Juergen Maier was appointed Chief Executive on 1 July 2014. He has been a member of the Siemens UK Executive Board since 2008, and held senior roles within Siemens in the UK and Germany including Managing Director of Industrial activities for the UK and Manufacturing Director of the award-winning Drives factory in Congleton.

Juergen joined Siemens in 1986 with a BSc in production engineering from Nottingham Trent University, on a Siemens-sponsored graduate programme. He was made an honorary professor of Engineering at the University of Manchester in March 2014 and became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in September 2017. Juergen has also received honorary doctorates for his services to UK Science and Engineering for the Universities of Lincoln, Nottingham Trent and Salford Manchester.

Juergen is a passionate advocate of the UK rebalancing its economy and has supported many UK-wide initiatives championing manufacturing, improved infrastructure and engineering skills. He has recently been asked by the Government department BEIS to lead a new review on Industrial Digitalisation for UK Manufacturing. Juergen also supports the modern re-industrialisation of the Northern Powerhouse and in that capacity is Chairman of the North West Business Leadership team and a board member of Greater Manchester LEP as well as the Northern Powerhouse Partnership.

Born 1964 in Germany with Austrian nationality, he came to the UK in 1974.

Deborah Sherry joined GE in July 2016 as General Manager and Chief Commercial Officer for GE Digital Europe. In this role, Deborah leads all GE Digital commercial activities including Sales, Marketing, Services and operations and is delivering the strategy and operation across Europe.

Prior to joining GE, Deborah spent nearly 9 years at Google, most recently as UK and Ireland Director of Partner Business Solutions. Deborah opened new markets for Google and increased Southern and Eastern European business 5-fold. During her 30 year career as a commercial leader, Deborah has worked for various industry and technology companies including orange, Samsung and Citibank. She started to work in the digital industry before the web began.

Deborah received an MBA from the London Business Scholl, an MA Law from Oxford University and a BA from Columbia University in New York.

For more information on GE Digital please visit www.ge.com/digital/

We interviewed Deborah to get her thoughts on Industry 4.0 & this is what she told us… more

Joanne Wright is IBM Chief Supply Chain Officer, responsible for the strategy, execution and business results for IBM’s manufacturing, fulfillment and Client Solutions across more than 170 countries. Joanne is accelerating IBM’s transformation through leadership, global talent development and building a culture of engagement, agility and innovation. Creating World Class supply network leveraging Cognitive Supply Chain, Advanced Analytics and advancing Blockchain to revolutionize IBM’s Supply Chain.

Joanne brings extensive experience across Supply Chain and Transformation and has held a number of senior leadership positions at IBM including Procurement, Client Fulfillment and Enterprise Transformation.

Joanne is a member of the Women in Technology International, the Executive Sponsor of Global Women of IBM and a member of IBM’s Growth and Transformation Team. She serves as Executive for Supply Chain Leaders in Action and one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen.

She is a graduate of Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland with a BA Honors Degree in Business and Marketing. She also holds a Diploma in Procurement Management from Strathclyde University, Scotland.

 John Kitchingman is Managing Director of the Northern European region for Dassault Systèmes. This region covers the UK and Ireland, the Nordic countries, Benelux and the Baltic states.

 John joined Dassault Systemes in early 2018, following a successful 15-year career at IBM Global Business Services, where he held senior roles covering the Oil and Gas, Automotive, Aerospace and Defence, Electronics and Industrial Products industries.

 John holds a degree in Economics from the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.