Plenary sessions

Joana Mendonça

President

Portuguese National Innovation Agency – ANI

Joana Mendonça is an Associate Professor at the Department of Engineering and Management of the Instituto Superior Técnico, where she teaches Innovation Management and Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship, Economic Engineering as well as project units. She is an investigator at the Centre for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research IN+, where she managed the Technology Management and Policy Laboratory. Her research focuses on commercialization processes and on the adoption of new technologies, as well as on the role of human capital in those processes, and her work has been featured in publications such as Research Policy, Small Business Economics and Technological Forecasting and Social Change. She was a co-coordinator for the master’s in engineering and Management of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and for the PhD program in Engineering and Public Policy. She is a member of the scientific board of the Carnegie Mellon Portugal international partnership since 2014 and has been the scientific coordinator for CEiiA since 2018. She was an advisor for the Minister of Economics and Innovation in 2016. Between 2013 and 2015, she was a researcher at the IN+, taking part in the IRGC international network, as well as a visiting professor at IST. Between 2010 and 2012, she was a vicedirector at the Portuguese General Directorate for Statistics on Education and Science. In 2009 and 2010, she was an advisor for the Secretary of State of Science, Technology and Higher Education. She obtained her PhD in Engineering and Industrial Management from IST, University of Lisbon, in 2009. She has a master’s degree in Engineering Policy and Management of Technology from IST and a bachelor’s degree in Technological Chemistry from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.

Stephen Perkins

Head of Research Policy Analysis

International Transport Forum (ITF)

Stephen manages a team of exceptional analysts providing economic analysis and policy advice to governments around the world on some of society’s most pressing issues:

• Cutting the number of deaths and serious injuries on the world’s roads.
• Mitigating air pollution and decarbonising transport.
• Creating more livable cities and managing congestion.
• Improving the efficiency of public transport, railways and aviation.
• Achieving more sustainable shipping and freight distribution systems.
• Getting the best out of new mobility services.

He aims to improve the evidence base for public policy making. His work involves reviewing economic analysis and experience in the implementation of reforms to make transport services safer, more sustainable, more equitable and more efficient. I draft policy reports on a broad range of transport issues – most recently on road safety, road pricing, congestion management, regulating micro-mobility, access, equity and decarbonisation.

Stephen has worked on transport policies for 25 years and has always been engaged in sustainable development and improving regulation, starting out in the energy sector. He spent five years at the International Energy Agency following spells in consultancy, at Tokyo Gas and in Yokogawa Electric Corporation.

Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris

Director and VICE President

 HIT and CERTH

The Director of HIT and Vice-President of CERTH, Evangelos Bekiaris, is a PhD Mechanical Engineer of the National Technical University of Athens, former Research Director (Grade A Researcher) and former Head of the sector “Driver & Vehicle”, since HIT establishment (first elected Institute Researcher in 2001). His field of expertise covers issues of transport safety, automated and clean vehicles, smart city applications, specialized telematics applications for vehicles and public transport, accessible transportation and personalized services for people with reduced mobility.

He has been/is:

• Member of the National Council for Research and Innovation (N.C.R.I.) of Greece, since 2019 (http://www.esek.org.gr/).
• President of the European Transport Research Alliance (ETRA – eu)
• President of the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI – ectri.org) since January 2019 and member of its Board since 2016.
• President of the European Organization EURNEX (EUropean rail Research Network of EXcellence, http://www.eurnex.org) since June 2019.
• President of the Hellenic Institute of Electric Vehicles (HELIEV – heliev.gr).
• National Representative in the European Commission Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission Board of Horizon Europe (HE) and Member of the National Representation team for Cluster 6 of HE.
• National Representative for the HORIZON 2020 in the Smart, Green and Integrated Transport Programme Committee.
• Coordinator of 42 large EC projects (since FP2) and participant in over 100 research projects up to date.
• Editor and/or author in 46 scientific book chapters, 75 publications in international scientific journals and 298 presentations in international conferences.
• Vice-President of the European Association for Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (AVERE – avere.org) (2014-2016).
• President of the European Association HUMANIST European Centre of Excellence in Human Machine Interaction (HMI) in Transport (humanist-vce.eu (2012-2015).
• Chairman of the Forum of European Road Safety Research Institutes (FERSI – fersi.org) (2008-2011).
• Editor-in-Chief of the European Transport Research Review – An Open Access Journal (ETRR) of Springer (2008-2013).
• Visiting Professor in Transport Telematics at the Mechanical Engineering department of University of Trento (Italy) from 2008 to 2009 and at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) (2008-2013).
• Lecturer on Transport Telematics in a Master course of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) (2003-2011).

Peter Lehnert

Vice President Technology and Innovation

BMW Group

Peter Lehnert is Vice President of Technology and Innovation at the BMW Group. Before that he was Vice President Technology and Innovation – E and E Architecture and Digital Car Experience and Vice President Integration Elektrik and Elektronik Und Software Logistik, always at BMW Group. He studied at Nanyang Technological University(Leadership) in 2017 and before that completed the Management School St.Gallen and Technische Universität Darmstadt.

Alasdair Cain

Director of Research, Development and Technology Coordination

US Department of Transportation

François-Régis Le Tourneau

VP Corporate Responsibility

 LOréal

François-Régis Le Tourneau is of French and German nationality. He has a strong track record in executive positions in Controlling & Finance as well as Supply Chain Management. During the last 30+ years at L’Oréal, François-Régis has managed organizational and transformational projects on selective and consumer channels with impacts on large teams. His leadership role is always to anticipate, innovate and obtain results in complex organizations.

He is now in charge of the international coordination of the Sustainability Program “L’Oréal For The Future”. François-Régis manages a world-wide Sustainability Leaders community in order to ensure, with the General Managers of each country, that sustainability is at the heart of the business transformation. L’Oréal For The Future aims at transforming L’Oréal’s activities to respect planetary boundaries (climate, water, resources), at empowering the company’s ecosystems and at contributing to solving the challenges of the world.

Francois Regis is the Chairman of ALICE, Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe, member of the board of France Supply Chain, and advisory at the Bunder Vereinigung Logistik (the German Logistic Association).

René Berkvens

Vice President

Damen Shipping

During the past 38 years René  Berkvens has been an executive in the shipbuilding industry. He holds a degree in Naval Architecture.

At Damen Shipyards, René Berkvens spent 15 years in the Commercial Division. From 1998 onwards René Berkvens was in charge of the Workboat Division and in 2000 took charge of the newly acquired Naval group previously known as Royal Schelde. In the period 2004 – 2006 René served as vice president of the Damen Group, he was responsible for the Naval division and the mega yacht building activity (Amels brand). From 2006 to 2021  Berkvens was the Chief Executive Officer of the Damen Group and overall responsible for its operation. During this period Damen doubled its turnover and acquired 15 companies in shiprepair, newbuilding and engineering. Damen employs more than 10.000 people in 35 companies on 6 continents.

Today René Berkvens is VP at Damen, maintains several board functions and is Chairman of Sea Europe in Brussels representing practically all shipyards and maritime equipment suppliers in the EU.

Francisco Reis

Chairman

UIC Europe and UIC Rail System Forum

Working in the public transport sector for 40 years, Francisco Cardoso dos Reis was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lisbon’s Underground Company, from June 2010 to August 2012, having previously chaired CP, from 2006 to 2010, where he began his professional career in 1982, as a company engineer. He chaired REFER, from 2000 to 2002, having been Member of the Board of that company, between 2007 and 2010. Among many other positions of responsibility, he was Chairman of EMEF, Fernave, Ferbritas, RAVE, AVEP. In addition, he was also Vice-Chairman of the GNFL (Lisbon’s Railway Node Office), from 1992 to 1997. In terms of the sector’s international institutions, he was a member of the CER Management Committee, between 2001 and 2002, and again from 2007 to 2010, and of the UIC Europe Management Committee, also from 2007 to 2010. From 2010 to 2012, he was a member of the UITP Policy Board and member of the UITP European Union Committee, on behalf of Portugal. At the end of 2013, he was again elected member of the Management Committee of UIC Europe. He also held the positions of Vice-Chairman of EIM, between 2015 and 2018, Vice-Chairman of UIC Europe, between 2016 and 2018, and is currently Chairman of UIC Europe and Chairman of UIC Rail System Forum. Member of the Higher Council of Public Works, from 2002 to 2006.

He carried out teaching activity at the Portuguese Catholic University in the academic years of 2004/2005 and 2005/2006, in the Post-Graduation in Railway Engineering, being Responsible for the subject of Renovation and Upgrading of Railway Infrastructure. He has given various talks and speeches about railways, as a guest lecturer at various national universities and international institutions.

He is a National Defence Auditor.

Mário Campolargo

Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Administrative Modernisation of Portugal

Government of Portugal

Mário Campolargo was born in Gafanha de Aquém, Ílhavo in 1956.

He graduated in Electrotechnical engineering from the University of Coimbra (1978), has a master’s degree in Computer Science from Imperial College of London (1983), a postgrad degree in Management from École Solvay of Brussels Free University (1992) and a diploma in European Studies from Católica University in Lovaina-a-Nova (1995).

He was a researcher at the Telecommunication Studies Centre (Aveiro) for 12 years and headed the Software Engineering division. He was the Portuguese representative at the International Telecommunication Unite and led several European projects.

In 1990, he joined the senior staff at the European Commission and was manager and scientific lead of the RACE research into telecommunication programme.

In 1999, he took on the role of Head of Unit of “GÉANT and e-Infrastructure” at the DG Information Society, and was charged with several R&D portfolios, focusing especially on implementing global e-Science infrastructures.

In 2008, as Director of “Emerging Technologies and Infrastructures at DG CONNECT, he was in charge of the Future and Emerging Technologies area, ICT-based Infrastructures for Science, Cybersecurity, and experimental research for the Internet of the Future.

In 2012, he headed the “Net Futures” department at DG CONNECT, focusing especially on the field of the Internet of the Future, including 5G, Cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IOT), Smart Cities and corporate innovation insitiaties, such as Startup Europe.

From 2016 to 2022 he was Deputy Director General and Director General of DIGIT (European Commission), in charge of the global strategic and operational coordination of the directorate-general, for the definition and implementation of the European Commission’s Digital Strategy, and the transition of the Commission’s services to working from home during the pandemic, focusing particularly on creating a digital culture and cybersecurity issues.

He also led European initiatives in the field of Interoperability (including the COVID digital certificate) and the Modernisation of European Public Administration.

Walter Goetz

Head of Cabinet of Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean

European Commission

Walter Goetz is the Head of Cabinet of Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean since December 2019. Before joining the European Commission, he was a civil servant in the Secretary General of the European Parliament in Brussels. From April to November 2019, he was Head of the Secretariat of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), and from April 2012 to March 2019 he was the Head of the Secretariat of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN). From October 2009 to July 2011 he was the Head of the Secretariat of the Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis (CRIS). Walter Goetz joined the European Parliament`s administration as an Administrator in the ITRE Secretariat in 2006 and later served in the Transatlantic Relations Unit of the European Parliament. From April 2003 to December 2005 he worked as an Administrator in the European Commission, where he was in charge of financial services in the Securities Market and Investment Services Provides Unit of DG MARKT. His career began in the German Federal Ministry of Finance in Bonn and Berlin in the years 1998 to 2003, where he held various positions as a desk officer in customs, fiscal policy and legal departments. He studied Law and Administrative Science in Konstanz and Speyer, Germany, and holds a PhD from the Faculty of Law of the University of Konstanz, Germany.

Luca Bedon

Advanced Technologies Executive Manager

Avio Aero

Luca Bedon is an executive engineering manager with more than 20 years’ experience in the aerospace business in the field of advanced technology and new product introduction. Currently, as Avio Aero’s Research and Technology leader, he coordinates the company’s advanced technology development activities in Europe and serves on the governing board of Clean Aviation. Avio Aero is a business of GE Aerospace, a world- leading provider of jet and turboprop engines. In his previous role he contributed to develop the current generation of aircraft engines like the GE90-115B and the GEnx-1B from their initial design up to their certification. Before focusing on innovation he also led the systems engineering military engine department of AvioAero contributing to certification of last generation of turboshaft and managing the engine fleets in service for the Italian Air Force and Army.

Antonella Trombetta

Director of European Affairs

Hitachi Rail STS

Antonella Trombetta is an Electronic Engineer. She has experience in Innovation & Satellite; previously she worked inside the company in ERTMS and CCS Wayside Application; in Metro, CBTC, CBI; HS, Conventional and Freight lines; PTC. Shift2Rail IP2 Coordinator, member of S2R/Europe’s Rail Governing Board, RSI Expert Group on Competitiveness, UNIFE Strategy Committee and member of 3 Italian Competence Centres. Secretary of the Italian CTN Trasporti 2020 and member of Italian National Center on Sustainable Mobility.

Patrick Child

Deputy Director-General in DG Environment

European Commission

Patrick Chld is currently Deputy Director-General in DG Environment at the European Commission with particular responsibility for the EU’s zero pollution strategy, chemicals legislation, research and innovation for environment and communication.

From 2016-2021, he was Deputy Director-General in DG Research and Innovation (R&I) at the European Commission. As member of the Board of DG R&I, he followed in particular research and innovation in clean energy and climate technologies as well as the R&I dimension of the post-COVID recovery and resilience strategy and Horizon Europe mission on Cancer. His international roles included Commission representative and chair of the steering committee of Mission Innovation (a coalition of 24 countries and the EC working to accelerate global clean energy innovation) and lead co-chair of the Group of Earth Observations (GEO).

Until April 2016, Patrick Child was Managing Director of the European External Service with responsibility for administration and finance, covering human resources policy, security and the budget. Before he took up this post in 2011, he was director in the EC External Relations Directorate-General in the responsible for managing the network of Commission delegations.

He has previously served as head of cabinet for External Relations Commissioners Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Chris Patten.

With a background in the UK Finance Ministry, he joined the European Commission in 1994, where he started in the Economic and Monetary affairs Directorate General before becoming Commission press spokesman for economic and monetary union from 1995-1999. Mr Child studied mathematics at Cambridge University. He is married with two children

Pietro d’Arpa

 Vice President Supply Chain

Procter & Gamble

Pietro is currently responsible for Logistics Operations and Strategic Planning in Europe across all P&G Categories of Products. He has more than 30 years of experience in numerous global businesses including laundry detergents, paper, pet care, and beauty products in a variety of manufacturing and supply chain roles. He possesses significant expertise in strategic sourcing, production planning, logistics, manufacturing and Supply Chain M&A. He has broad international experience including living and working in Italy, Belgium, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland and the United States. He is known for transforming the supply chain, leveraging innovative Automation & Digitalization solutions while accelerating business value creation. He has led the renewal of P&G’s Integrated Work Systems (IWS) methodology to build and sustain world class manufacturing results. He is currently leading the P&G Sustainability Logistics Strategy for Europe to achieve “Net Zero Emissions” by 2040.

Dirk Beckers

Director at CINEA

European Commission

Dirk Beckers is the Director of the European Commission’s European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). CINEA has a key role in supporting the European Green Deal, with a budget of around € 58 billion for the period 2021-2027 and 500+ staff. He is responsible for the overall management of financial and human resources and for coordinating the Agency’s funding activities, to ensure the successful implementation of the European Commission’s European Green Deal policies.

Bo Olsson

Chief Strategist

Trafikverket

Bo is Chief Strategist at Trafikverket. He is also Program Director for the Swedish part of the European Joint Undertaking on rail research, Europe´s Rail. Bo joined Trafikverket from Banverket, the former Swedish Rail infrastructure manager where he was Head of R&D Coordination. He has over 30 years’ experience in railway, having had positions as regional Director of infrastructure in the southern region of Sweden and technical director in the same area. He has worked on numerous major Swedish and international rail projects in leading positions, e.g. the Oresund bridge, providing expertise in technical as well as mobility aspects. He also has extensive experience in shaping and delivering major rail research projects and to deliver their most challenging programs. Bo holds a MSc in Civil Engineering and a Licentiate of Technology in Transport Technologies, both from Lund Technical University.

Jan Ludvik

Director of Engineering

Honeywell

Jan holds PhD in applied mechanics. He spent 10 years in automotive industry within engineering organization of TRW Automotive (now part of ZF). In 2014, Jan joined Honeywell where he currently leads the Advanced Technology Europe – the European research and technology development organization of Honeywell Aerospace.

Charlotte Huebner

Director ESG Public and Regulatory Affairs

A.P. Moller – Maersk

Charlotte Huebner joined A.P. Møller – Maersk in 2022 as Director for ESG Public and Regulatory affairs. She is responsible for Maersk’s positioning and outreach on key regulatory topics relating to Maersk’s energy transition including green fuels, renewables, and Power-to-X.

Before joining Maersk, Charlotte worked at Ørsted on global offshore wind auctions & regulations. Charlotte has over 10 years of experience of working in the global energy sector in variety of commercial and business development roles including at Maersk Drilling and World Energy Council.

Charlotte has a PhD in International Development Economics from SOAS University of London, where she also worked as a Senior Teaching Fellow and Researcher.

João Jesus Caetano

Chairperson

Portuguese Institute for Mobility and Transport (IMT)

João Jesus Caetano is acting as Chairperson of the Portuguese Institute for Mobility and Transport (IMT) since September 2022. He has a 12-years’ experience in the sector, having worked as Head of Innovation Policy and Research at CEiiA – Center for Engineering and Product Development, and served both as a Policy Advisor to the Portuguese Minister of Infrastructure and as a Senior Attaché to the Portuguese Permanent Representation to the European Union. During the Portuguese presidency of the EU Council, he served as co-Chair of the Council’s Working Party on Land Transport. João has a background in Physics, having obtained a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and worked as a Research Associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the United States. Currently, he is also a professor of mathematical sciences at ISTEC-Lisboa and a member, in representation of Portugal, of the management board of the European Union Agency for Railways.

Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla

Executive Board Chair

German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Professor Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla has been Chair of the Executive Board at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) since 1 October 2020. She completed her doctorate and habilitation at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Following research activities at the Hahn-Meitner-Institut (HMI) and at the Technische Universität Berlin, she taught and conducted research as a professor at the Technische Universität Wien (Vienna University of Technology) from 2003 to 2005. In 2005, she joined the management team at the Max Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH (Max Planck Institute for Iron Research) in Düsseldorf as a Scientific Member, Director and member of the Executive Board. In 2008, she was appointed the Scientific Director of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH (Helmholtz Centre for Materials and Energy), which was created under her leadership through the merger of HMI and the Berlin Electron Storage Ring Company for Synchrotron Radiation (Berliner Elektronenspeicherring-Gesellschaft für Synchrotronstrahlung mbH; BESSY). From May 2017 until taking up her post at DLR, Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla served as President of the Technische Universität Braunschweig.

Pedro Nuno Santos

Minister of Infrastructure and Housing

Portugal

Pedro Nuno Santos was born in São João da Madeira, Aveiro in 1977.

He has a degree in Economics from ISEG-UTL, the institution for which he chaired the board of the General Meeting and he is a member of the Lisbon Technical University’s senate.

In 2001 he worked at CISEP – Centre for Studies on the Portuguese Economy in the field of health economics, under Professor Gouveia Pinto.

Once he completed his Economics degree, he joined the family corporate group Tecmacal, SA., a group of companies offering services and trade and development of industrial machinery based in S. João da Madeira.

He was Secretary General of the Socialist Youth between 2004 and 2008.

He was President of the Socialist Party Aveiro Federation from 2010 to 2018.

He was a Member of Parliament in the 10th and 11th legislatures. He was Vice-President of the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group and coordinator of the Socialist Party members of parliament in the Parliamentary Investigation Committee on the BES affair.

He was Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs in António Costa’s 1st Government from November 2015 to February 2019. In this post, in addition to bridging the Government and Parliament, he ensured the connection between the Executive and the Parliamentary Groups that ensured the majority on which the Government was based.

He was Minister of Infrastructure and Housing in Prime Minister António Costa’s 1st and 2nd Governments, where he monitored infrastructure policy in construction, property, transports and communications, including regulating public procurement, as well as housing and urban rehabilitation policies.

Opening, Monday 14 November

Phil Blythe

Chief Scientific Adviser

Department for Transport

Professor Phil Blythe CEng, FIET is Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for the Department of Transport and Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) at Newcastle University. Phil has been researching in the field of intelligent Transport Systems since the late 1980s and in the early days was regarded a pioneer in the fields of road pricing and electronic tolling technology. In his role at the DfT he provides a challenge function to the Department on the use of science and engineering evidence in policy making and also ensuring the Department is best informed on new innovations and technologies that may impact on the delivery of transport schemes. Through the CSA network he also ensures that there is significant cross-government cooperation on science, engineering and technology issues in strategic areas such intelligent transport, connected and autonomous vehicles, electromobility and smart cities/big data/IoT agendas as well as the cross-government initiative around the four industrial Grand Challenges. Phil was recently appointed Vice President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Plenary, Tuesday 28 April:

Data-driven mobility