Speakers

Dennis Affeld, Chairman of the Board, MAN Truck & Bus Deutschland

Dennis Affeld is the Chairman of the Board at MAN since 2024 January. Before that he held various Senior positions within the company where he was responsible, among others, for the van business unit and sales strategy. Prior to joining MAN, in 2005, he was a senior project manager at consultancy firm Roland Berger. Dennis Affeld holds an economics degree from University of Hohenheim. Besides his native German language, he speaks English and French.

Anouck Arnaud, Director of Worldwide Transport Logistics, Mercedes-Benz

Anouck Arnaud has led Mercedes-Benz Group’s global logistics since May 2022, with responsibility across the company’s supply chain for cars and vans, including six departments that cover inbound logistics, vehicle logistics, international supply and carrier management.

She is playing an active role in leading the carmaker’s strategies for reducing emissions across logistics, and in digitalizing more processes.

Anouck Arnaud has been with Mercedes-Benz for many years in various purchasing and logistics role, including responsibility for procurement of contract logistics, as well as demand and capacity management for suppliers.

Dr. Hussein Basma, Researcher Heavy-Duty Vehicles, ICCT

Hussein Basma is a Researcher in the Heavy-duty Vehicles Program at ICCT. Hussein’s areas of expertise cover alternative vehicle technologies to tackle the environmental burden of the transport sector worldwide, focusing on electric, hybrid, and hydrogen truck and bus technologies.

Cecilie Brandt Bidstrup, Director, Head of Products, DFDS

Cecilie Brandt Bidstrup is currently serving as Director, Head of Products at the Pan/European logistics and shipping company DFDS. She leads commercial and strategic efforts across key products like decarbonized solutions and is in charge of product development, ensuring DFDS offers a competitive and future-proof product portfolio, therefore aligning greatly with our theme of ‘Powering the Future.’ With a background in strategy consulting and innovation, she has significant experience in understanding the importance of collaboration in achieving growth and efficiencies.

Mar Chao, President, Valenciaport

A Civil Engineer from the University of A Coruña and a Law graduate from the Open University of Catalonia, Mar Chao López has an MBA from the Caixanova Business School (today, IESIDE) and has completed her training with numerous degrees in maritime law, logistics and digital transformation. She speaks English, French, Galician and Portuguese.

Among them, the titles of Maritime Law and Port Management from the University of A Coruña; Maritime Transport and Port Management by the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Logistics Management by Lloyd’s Academy London; and Manager of the Transport of Goods and Travelers for the European Community.

Since the beginning, in1991, Mar Chao López has developed her work in the port and logistics field, both in the public and private sectors. Until her incorporation as President of Port Authority of Valencia, she served as Director of Operations in State Owned-Ports Body. Likewise, in the private sector, she has been Head of multimodal transport at INDITEX , she has been General Director of the Reyser Group, a leading port services operator. In the public sector, she has worked for the Port Authority of A Coruña, as Head of the port services unit; and in the Vigo Port Authority, as Head of the port operations division and Head of the operations department. Between December 2006 and March 2009, she held the position of General Director of transport of the Xunta de Galicia, being a Counselor in the Ferrol Port Authority and assuming the presidency of Portos de Galicia. Between October 2017 and January 2021, she served as Commercial and Business Development Director at the Port Authority of Valencia.

Thomas Fabian, Commercial Vehicle Director, ACEA

Thomas Fabian joined the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), which represents the EU’s seven major truck producers, as Commercial Vehicle Director in November 2018 and became Chief Commercial Vehicles Officer in January 2024. In previous roles, he served as Head of the Department Commercial Vehicles, Trailers, Bodies and Buses of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA); Secretary General of the International Association of the Body and Trailer Building Industry (CLCCR); Director Transport Policy for the German Airports Association (ADV); and Senior Manager Transport Policy for the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Before that, Mr Fabian worked as Scientific Advisor to a member of the German Parliament.

Thomas Fabian holds a degree in transport engineering of the Technical University of Berlin and has been working on international transport policy projects ever since graduating in 2000.

Mark Fulthorpe, Executive Director, Light Vehicle Production, S&P Global Mobility

Mark Fulthorpe is Executive Director responsible for light vehicle production forecasting at S&P Global Mobility. He leads a global team that provides industry forecasts, future product program intelligence, platform strategies and market analysis.

Before joining S&P Global Mobility in the guise of CSM Worldwide in 1999, Mark spent three years as a Business Analyst with Capita Business Services where he was part of a business development team responsible for the supply of data and data services to UK-based vehicle manufacturers and importers.

Mark has spent most of his career in the automotive sector.  Prior to Capita, he worked as a Senior Associate within the DRI/McGraw-Hill Global Automotive Group, initially in component and powertrain research, and later within the forecasting group working on light vehicle forecasts covering the former Soviet Union.  He also spent time as a Research Executive with MIL Motoring Research (NOP Automotive) where he ran a Customer Satisfaction program across Western Europe on behalf of Jaguar Cars.  He began his career at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), reporting UK sales and registration data.

Wolfgang Göbel, ECG President

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.

Johannes Alexander Hödlmayr, CEO, Hödlmayr International

Johannes Alexander Hödlmayr became the CEO of Hödlmayr International GmbH in July 2024 and is responsible for 1,700 employees. He heads the Business Strategy, Business Development, Corporate Human Resources as well as Marketing & Communication departments.

As part of the third generation of the family business, he studied logistics and transport management at the University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna and completed a master’s degree in communications management. He gained his first professional experience at UnitCargo and Hermes, among others, before joining the family business in 2019. In various positions and project responsibilities in the subsidiaries, he gained insights into the operational processes. Most recently, he was Managing Director of Hödlmayr Logistics GmbH.

Prof. Dr. Pero Mićić, CEO, FutureManagement

There are many futurologists and trend researchers. Future manager only one original. Dr. Pero Mićić founded the first future management company in Europe in 1991. He is Chairman of the Management Board of FutureManagementGroup AG.

Dr. Mićić reports from the field. He has been an entrepreneur since his youth. He has been managing his own staff for 35 years. He talks to top business leaders on a daily basis. His clients include the top managers of world market-leading companies as well as forward-looking entrepreneurs in medium-sized businesses. As an investor, among others in the field of artificial intelligence, Pero Mićić has his finger on the pulse of trends, future technologies and business models.

At Steinbeis University, Dr. Mićić is Professor of Foresight and Strategy. In over 1,200 projects, he has analyzed future markets, developed visions and strategies for the future, and won over employees to implement them. He leads the Leader’s Foresight Institute in Lucerne as president.

Pero Mićić has published several award-winning books in renowned publishing houses. He is a founding member of the Association of Professional Futurists in the United States and has served as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the European Futurists Conference. Dr. Mićić inspires with fascinating scenarios as well as concrete strategies and methods and makes them easy to understand.

François Prince, General Manager Vehicles Logistics Engineering & Services, Renault

With 20 years’ experience in Automotive sector in management roles on both parts and vehicles logistics , François has focused as head of vehicles logistics engineering & services for Renault Group since June 2024. His background is a strong experience on Parts Logistics with more than 15 years working on new models scheme preparation, operations and logistics engineering including network design, system development and tendering.

In addition to his experience in Renault, he worked actively in the Alliance organization with Nissan in Europe and worked directly 4 years within Nissan’s Headquarter (Japan) to define and organize Nissan inbound logistics strategy in several areas such as Asia; North America, Latin America and Europe.

Sophie Punte, Founder and Board Member, Smart Freight Centre

Sophie Punte is a network leader bringing industry, government and other stakeholders together to address common sustainability challenges. She is the founder and CEO of a new mission-driven organization called Life-Links to build resilient supply chains for sustainable development. Sophie holds supervisory board positions at Smart Freight Centre, which she founded, and at Milence, the truck charging infrastructure company, and sits on DHL’s Sustainability Advisory Council and the WEF Global Future Council on Clean Air. Previously, Sophie led We Mean Business Coalition’s policy engagement strategy, headed Clean Air Asia, and worked with the United Nations and KPMG, in both developed and developing countries.

Ilary Ranalli, Commercial Decarbonisation Lead, DFDS,

Ilary Ranalli is currently serving as Commercial Decarbonisation Lead at the Pan/European logistics and shipping company DFDS. She drives the commercial growth of low-carbon transport solutions and certified CO2e reductions for customers – with a focus on biofuels, electrification and green corridors. In a former capacity, she managed the deployment of the first 125 electric trucks across the DFDS fleet. With 14 years of experience in sustainability across the public and private sector, sha has made stakeholder collaboration at the centre of transformative projects for the green transition.

Levent Yuksel, Freight Operations Director, JLR

LY is responsible for JLR’s inbound logistics and finished vehicle distribution operations across its global network. His scope involves parts collection and delivery for manufacturing, logistics network optimization, packaging planning, finished vehicle delivery to global markets and dealers in certain regions. As the operational part of JLR’s Supply Chain Organization, his role is key to ensure that parts are on time for production and the vehicles are delivered to the network as per customers expectation through seamless integration across the end-to-end supply chain in close partnership with logistics providers. Sustainability forms a basis for planning process starting from packaging planning through the freight process until last mile to the customer.

Yuksel has been with JLR since 2013 in central logistics functions. Prior to JLR, he worked at Toyota in a number of locations including Japan in production and logistics functions before leading inbound and Outbound logistics for Toyota Motor Europe. He has a strong track record in continuous improvement, network efficiency and operations management.