Steering Committee Member
IIC Chair of Smart Factory

Farid Bichareh is an executive, technology expert and entrepreneur with over 22 years’ experience defining solutions/strategy for smart manufacturing and digital transformation, IoT/IIoT, and innovative Optical Wireless Communication/Li-Fi and AI. He has co-founded several businesses and served as a board member and top executive for several organizations. He also Chairs Smart Factory at IIC and a member of IIC Steering Committee. There are many speeches, panels, articles, papers and interviews that has been published from him during past decade.

Entrepreneur and business owner – building my own sustainable manufacturing business at ShufliaCrafts and gaining valuable business and strategy competencies. – Partnering with business for growth and transformation through People. – HR Executive with global activity and vast experience in Southeast Asia and Europe. In the past – Head of People and Culture at Mindvalley. – Successful career supporting business transformation through people strategies including talent management, remuneration and organizational culture. – Founder of the ChangeHR, a mentorship program, dedicated to bring change to HR and organisations around the world:
https://bit.ly/changehr. – Author of the book “HR Atlas”, that became Amazon Bestseller in HR category in December 2020: https://bit.ly/HRAtlas. – Fluent in English, Ukrainian, German. Learning Mandarin.

President

Richard Voorberg is President of the North America Hub of Siemens Energy, based in Orlando, FL. In this role, Richard has regional responsibility for the Energy business in the Americas, which includes the company’s Generation, Industrial Applications, and Transmission divisions. Most recently, Richard served as the Head of Service in North America, where he was responsible for managing all aspects of Large Power Service, including Gas Turbines, Steam Turbines, Generators and Nuclear. Additionally, he is Chairman of the Board for Advanced Airfoil Components. Richard has almost 30 years of experience with Siemens including extensive involvement in the manufacturing, commissioning management, project management and marketing aspects of the power generation business. Richard was responsible for the design, project management and building of a brand-new factory at the Charlotte, North Carolina, site for gas turbine manufacturing. Throughout his career Richard has had the privilege to live and work in several different locations including Canada, Indonesia, Argentina, Korea and Germany. The North American business consists of over 10,000 people who manage all aspects of Service from Sales, Marketing, Project Management, Field Engineering, Shop Repair and Business Administration. Richard holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and his MBA from ESMT in Berlin Germany. Richard and his wife, Esther, have four children and reside in Winter Springs, FL.

Director, Office of Business Technology Planning and Strategic Initiatives
Southern Company

James Goosby is Business Technology Planning & Strategic Initiatives Director, responsible for ensuring that initiatives that require technology follow a framework that enables predictable outcomes. He serves as chair the Operations Technology Leadership Team that facilitates business technology planning and implementation while ensuring alignment to business priorities. He has served for more than 26 years at Southern Company, most recently in the role of Assistant to the Executive Vice President of Operations, where he helped advance work in Moving to Equity and co-led a project to strategically align Operations-wide cyber and NERC-CIP program management. James earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Auburn University and served our country in the U.S. Marines.