New opportunities in a challenging market.
Namrita Chow, ECG Business Intelligence
Namrita Chow has 20 years’ experience analysing markets with a specific focus on the transportation industry. From 2003 to 2014 she was based in Shanghai, China where she followed the light vehicle market writing for leading publications such as Automotive News, Tire Business, Rubber & Plastics News, Automotive Logistics, MG Enthusiast and others before being recruited by IHS Markit to manage their market intelligence reports on China. With a career spanning almost a decade at IHS Markit (now S&P Global), Namrita’s most recent role at IHS was as a light vehicle sales forecast analyst for complex markets in the Middle East such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Sub-Sahara Africa. Most recently Namrita has been responsible for the business intelligence reports for ECG members, focusing on a range of topics which are highly relevant to the European vehicle logistics industry. Namrita has an MSc in Economics and Mathematics from the University of London and speaks Mandarin and Hindi in addition to her native English.
Michael Cole, President & CEO, Hyundai Motor Europe
Michael Cole became President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Europe on 1 July 2020, taking responsibility for Hyundai’s European commercial and manufacturing operations. This appointment marked the continuation of his career with Hyundai Motor Group, following 11 years in senior management positions at Kia Motors. There, he served most recently as President of Kia Motors America, following his previous role as Chief Operating Officer of Kia Motors Europe and, prior to that, Managing Director of Kia Motors UK. Throughout his time with the Kia brand, he has helped to drive forward all areas of strategy and operations – from sales, marketing and product to customer service and retail. Michael Cole is a certified accountant with 36 years of industry insights. He has worked in almost every field within the automotive industry, from dealer to multi-national level; from accounting to sales, from fleet and aftersales to marketing; to COO and President. Having worked on nearly every team, this has given him a good grounding, as he has extensive knowledge about various perspectives of internal processes of OEMs. He has worked for a number of multi-national car brands in Europe and North America, including 11 years with Hyundai Motor Group.
Wolfgang Göbel, President, ECG
Wolfgang Göbel has been working for the Mosolf Group for more than 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. 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. Additionally, he is responsible in the board of Mosolf for the business units of Mosolf Automotive Releasing, Mosolf Logistics & Services and for sustainability and implementation of the ESG strategy. 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.
Fridtjof Langenhan, Professor for Logistics Management, University of Applied Sciences Hof
Fridtjof Langenhan is a professor for Logistics Management at Hof University of Applied Sciences (Germany). His focus of teaching and research lies on logistics services, transportation, outsourcing, green logistics and sustainable supply chain management. He has been the Dean of ECG Academy since 2019. Fridtjof has more than 20 years’ experience in training, education and consulting. Prior to joining Hof University as a professor Fridtjof was Consultant, Partner and Managing Director of a Strategy and SCM Consulting Company (SMG Supply Management Group St. Gallen and Brain Net Group).
Mark Morgan, Quality and Risk Director, UCM Global
With 24 years in the finished vehicle sector, Mark has worked for LSPs, inspection and claims management companies across Europe as well as having been part of the ECG team in Brussels. As the Quality and Risk Director at UCM Global, Mark leverages an extensive network of contacts around the world to promote the benefits of sharing best practices in risk reduction and damage management of new vehicles in the distribution chain for all stakeholders from OEM production and logistics departments, through Logistics Service Providers to Dealers and National Sales Companies. He also promotes the concept of fairness and transparency in identifying and eliminating avoidable damages to vehicles with unnecessary cost and delay consequences.
Timo Pasila, Managing Director, C.A.R. Consulting Group
Timo D. Pasila, a Finnish citizen, grew up in the Netherlands where he gained a Master degree in Law from the VU university in Amsterdam, specializing in International and Maritime Law. After some brief stints in the legal profession in Melbourne, Australia, Timo started working in Finished Vehicle Logistics (FVL) with an Italian-based maritime Ro-Ro carrier in 1998, mainly focused on the quality of transport and automotive risk management (damage prevention). A couple of years later, Timo joined a globally operating automotive inspection company based in Germany, as General Manager. In 2004, Timo founded C.A.R. (Control Automotive Risk) Consulting Group, a company specialized in automotive quality and risk management services for the FVL industry and established a global network of 25 companies, working in over 40 countries, controlling over 12 million new vehicles per year. Timo is actively participating in FLV industry platforms and workgroups, fulfilling not only his personal passion, but also his Group‘s vision and engagement to be the market leader in the automotive quality and risk management by providing a transparent overview to continuously improve the quality of the OEM product as well as the quality of the transport.
Filippo Rizzi Ariani, Chair on EAAG
Filippo Rizzi Ariani is a Commercial Manager at the Grimaldi Group. He started his career at the Grimaldi Group in 2006 as a line operations executive. He is Chair of the EAAG – ECG Academy Advisory Group. His background includes a degree in economics and business, a master’s degree from Bocconi University (Milan) and an APICS certification in logistics, transport and distribution (CLTD). He is married with Valentina, they have two sons.
Andreea Maria Serbu, Senior Manager, External Affairs, ECG
Andreea Serbu joined ECG – The Association of European Vehicle Logistics in 2019. Before that, she graduated 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 started as Research and Projects Manager managing joint working groups between ECG Members and car manufacturers on topics such as capacity, health and safety and sustainability and was responsible for the organisation of some ECG events like the Eastern Regional and the ECG Academy Alumni meetings. Since May 2022, Andreea took over a new role focused on fostering the association’s relations with members, partners and the industry while staying responsible for the sustainability working group.
Mike Sturgeon, Executive Director, ECG
Mike Sturgeon has been Executive Director of ECG – the Association of European Vehicle Logistics – since March 2010. Mike has more than 30 years experience in the automotive industry, most of which has been in finished vehicle logistics and has included a wide variety of roles working on ‘both sides of the fence’ with an OEM (16 years with Toyota) and also for logistics suppliers. This extensive experience in all aspects of the finished vehicle supply chain has provided the ideal background to effectively represent this specialised sector at European level in all respects. Prior to joining the motor industry Mike had a varied career which included 8 years in the military. Today he lives in Belgium with his wife where they have spent most of the last 20 years.
Steve Thomas, Head of Finished Logistics Planning & Engineering, Toyota Motor Europe (TME)
Steve has been employed by Toyota for 31 years, undertaking roles across the supply chain – Supplier Development, Inbound Logistics, Internal Logistics and, since 2014, Outbound Logistics. Within Vehicle Logistics, Steve has focussed on consolidating Toyota’s European vehicle distribution network and developing operational capability from a safety, quality and delivery performance. His current focus is pursuing a digital transformation of the management of vehicle distribution from Plant to Retailer. Prior to his career with Toyota, Steve worked for 11 years in the Automotive Supply Industry and graduated as a Production Engineer.
Steven James Van Arsdale, Autofacts Manager, PwC
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. During his Master’s he also completed an exchange year at NIDA University in Bangkok, Thailand where he holds a Master of Arts in International Business. Most recently, prior to joining PwC, Steven was a Senior Consultant at IHS Markit. His primary area of focus were in powertrain, CO2 and powertrain forecasting. He also worked on a wide range of other projects related to automotive suppliers, light commercial vans and mobility. He was also a Powertrain Assistant Manager at Kia Europe. He was responsible for monitoring the CO2 performance of Kia in Europe and proposing solutions to reduce CO2 or increase powertrain competitiveness. He is a native English speaker and fluent in German. He was born in the USA and grew up in New York State, near the city of Buffalo.
Volkswagen Konzernlogistik (VWKL)
Steve Young, Managing Director, ICDP limited
Steve is currently the Managing Director of the ICDP Limited, a research and consulting business which over 25 years has conducted cross-sector research into operating practices in all parts of automotive distribution, with funding and participation from vehicle manufacturers, distributors, dealers and aftermarket suppliers. Prior to that he was Chief Executive of LDV Ltd, a commercial vehicle manufacturer during which time he established distribution in four European markets and Malaysia and negotiated a joint venture agreement with a Chinese partner. In parallel he was also Chief Operating Officer of our parent company, GAZ International, a subsidiary of the Russian GAZ company, tasked with looking at international acquisitions, including one prospect in the Indian market. Steve was an independent consultant and Non-Executive Director of Ashok-Leyland from 2005 to 2007, active in a number of potential acquisitions in the automotive sector by corporate and private equity backed vehicles. Prior to that he served 19 years with A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm, where he was a Vice-President for 13 years, and a senior member of their Global Automotive Practice, and worked for Ford Motor Company and British Leyland for a total of 6 years following graduation as an engineer.