Speakers 2021

Steven Van Arsdale
Autofacts Manager, PwC Germany

Steven Van Arsdale is Autofacts Manager at PwC in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, leading the German Autofacts team. He possesses more than 5 years of work experience in analysis, consulting and directly at an OEM. Steven holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Automotive Marketing and Management from Northwood University in Midland, Michigan USA. He also holds a Master of Arts in Automotive Management from Nürtingen-Geislingen University in Geislingen an der Steige, Germany.

Clément Boussard
Founder and CEO, Stanley Robotics

Researcher and graduate of Ecole des Mines Paris, Clément has worked for over 10 years in various research institutes in fields related to autonomous vehicles. His passion for robots originated in cinema before becoming his vocation. Today, he designs the robots that will shape the world of tomorrow.

Namrita Chow
ECG Business Intelligence

Namrita Chow is an automotive industry analyst at Ultima Media, focused on trends, forecasting and data in automotive supply chain and manufacturing. She is an integral part of the ECG Business Intelligence Unit, powered by Ultima Media, which provides insight on the European market, industry and government regulation for the vehicle logistics sector. With more than 15 years’ experience, she was most recently a principal light vehicle sales forecast analyst for IHS Markit focusing on complex markets in the Middle East and Sub-Sahara Africa. She spent more than a decade in Shanghai, China, where she managed the daily IHS Automotive Intelligence reports on China and before that worked as a reporter for Automotive News, Automotive Logistics and others. She holds an MSc in Economics and Mathematics from the University of London’s Birkbeck College and speaks Mandarin and Hindi in addition to her native English.

Eva Combach
Director Worldwide Transportation, Mercedes-Benz AG

After her studies at the University of Hamburg, Eva Combach joined Daimler AG in 2011. She was responsible for leading functions in global supply chain strategy and transport planning
Since April 2019, Eva Combach is head of the business unit, Global Transport Logistics Passenger Cars, Trucks, VAN & Bus’ with locations in Germany, the USA and China. In addition to planning and managing global transports for parts and finished vehicles, she is responsible for load carrier management and material supply to the overseas Mercedes-Benz plants.

Martin Corner
Vice President, Global Supply Chain Management, Volvo Cars

Martin Corner is leading Volvo Cars Global Supply Chain Management organization, with teams based in Europe, the US and Asia. His team is responsible for end to end value chains including operations planning, total logistics network design (parts, finished vehicles & aftersales logistics), packaging design and flow management, consolidation centers, customs and new model supply chain design.
For Volvo Cars, SCM is a key enabler for two very important parts of the company’s transformation – the commercial and the lean transformations – aiming to grow, having more activity online and making the shift to 100% electrification.
Mr Corner has both a Business degree and History degree from Leeds University and more than 20 years of experience from the automotive industry with previous positions in the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

Mr. Göbel became President of ECG in May 2016 after the elections at the ECG General Assembly. Prior to this he served as Vice-President of the Association from 2009, and has been an ECG Board member since 2003.

Dario Dubolino
Policy Officer, Directorate General, Transport and Mobility – Sustainable & Intelligent Transport, European Commission

Mr Dario Dubolino is a Policy Officer in the Sustainable and Intelligent Transport Unit of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport. Among his main tasks, he works on the recently revised Clean Vehicles Directive and on recharging and refuelling infrastructure for heavy-duty vehicles in the context of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation proposal. Previously, he has worked in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), in the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, and for the Italian Ministry for the Environment. He holds a diploma in International Relations from the University of Genoa.

Wolfgang Göbel
President, ECG

Wolfgang Göbel has been working for the Mosolf Group for 40 years. He began his career at the automobile logistics specialist as an assistant to the management team and later became head of the sales/marketing and logistics department.

In May 2016 he was appointed to the position of Chief Sales Officer and member of the Management Board of the company. Wolfgang Göbel is responsible in his new remit for all the sales activities and the long-term sales strategy of the group. At the same time, he continues to exercise his previous positions within the company, which include his tasks as Managing Director of the Mosolf subsidiaries Mosolf Automotive Railway, Mosolf Logistics & Services and SAT Sächsische Autotransport und Service.

Mr. Göbel became President of ECG in May 2016 after the elections at the ECG General Assembly. Prior to this he served as Vice-President of the Association from 2009, and has been an ECG Board member since 2003.

Ton Kolen
Product & Services Planning, DAF Trucks

Ton joined the Marketing & Sales department of DAF Trucks in 1985, after graduation as Bachelor Mechanical Engineering in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Started as Application Engineer responsible for development of the body builder guidelines, followed by being Field Engineer supporting truck chassis modification in the field.

In 1993 started as Product Trainer at the Commercial Training department and supported the DAF salesforce worldwide and contributed to the foundation of today’s DAF academy.

Moved in 2011 to the department Product & Services Planning as Product Planner powertrain, alternative fuels and CO2 emission. In that position initiating projects and represent the voice of the customer during the development for projects like the CF Electric, launch last year and the powertrain for, the gamechanger in transport, the New Generation DAF series.

Leon van der Merwe
Vice President of Supply Chain at Toyota Motor Europe

Leon joined Toyota Motor Europe in 2014 as Vice President of After Sales, he managed After Sales in 52 countries for 3,300 Franchised Toyota and Lexus Retailers. He also managed the EU service parts distribution through over 20 warehouses. In 2017 his responsibilities expanded to cover the entire value chain driving the “vehicle life time value” strategy, by leading all the post vehicle sale teams, including Customer Experience & Retention, Aftersales, Warranty, Used Car, Finance and Insurance teams whilst continuing to manage the total service parts supply chain.

In 2019 Leon assumed the position as Vice President of Logistics, where his mission is to, “Exceed Customers expectations by delivering the right product at the right time, with the shortest lead-time through a sustainable, lean integrated supply chain for Production Parts (inbound), Finished Vehicle and Service parts Logistics, delivering as 15% cost reduction, with a 40% volume increase, with a team members in 25 countries, with logistics movements across 120 countries.

Roger Strevens
Vice President, Global Head of Environment, Wallenius Wilhelmsen

Environmental industrialist, sustainability native. As VP, Global Sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen, Roger engages with its diverse array of external sustainability stakeholders as well as its corporate functions.  The over-arching objective is the same for all; to advance the sustainability agenda, while creating mutual value.

Andreea Serbu
Research & Projects Manager, ECG

Andreea Serbu is working as Research and Projects Manager at ECG – The Association of European Vehicle Logistics in Brussels, Belgium since 2019. After graduating in International Relations at the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice and moved to Brussels for a traineeship at the Council of the European Union.
At ECG she manages joint working groups between ECG Members and car manufacturers on topics such as capacity, health and safety and sustainability. She is also responsible for the organisation of some ECG events like the Eastern Regional and the ECG Academy Alumni meetings.

Mike Sturgeon
Executive Director, ECG

Mike Sturgeon has been Executive Director of ECG – the Association of European Vehicle Logistics – since March 2010. Representing nearly 130 European companies from almost 30 countries who move finished vehicles by road, river, rail and sea. For almost 25 years ECG has provided a platform for the Finished Vehicle Logistics sector through a Secretariat based in Brussels.

Mike has more than 30 years experience in the automotive sector which has included a wide variety of roles working both for an OEM (16 years with Toyota) and also for logistics suppliers (LSPs). This extensive experience in all aspects of managing the finished vehicle supply chain has provided the ideal background to effectively represent this specialised industry at European level in all respects.

Prior to joining the motor industry Mike had a varied career which included 8 years in the military when he served in both the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.

Pierre Timmermans
Member of the Management Board, DB Cargo AG

Pierre Timmermans has over 20 years of rail experience and logistics expertise, having served as CEO of Czech rail freight operator AWT, CEO of the PSA International container port group, and board member and head of contract logistics at Frans Maas, among other roles. Since March 2019 he has been a Member of the Management Board for Sales of DB Cargo.