Connected Mobility

Klaus Baumgärtner is the General Manager of BridgingIT GmbH, a company with 450 employees and an annual revenue of € 45.7 million for 2015. In his position as General Manager, Baumgärtner is responsible for the company’s strategic advancement and opening up new business segments.
Baumgärtner has more than 20 years of IT experience in a wide variety of industries from mechanical engineering to energy and the service sector.
In keeping with the firm’s strategic alignment, he is focused on digital change and the resulting customer and market demands. As a pioneer in the field of electro-mobility and new corporate mobility concepts, he is also a trendsetter and aids in the in the practical implementation of future-oriented solutions.

Olivier Bremer, born in 1984, is BlaBla… Put more precisely, he is the General Manager for DE/AT/CH and Italy at BlaBlaCar, the world’s largest ridesharing platform. The BlaBlaCar community puts the principle of sharing into practice on streets around the world. Its members not only share their cars and transportation costs with each other, but their stories as well.
Bremer financed his studies in Bologna, Sydney and Dresden with an e-commerce business in the electronics sector. He founded the online ridesharing centre postoinauto.it in Italy in 2010. It was acquired by BlaBlaCar in 2012.
The platform is present in 22 countries with 30 million members and 10 million travelers per quarter and has established ridesharing as a smart addition to the modern mobility mix.

Thilo Koslowski is Managing Director of Porsche Digital. In his strategic role he leads Porsche towards a digital, connected future which centers on exciting customer experiences, as well as new product, service and business opportunities. He also focuses on creating new partnerships and venturing activities with existing and emerging companies to create a leading digital ecosystem for Porsche.
Before joining Porsche, he was Vice President, Distinguished Analyst and Leader of the Automotive, Vehicle ICT and Smart Mobility practice at Gartner Inc. which he founded in Silicon Valley in 1997. Prior to that, Thilo Koslowski was Managing Consultant in Gartner’s Emerging Technologies and Business practice where he managed global consulting assignments for leading organizations in the automotive, consumer device, hardware, software and IT markets. His automotive career began by working in various marketing and strategy positions for German automaker Audi.
Thilo Koslowski is a pioneering thought leader, futurist, strategic advisor and innovator regarding the evolution of the automotive industry, the connected vehicle, connected customers, mobility innovations and new digital business models. He graduated from the Technical University (RWTH) Aachen in Germany and holds a degree in business administration with focus on marketing and production engineering.

Max Orgeldinger is a consultant at Torben, Lucie und die gelbe Gefahr in Berlin. He focuses on the influence of technological progress on peoples’ habits and the influence of peoples’ habits on technological progress. Orgeldinger joined TLGG in 2011 following the completion of his studies at the European Business School. Born in 1989, he now lives in Berlin where he is responsible responsible for the consulting business at TLGG.
His sharp eye for trends and keen sense for behaviors quickly made this 27-year old one of the most in-demand strategist and speakers in the field of digitalisation and social networks. At TLGG, Max Orgeldinger works with clients such as Lufthansa and E.ON and was part of the team doing preparatory work for the creation of the E.ON Group unit for digital transforma-tion and the Lufthansa Innovation Hub.

Carolin Reichert is an expert in strategy and business development with almost 20 years of professional experience and a proven success record in building-up new businesses. Carolin started her career at the well-respected strategy consulting company Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. Further stations in her professional and international career have been the utility giant RWE in Essen, Peugeot Citroën Automobiles in Paris as well as Jaguar Land Rover in Coventry. Carolin is always driving innovations, e.g. renewable energies, electric mobility, new mobility services and now the Digital Business for BOSCH Aftermarket.

Armin G. Schmidt is a successful entrepreneur and thought leader in the field of cloud-based products and services. As founder and CEO of ATS Advanced Telematic Systems, Schmidt designs and guides the development of software solutions for connected and autonomous driving from offices in Berlin and Tokyo. ATS is involved in initiatives run by leading automakers and suppliers which aim to establish industry-wide standards. Furthermore, ATS leads activities for the development of over-the-air software updates (OTA) for connected cars at GENIVI and Automotive Grade Linux. ATS’s newly released product OTA Plus is the only open source client/server solution for over-the-air software updates which meet the demands of automotive OEMs and suppliers.
Before founding ATS Advanced Telematic Systems, Armin G. Schmidt founded Aupeo, a provider of cloud-based audio services for cars; the firm was sold to Panasonic Automotive in 2013. In the course of his fifteen-year career, Schmidt has held a variety of positions at innovative technology companies in Asia, Europe and the United States.

Chris Valasek is Security Lead at the Uber Advanced Technologies Center & renowned »White Hat« Hacker.
Regarded for his work in the automotive security arena, Chris Valasek specializes in offensive research methodologies with a focus on reverse engineering and exploitation. Best known for the remote compromise of a 2014 Jeep Cherokee, whereby he and his research partner, Charlie Miller obtained physical control of the vehicle from more than 10 miles away, Valasek was lauded for exposing serious security flaws in automobiles; the results led Fiat Chrysler to recall 1.4 million vehicles. Valasek is one of the first researchers to discuss automotive security issues in detail, and his release of a library to physically control vehicles through the CAN (Controller Area Network) bus garnered worldwide media attention.
Valasek’s hacking of the Jeep Cherokee led Uber to bring him on board as Security Lead at their Advanced Technologies Center. As a result of his work within the automotive industry, Valasek was included on LinkedIn’s Next Wave list, featuring 150 of the top professionals age 35 and under who are transforming different industries.

Arnd Weil is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Automotive Business Unit at Nuance. He is responsible for driving innovative embedded and connected voice, multimodal and content delivery solutions for the automotive industry globally.
Arnd joined the Nuance Automotive Business in 2002 when the company started equipping the first vehicles with speech technology and has been running the Automotive and Consumer Electronic Business Unit since 2007. Since then, Nuance Automotive has shown double digit growth working with the world’s leading automotive brands, including Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Ford, Toyota, GM, Chrysler, Fiat, and many others, and equips more than 30 million new cars per year with Nuance solutions, which give drivers all over the world safe and convenient access to in-car functions as well as off-board content.
Arnd Weil led several acquisitions including Harman Speech Business, SVOX and Tweddle Connect expanding the Nuance assets to further accelerate innovation and meet the increas-ing demand of the automotive industry for natural language and connected car solutions.
Prior to joining Nuance Automotive, Arnd worked as Product Manager and Technical Consultant at Dictaphone and L&H, and held various positions at the Research Center of Deutsche Telekom. Arnd graduated with a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Technical University of Darmstadt.