Ten Years in the Driver's Seat
And just like that.... the American Automotive Summit has officially turned 10!
Over the past decade, we've brought forth a fantastic line-up of top automotive leaders to the main stage and helped forge a series of high-performance partnerships. For our tenth edition, this year was no exception.
On October 21-22, 2025 at the MGM Grand Detroit, we connected 156 delegates, 44 sponsors, and 68 speakers at our 2025 American Automotive Summit. Over two action-packed days, our attendees tackled the most crucial topics shaping the automotive industry, revolving around Industry 4.0, automation & robotics, supply chain & logistics, electrification, connectivity solutions, big data, and more.
If you were able to join us this year, we invite you to relive the incredible event via this play-by-play recap below.
That said, if you couldn't make it, we hope you get the green light to join us next year! Here's what you missed....
The 10th anniversary of the American Automotive Summit began with welcome and opening remarks from Ramon Kuczera, SVP Engineering at GKN Automotive. We were honored to have Ramon serve as our Master of Ceremonies in Room 1 throughout the summit — meanwhile, our incredible emcees in Room 2 and 3 were Randall Papall, VP Supply Chain at Gentex Corp. and Scott Bodjack, VP, Vehicle New Product Introduction at Tesla.
Following the chair's welcome and opening remarks, Jean-Christophe Marchal — SVP, Manufacturing Division, Vehicle Process Engineering at Stellantis — took the stage. In his incredible opening keynote, Jean-Christophe empowered the audience to rethink innovation in the automotive industry, from concept to production at scale. He walked through an innovation framework that well-aligns R&D, engineering, and manufacturing; scaling breakthrough technologies such as SDVs, electrification, and sustainable materials, and much more.
Afterwards, our executive attendees enjoyed a plenary led by Chris Styles, VP, Supply Chain Management at Nissan North America Inc. Chris shared countless insights on how to optimise manufacturing and supply chain operations, all for resilience and efficiency in this dynamic, global automotive market.
Before shifting gears into our first networking break, Steve Hornyak, CEO of Turntide Technologies, led another insightful plenary — his session revolved around driving hybridization through axial flux innovation.
Needless to say, it was an action-packed morning here on Day 1!
Next up, networking in overdrive!
Our audience headed to the Expo Hall for a productive hour and a half of pre-arranged 1-2-1 meetings and refreshments.... driving connections and fueling new potential partnerships, if you will.
Delegates at the American Automotive Summit got to meet with our brilliant sponsors, who provide solutions in electrification, manufacturing operations, workforce management, warehousing & distribution, and everything in between.
Following our networking break, we moved on to an impactful series of breakout sessions! Representing our Manufacturing & Quality stream, we heard from the incredible Meredith Westafer, Director, Factory Design at Tesla, and Albane Dersy, Co-Founder and COO at Inbolt. Through a fireside chat format, they discussed what next-generation automation may look like and how we can transform material flow in automotive manufacturing.
Meanwhile, another incredible fireside chat was taking place next door, representing our Supply Chain stream— Valeo's Thierry Mahe, VP, Power Thermal Americas and Dominik Sporna, Customer Chief Engineer, Power Division got the crowd rethinking the automotive development cycle. How can we truly compete with both speed and scale in this global market?
Down the hall, Harsha Badarinarayan, VP, Advanced Engineering at Astemo, inspired the Design & Engineering folks in Room 3. She shared her insights on driving next-generation vehicle innovation and high-performance computing.
Next up, our delegates enjoyed more breakout sessions led by Stephen Werst, Director, Customer Success, Product Strategy at Sigmetrix; Michael Moore, PhD; Senior Director, Strategy and Innovation at Neo4j; and Eric Whitley, Director, Smart Manufacturing at L2L! Their insightful topics included 3D tolerance analysis for model-based definition, revolutionising manufacturing with knowledge graphs and AI, and maintenance as a bedrock. Brilliant!
After a morning of impactful sessions and workshops, our attendees enjoyed our Lunch & Learn Roundtable Discussions led by executives from Chainlink, Anaplan, Vector, VEDP, Squint, Musashi AI, GXO, Cloudera, Samsung SDS, Genpact, Sigmetrix, Unity, and Redzone!
These engaging L&L conversations focused on key topics from breaking the supply chain visibility barrier, to empowering operators to fix downtime, to the utilisation of AI for quality improvement efforts.
After these energising roundtables (and delicious lunch — the strawberry shortcake changed our lives!) , the afternoon sessions kicked off with a series of engaging discussions and workshops.
In Room 1 for our Manufacturing & Quality Stream, we were inspired by a Volkswagen fireside chat — led by Anna Schneider, SVP, Industry-Government Relations and Donald Davidson, Head, Federal Affairs and Political Strategy — on navigating tariff turbulence in the global automotive market.
Meanwhile, a fantastic supply chain session was led by Amarish Kapadia, Global Head, Product Strategy at Martinrea International. How do we work towards cost efficiency and resilience in the automotive supply chain? Amarish provided the answers we needed!
In the design & engineering session, our delegates learned more best practices in harnessing AI, IoT, and autonomous machines to solve industrial challenges — special thanks to the phenomenal Tsutomi Wakitani, VP, Executive Chief Engineer at Honda!
Switching gears, we hosted breakout sessions led by a C-Suite trifecta: Chris Van Dyke, CEO at Overview; Doug Erwin, CEO, ChainLink SRM; and Annalise Suzuki, COO at Elysium. Their insightful topics included leveraging true visibility, predictive intelligence, and process automation, and reducing time-to-market by elevating 3D digital workflows. Also, what did Overview learn from 1000+AI camera installations in 2025 and 25M+ in savings thus far? We were stunned!
After the PM workshops, the momentum carried over into our next networking break (this time with an open bar!), and then we headed into our final few sessions of Day 1!
From vision to value, Alex Blum, SVP, Chief Operating Officer at Unity, revealed how we can drive emerging tech for automotive. Mandar Hazare, F1 Performance Engineering Lead, GM Motorsports at Cadillac Formula 1 Team, led a powerful session on driving high-performance culture in the automotive industry.
Arnd Herwig, VP, Engineering at Brose, inspired how we can rethink polymers and materials for next-gen automotive performance. Leaders from ZF Group, Gabriel Alonso and Marcus Vukitsevits, provided innovative potential solutions to the big question: "How can automotive manufacturers best leverage Industry 4.0 to thrive in efficiency and innovation?"
We ended our Day 1 program with a fantastic (stacked!) panel surrounding how we navigate the shift from semi-autonomous to fully autonomous vehicles. Each panellist shared how their companies are prioritising investment, resources, and development in an autonomous landscape, shaped by shifting customer preferences, rapid technology advancement, and company philosophy. They also weighed in on which autonomous business models (robotaxis, PAVs, commercial trucks, delivery, defence) will drive the fastest adoption and growth, and where they personally saw opportunities and risks. We were honored to hear from:
After our end-of-day panel and closing remarks, we were officially "off the clock, on the rocks."
Our delegates, speakers, and sponsors enjoyed a networking drinks reception sponsored by Squint, then prepared for Day 2!
We cruised into Day 2 with a dynamic Women in Leadership panel, which was the perfect way to kick off the day!
Our phenomenal WIL speaker line-up included:
Afterwards, we had the pleasure of hearing more insights from Anna Markett through her solo keynote, focused on empowering supply chain teams for agility and results in a rapidly changing world.
Next, Steven Warrick, VP, Product Line Management at Volkswagen Group of America and Lauren Dunford, CEO and Co-Founder at Guidewheel took the main stage! They put on an insightful fireside chat about smart bets in this "shifting auto game," and how automakers can prioritise tech, capital, and competitive moves.
Then we enjoyed fascinating sessions led by Jon Sobel, CEO, Co-Founder at Sight Machine and Todd Lloyd, Account Executive at project44 — their session topics surrounded de-mystifying industrial AI and building smarter supply chains within the automotive industry!
After our fantastic morning sessions on Day 2, we hosted our final 1-2-1 meetings break to foster meaningful connections between our executive leaders and solution providers.
As Day 2 continued, delegates split into various sessions and workshops:
Ryan Bigot, VP, Off-Road Product Safety, Design Analysis and Testing at Polaris, who spoke about leveraging customer feedback to drive safety and quality. Jamie Young, Executive Director, Corporate Supply Chain Operations at Martinrea International got us thinking beyond compliance -- how we can build a profitable and sustainable supply chain. Todd Latouf, VP, Operational Excellence at Magna International shared his thoughts on scaling efficiency and performance across complex programs.
Next on deck, our attendees benefited from breakout sessions led by Ian Silver, Global Head, Alliances and Partner Delivery at Samsung SDS; Ron Nachum, CEO, Co-Founder at Sapien; Ramzi Hermiz, CEO at Carlex; and Manuel Spitzlay, Senior Director, Sales at A123 Systems. Their insightful topics included re-engineering direct procurement for the automotive future, powering clean mobility, and more.
Who's hungry? The Day 2 Lunch & Learn Roundtables were led by incredible automotive leaders from Magna, General Motors, Antolin, Ford, Astemo, Nexteer Automotive, BorgWarner, Mazda, RealTruck, and Tesla!
And just like that.... we entered the final stretch of an incredible drive!
The afternoon sessions featured Soma Venkat, SVP, Chief Information Technology Officer at Cooper Standard, who took us from the plant floor to the cloud! On the main stage, Soma spoke about building scalable digital, AI-driven, and technology-enabled smart factory architecture. Meanwhile, Joshua Bobrow, VP, Purchasing at Magna International covered how to reduce dependency on global supply chains through nearshoring. On another powerful note, Florian Reichle, Global Head, Safety and Security at BorgWarner begged the question, "Is your manufacturing and quality strategy cybersecure?"
The day wrapped up with two impactful sessions that left attendees with much to reflect on.
Angel Guillen, VP, Operations at Motherson, delivered a forward-thinking plenary on driving efficiency with digital twins, filled with AI-powered insights for smarter manufacturing in the automotive industry.
The final session was a thought-provoking industry panel, where our executive panelists shared personal insights on how collectively, we can build the next generation of automotive talent. We were honoured to hear from:
In celebration of our attendees' outstanding participation, we're delighted to unveil our prize champions!
Big congratulations to Daniel Rodrigues, Rodolfo Turrubiartes, and Mike Zimcosky as our networking superstars, and Jackie Sebert as our survey prize winner!
As the 2025 American Automotive Summit came to a close, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all the incredible delegates, speakers, and sponsors who made our 10th anniversary a success. Your insights, collaboration, and engagement continue to drive the automotive industry forward.
With that, gear up for more—this road is just beginning! We're now entering a brand new decade of the American Automotive Summit.
Visit usautosummit.com to learn more and secure your spot at our 11th annual event, on September 15-16, 2026 at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center!
"Really great organization and networking opportunities. Very professionally run and executed!"
Ray Kuczera, VP of Engineering @ GKN Automotive
"Great mixture of vendors and presentations."
Dermot Madden, VP of Product Safety and Security @ GKN Automotive
“I loved the format of the summit, which allowed me to learn from industry leaders and have very personalized, focused, and productive 1-2-1 conversations.”
Nelson Medeiros, Director of Continuous Improvement @ Adient
“We had a lot of good discussions that I’m sure will lead to business relationships.”
Sandro Morero, Director of Engineering @ A123 Systems
"Great experience with high impact speakers. I also liked the smaller and more intimate setting and the scheduled 1-2-1 sessions."
Tara Craigen, Manufacturing Engineering Director @ General Motors
“Great to meet a broad array of potential business partners here!”
Vlad Kontic, Director of Business Transformation - Data & Analytics @ Magna International
"Very good experience. I love the new app feature that allows us to scan QR codes for contact exchange."
Wanderley Verdolini Jr, Manager @ General Motors
“Overall, it was a great experience! The 1-2-1 meetings led to good engagement and sparked real interest in partnership opportunities.”
Eric Michalowski, General Manager of Business Development @ TEAM Group
Learn more about our upcoming 2026 North American events, and secure your spot today:
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