and operations. She joined Stanley Black and Decker in February of 2021. FOR THOSE WHO MAKE THE WORLD™ Stanley Black & Decker became the global leader in tools by building innovative solutions and tools for more than 175 years.

Floyd Baker is the Vice President for Antea USA. With over 39 years of experience, Floyd provides valuable insight and perspective on digital transformation and the industrial internet of things (IIoT). He is an asset integrity and digital strategies advisor in global communities. He is a revered global keynote speaker on topics of asset integrity management (AIM), risk based inspection (RBI), digital twin, IIoT, and digitalization.
Prior to joining Antea, Floyd served at senior levels for end users of AIM platforms. He has also served about half of his career at executive levels as a strategist/technology driver at companies providing AIM/RBI/Technology services. His background and education are focused on emerging technologies in inspection, mechanical engineering, and materials science.

Berk holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from Columbia University. His academic research focused on optimizing wireless and optical networks with efficient cross-layer algorithms. He developed scheduling algorithms for LTE-A and fiber-optic networks. He holds a patent in IoT systems for resilient fiber-optic networks.

David is a Project Engineer with Lonza and is a member of the Manufacturing Process Optimization (MPO) group which supports Lonza Specialty Ingredients (LSI). Prior to joining Lonza, David spent time in multiple positions with companies such as W.R. Grace and Akzo Nobel. Over his career he has worked with automation of printed circuit board imaging, automatic control of NOx emissions from mixed acid pickling and automated online analysis of hydrogen peroxide in bleaching systems. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Matt Buck joined EPRI in 2015 after more than 16 years of operational experience in the power industry.
Matt is a currently a Senior Technical Leader in EPRI’s Operations and Maintenance (O&M) research group in the Generation sector. He oversees R&D that supports plant O&M excellence.
Matt’s work include O&M performance assessments, work planning, equipment reliability, and changing mission profiles for plants; but his passion is the Digital Worker concept. This work focuses on the use of advanced mobile technology to make the O&M field worker smarter, safer, and more effective.

Lloyd F. Colegrove retired after a 29-year career at Dow, as the Director of Data Services and the Director of Fundamental Problem Solving within Manufacturing and Engineering. He was also the Analytics Platform Director for Dow’s Manufacturing and Engineering’s Industry 4.0 program. Lloyd’s background is in Chemical Physics where he obtained a B.S. and Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. He spent 7 years in Polymer Research in Dow (R&D and TS&D) before moving into Manufacturing in an analytical measurement improvement role for plant quality assurance activities and then as a global quality leader for five Dow businesses. He then moved on to establish a new capability called Fundamental Problem Solving, where top chemists and engineers work on complex, often multi-effect, plant problems. With this established, he refocused his efforts working to establish the Data Services group that has developed and deployed novel analytics applications to improve data-based decision making in chemical operations. These efforts have been recognized with many industry awards. Lloyd consults on real time analytics, artificial intelligence in the chemical industry, and process improvement strategies He is married with two daughters and is an avid cyclist, wilderness backpacker and landscaper.

Bernie Cook is an Executive Consultant supporting industry with implementing new IIOT equipment reliability process and technology solutions to address today’s significant reliability and cost challenges. He is a retired power utility professional from Duke Energy with over 40 years of experience implementing advanced technologies to support operations and maintenance improvements. He was the former Director – Maintenance & Diagnostics, responsible for implementing Duke Energy’s Equipment Reliability Programs including the Monitoring & Diagnostic Center and Duke Energy’s SmartGen Project, an industry leading Advanced IIOT Infrastructure of over 35K sensors and advanced analytics in over 50 power plants. Since retiring and partnering with WSC, he is sharing his experience with other companies to help them streamline the implementation of new continuous online monitoring technologies and integrate into their equipment reliability program.

David DeBari is an Innovator and a Process Control Engineer for the ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. He has many years of automation experience in both continuous and batch processes and has built, migrated, or replaced many control systems on numerous projects. David is the Lead Engineer and one of the original members of ExxonMobil’s Open Process Automation Program Team. He has provided technical leadership for the proof of concept and pilot unit prototype projects, and leads the current Test Bed and Field Trial activities for the ExxonMobil Program.

Piya Dey is currently managing Digital Products (Fluid Genius™) at Eastman Chemical Company, a $9+ billion annual sales revenue company. In this capacity she is instrumental in discovering, building, and introducing Eastman digital products into various markets to drive new revenue streams and create market differentiation for Eastman. Prior to this role, Piya led high performing business teams through strategy and choices needed for growth and profitability. She has also led Business Enablement Digital Transformation initiatives where she set up intelligent automation organization at Eastman which utilized deep customer insight to drive process and talent transformation to win with the customers. Piya joined Eastman as the Department Head for “Application Architecture” where she managed multiple global solution development teams.

Before joining Eastman, Piya held leadership roles at KeyBank and Progressive Casualty Insurance, where she managed teams responsible for delivery of solutions across various customer channels.

Piya holds an MBA with a major in Asset and Wealth Management from both Carnegie Mellon University, USA and The University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She also holds a Master’s in computer application from OU, India.

Piya resides in Kingsport, TN along with her husband and two sons. Piya is deeply passionate and committed to mentoring and sponsoring others as well as bringing innovative ideas to her company’s diversity and inclusiveness efforts. Outside of work, Piya enjoys dance, music and volunteering for multiple organizations and local schools.

Steven Ford is currently the Compliance & Support Manager at Alabama Power's Barry Steam Plant located in Bucks, Alabama. He also serves as the chairman of the Southern Company Technology Leadership Team tasked with ensuring system-wide cost-effective, reliable, and efficient technology solutions supporting the business unit strategy.

Steven has worked in leadership roles with increasing responsibility across multiple plant sites in Georgia Power, Gulf Power, and Alabama Power. These roles include Operations Manager, Maintenance Manager, Engineering & Planning Manager, and Plant Manager. He has leadership experience in both coal & natural gas-powered generation, including supercritical, combined cycle, and co-generation technologies supporting some of the state's largest chemical plant customers. In the Spring of 2020, Steven supported the Generation fleet as the COVID Pandemic Coordinator engaging cross-functional support from Supply Chain, Human Resources, IBEW Leadership, Disability Management, and Corporate Compliance to meet the evolving needs of employees working at our generating facilities.

Steven believes that being a part of the Alabama Power Generation leadership team allows him to foster a safer working environment, create meaningful professional developmental opportunities for his team, and find ways to improve our generating product through integrated technology.

Steven graduated from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering, Georgia State University with a Master's in Business Administration, and Birmingham School of Law with a Juris Doctorate. Steven is married, has four children, and lives in Fairhope, Alabama. In his spare time, Steven enjoys working on cars, playing golf, and spending time traveling with his family.

Mr. Gallello is an established technology leader with a deep background in vertical software solutions. Throughout his career, Mr. Gallello has established a track record of building great products, driving an intense customer focus and building global brands. His products have won more than 50 awards including 2 R&D 100s, considered the “Oscars of Innovation” as well as the company level, “Best Work Culture” Timmy Award. He was named a SaaS Top 50 CEO in 2018. He has led three successful turnarounds of public & private software companies over the past 16 years, resulting in ~$1.3B in exit value, with a 300%+ average increase in value. Earlier in his career, Mr. Gallello held Executive Vice President positions leading product development at Autodesk and Macromedia. Mr. Gallello has lived and run companies in China, Japan and Hungary and speaks a number of languages. His articles have appeared in such publications as Wired and the Wall Street Journal. A hands-on philanthropist, Mr. Gallello has funded and overseen the development of orphanages that have provided a nurturing home and solid education to 500+ children over the past 15 years. An avid long-distance swimmer, Mr. Gallello had completed many challenging races including the Asia to Europe, Arctic Circle Crossing, Sicily to Calabria and the Golden Gate to Bay Bridge races in recent years. Mr. Gallello holds both BS and MBA degrees from Monmouth University.

Nicholas Gigliotti is a Customer Success Manager at Seeq. He supports Seeq customers on global deployments of Seeq to ensure that they are successful in meeting their Digital Transformation goals. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech and worked at Eastman Chemical Company prior to joining Seeq in 2020.

As the Connected Worker Team Leader within bp’s Intelligent Operations team, Marty Gonzalez leads Digital Twin strategic solution development in support of bp’s Production and Operations organization.

In his 25-year career with Amoco and bp, Marty has held positions in R&D, refinery operations, process design, capital projects, and refinery commercial optimization. He has been developing data analytics, machine learning, and AI-based applications for bp’s downstream operations since 2016.

Marty holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.

Jonas Hellgren is CEO of Aperio Systems. Jonas has a computer science background with over 30 years of experience in software development. Aperio is the leader in industrial data integrity solutions. We help customers drive profitability and sustainability goals while mitigating risk in their industrial operations. Aperio AI automatically validates operational data at scale to improve data accuracy, security, and value, allowing for better, smarter business decisions based on real-time, trusted, superior data

Amanda Hunter is a Service Solutions Consultant for Grundfos U.S.A focused on digital and service solutions for the southwestern United States. For the past 6 years, Amanda has focused on innovation in many industrial settings, including across both compressed air and pump markets. Growing up in Indiana, Amanda graduated from Purdue University and received her Master’s degree from Indiana University before moving to Dallas, TX where she now resides with her spouse and two dogs. In her free time, Amanda enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, camping, and kayaking and playing sports like rugby and volleyball.

Fatih is a Senior Asset Manager and leads the implementation of new technologies in power stations and Marubeni Asset Management. He has expertise in power stations, transmission and distribution (SCADA), and has been Involved in the evolution and implementation of automation technologies in the power industry for the last 20 years. His engineering and asset management expertise covers the development of Machine Learning algorithms for the early prediction of failure in rotating plant, and the implementation of Advanced Condition Monitoring platforms, new technologies including machine learning.

John is responsible for leading digital product management delivering customer outcomes of safety, quality, and O&M Cost in the Power Generation Digital Worker space.

Prior to his present role, John led GE’s Outage, Operations, and Maintenance Engineering team responsible for developing services solutions that reduce O&M cost, improve safety, availability and quality for GE’s customers.

John held several other roles over his 11 year tenure at GE, including Consulting Engineer. Through this time he built a Power Generation background in Reliability, Risk, and Conditioned Based Maintenance.

John began his career in the United States Air Force where he served for 10 years as a Pilot flying A-10 Warthogs, T-37’s, and
T-38’s.

John earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from The United States Air Force Academy in 1997 and a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Carolina in 2011.

Stephen Kwan is Director of Product Management for Power Generation/Grid Management at Beyond Limits, an industrial-grade AI company that builds advanced software solutions for the most demanding sectors, including energy, utilities and healthcare. Stephen has over 25 years of experience in product management and engineering, holding previous positions in the product organizations at OSIsoft and GE Energy. Stephen holds a BS in Engineering Chemistry from SUNY Stony Brook and a Ph.D. in Materials from Pennsylvania State University.

Francois runs Cognite's operations in North America, including offices in Houston and Austin, Texas. Previously, he managed Cognite’s overall marketing activities as Chief Marketing Officer. He spent the preceding 11 years with software company Vizrt, where he served as COO and CCO, responsible for all commercial and operational activities. Laborie has a Ph.D. from the Toulouse Computer Science Research Institute.

In his role as Machine Learning (ML) Specialist in the Customer Engineering division at Google, Michael supports cloud customers in innovative projects with the goal to build novel software solutions within months or even weeks. In his projects, Michael focuses on challenges in the space of big data and machine learning.
Before becoming a Googler, Michael worked in similar roles at Amazon Web Services and in a Predictive Maintenance team at SAP. After his studies in computer science, Michael spent several years in academia to focus on research in cloud compute services, distributed databases & systems at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and obtained a PhD degree in engineering from the Technical University (TU) Berlin.

Paul defines himself as an entrepreneurial innovator (read “never afraid to take a risk”) and strong operational leader (read “understands how the individual elements of an organization fit together and work to create the larger outcome”). His successes over 30 years in the IT industry are based on his exemplary soft skills – he’s a great communicator and motivator with exceptional organization skills and understanding of internal and external customer needs. As CRO at Mobideo, he’s focused on raising awareness about the paradigm shift evolving in the digitalization of industrial workforces and driving business growth.

Arlen Nipper is the President and CTO for Cirrus Link Solutions. Arlen has over 40 years of experience in the SCADA industry. Over his career, he has worked for Amoco and Koch Oil and then served as the President and CTO of Arcom Control Systems and Eurotech. His experience covers a broad range of technology, from the design and manufacture of embedded computer systems to complete SCADA system infrastructure implementations for many companies. Arlen is also the co-inventor of MQTT, a SCADA message transport, in conjunction with IBM, and has over 20 years of experience designing high-performance SCADA systems using MQTT and message-oriented middleware. He was also involved in many of the activities that have recently led to MQTT becoming the dominant IIoT messaging standard.

A national award–winning multimedia journalist, Sonal Patel has covered a wide range of technology, business, and policy issues affecting the power industry worldwide for POWER and its sister publications since 2008. Along with keeping her eye on national and international matters for POWER magazine’s monthly department Global Monitor, she contributes in-depth analysis and spot news pieces for POWER and POWERnews. She also surveys, crunches, and visualizes power generation data and trends from around the world for POWER’s web and print infographics and other multimedia. She is a graduate of the University of Houston.

Leslie Rittenberg is the Refinery & Process Manufacturing Product Manager for Beyond Limits, an industrial-grade artificial intelligence technology company built for demanding sectors including energy and utilities. Leslie has over 30-years of experience in the Power and Oil & Gas industries. Prior to joining Beyond Limits, Leslie held leadership positions with a major O&G company for multiple refining assets as well as their Corporate Downstream Technology Center, where she led the development of their downstream manufacturing digital strategy. Leslie recently joined the Beyond Limits team that brings in a unique brand of Cognitive AI to solve complex business and operational problems in manufacturing settings such as refineries. Beyond Limits’ use cases go beyond conventional AI by incorporating and encoding human business reasoning in combination with live plant data to impact operational frontline decision making. Leslie holds an MBA and a degree in Chemical Engineering.

Christophe is the Product Director for Process Performance for Honeywell Connected for Industrials. Prior to his current role, Christophe has held a variety of roles at both UOP and Honeywell Process Solutions with the consistent goal of improving the reliability and profitability of operating companies in the process industries. He earned a joint Master’s degree in executive engineering and computer science from the Ecole des Mines de Saint Etienne in France, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He also holds two patents in this space.

Linda Salinas, Vice President of Operations and Executive Business Architect for the Refinery of the Future Project, is responsible for the safe, reliable, and efficient operations at Texmark Chemicals, Inc., a petrochemical manufacturing company in Galena Park, TX. In addition she oversees production, maintenance, logistics, and process safety management (PSM), DOT hazardous materials, and environmental compliance. She is also a member of the senior management team which makes strategic and capital investment decisions. Linda is a graduate of the University of Houston with a bachelor of science in Mathematics. She is also an Executive member of the Women’s Energy Network and a Board member for the Process Technology and Fire Science and Technology colleges at Houston Community College.

Marco is responsible for leading the Intelligent Solutions Division at Mitsubishi Power Americas, a major equipment supplier, energy solutions provider and Power Generation Services for the power industry.

The Intelligent Solutions team’s mission is leverage AI and Advance Technologies to drive customer value. The division is responsible for integrating and optimizing the NETMATION DIASYS Controls Solutions Business, TOMONI digital solutions and the deployment of the Autonomous Power Plant.

Prior to his current role, Marco was the Vice President of Service Sales for Power Generation Services where he and his team continuously achieved business objectives. During his tenure in the Service Sales organization, he held numerous leadership roles in various regions and helped expand the company’s footprint in the Americas. Marco joined Mitsubishi Power in Feb. 2008.

Marco earned his BS in Industrial Engineering and an Executive MBA from the University of Central Florida.

Yves Gorat Stommel is currently working as the head of the Cognitive Solutions team, with a strong focus on setting-up and implementing a comprehensive, company-wide Artificial Intelligence and data analysis strategy.
In his current function, Yves’ motivation stems from bringing together people, technology and positive change. By continuously questioning, improving and re-imagining operational and business processes – amongst others by looking at the company through the new “lens” of enabling and disruptive Artificial Intelligence – value is created for both the company and its employees. This does not only require identifying, benchmarking and implementing best practices, but more importantly targeted communication, linking knowledge and an emphasis on global instead of local mindsets and approaches.

As Very's VP of Client Strategy, Nate Strong, leads our sales and account management teams, where we focus on completing successful projects for companies that are leaders in their field.
Before joining Very, Nate was the Head of Revenue at BookNook, where he increased brand presence, conversion rates, new sales, usage, and renewal rate.

Misbah has worked on applications of Advanced Process Controls and Machine Learning based predictive models in the chemical manufacturing industry. With background in Chemical Engineering, he augments theoretical process engineering with modern data driven approaches to optimize production processes.

Greg Tanck has more than 20 years of experience in the power industry and currently leads the Asset Management Services group at Black & Veatch. Greg’s business line is responsible for providing remote monitoring services and software to more than 100 power generation and industrial facilities around the world. Previously, Greg held the lead role in implementing integrated neural net based combustion optimization software to improve power plants emissions management. Greg also has extensive experience helping facilities implement continuous efficiency and reliability improvement programs using data analytics.

Jon Towslee is the Sr. Director of iFactory Sales for Advantech’s Industrial IoT business unit based in Cincinnati, OH. Jon has 30+ years of automation industry experience. He has spent the last 20+ years leading, growing, and managing automation and IIoT related businesses. Jon’s experience spans many areas including commercial and industrial automation, utility and industrial power generation/transmission/distribution, HVAC systems, energy management, control and information system design and applications, and digitalization and digital transformation.
 
Jon earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from The University of Akron and his MBA from John Carroll University, where he was selected to join The Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio and a Certified Energy Manager by the Association of Energy Engineers.

Serdar Uckun is a Senior Technical Advisor at Xerox PARC where he is working with the Predictive Maintenance team on projects in the Industrial IoT space. Serdar has 20+ years of R&D and technology leadership experience. He is the Co-founder and past President of the Prognostics and Health Management Society. He has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and he has completed a Post-Doc in Computer Science and AI at Stanford University.

Colin currently serves as the Corporate Turnaround Manger at Chevron Philips Chemical Company where he oversees the turnaround execution at all CP Chemical assets. Previously Colin served as the Regional Overhaul, Maintenance, and Engineering Manager for the US Region of Lucite International Inc., the global leader in the design, development, and manufacture of acrylic-based products. Before Lucite, he was the Reactor Maintenance Officer of the aircraft carrier USS CARL VINSON where he led a team of more than 400 sailors and 10,000 shipyard workers through a $2 billion, 48-month overhaul, the culmination of his 26-year naval career. He has also played key roles in the execution of several overhauls at civilian nuclear facilities as well as additional construction, deconstruction, and overhauls of several nuclear-powered ships.

Slavek Zaremba is CTO for Predictive Maintenance solutions at SparkCognition where he is leveraging his 20+ years of experience in the area of AI, power generation, and utilities. Before joining SparkCognition he worked for 8 years at NextEra Energy where he led remote operations, monitoring, and analytics teams for all of the company's generation equipment (over 120 sites, 40GW) and drove the introduction of new data analytics technology. Before that he worked for 12 years at GE Energy with the focus on predictive analytics, remote monitoring & diagnostics, and implementation of AI technologies to power generation and smart grid operations.