Transatlantic Cluster Trip
E-Mobility
October 15-19 | Bavaria, Saxony, Lower Saxony
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Service supports the
goals of this event,
but does not endorse
the specific products,
or views of the
participating organi-
zations.
Contact
German American Chamber of Commerce® of the Midwest, Inc.
Jessica Ferklass
Manager, Consulting Services
321 North Clark Street, Suite 1425
Chicago, IL 60654
Tel.: +1 (312) 585-8344
Fax: +1 (312) 644-0738
E-Mail: [email protected]
URL: www.gaccmidwest.org
Transatlantic Cluster Initiative
The Transatlantic Cluster Initiative brings
together leading German and US industry
clusters to promote knowledge exchange
through content-driven encounters. The
program is organized by the German
American Chamber of Commerce of the
Midwest (GACC Midwest) and is
financially supported by the German
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and
Energy through the European Recovery
Program (ERP; also known as the
Marshall Plan).
The core program of the Cluster Initiative connects German and American
cluster organizations through targeted roadshow series in the US and
delegation trips to Germany. The program establishes an exchange for best
practices focused on internationalization, cluster policy, technology
development and transfer, and much more.
Transatlantic Cluster Trip to Germany on E-Mobility
As part of the Transatlantic Cluster Initiative, the fifth cluster trip to
Germany on the topic of E-Mobility takes place October 15-19, 2018 in Bavaria,
Saxony, and Lower Saxony, Germany. The events at each location will provide
attendees with the chance to connect with E-Mobility stakeholders from
Germany discussing:
• charging infrastructure,
• battery technology,
• mobility services, and
• many international collaboration opportunities.
Our Participants
Joyce Chen Co-founder, Corporate Innovation
Program and Director, Portfolio
Acceleration
City Innovate
Joyce is the Co-Founder, Corporate Innovation
Program and Director, Portfolio Acceleration at City
Innovate. City Innovate is building Silicon Valley
startups addressing data collection, aggregation, and
analysis for city streets and mobility patterns. While
pursuing a Doctorate in Law at U.C. Berkeley, Joyce
worked with the World Bank, and advised a high-profile Platform as a Service
startup. She then transitioned into the venture industry heading law and policy
for a public-private partnership organization that designed mobility solutions
for Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Joyce would like to build strategic partnerships with German thought leaders
for an open innovation ecosystem around equity- and equality-based
transportation and mobility, as well as invite suitable experts and leaders for
co-investment opportunities with City Innovate.
John Davis Director, Midwest Operations
Trillium Secure, Inc.
John is the Director of Midwest Operations for Trillium Secure. In this role, he is focused on setting up an office in the Midwest, leading
customer engagement activities and working with local government agencies to advance business development efforts in the region, namely the state of Michigan.
John is an experienced business development,
sales, project management executive with senior management roles in both Fortune 500 and start-up companies. Trillium Secure is working with both the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and Ann Arbor SPARK to gain access to projects and pilots in Michigan that can leverage Trillium's automotive
grade cybersecurity and expertise in securing data generated/resident in connected vehicles. John hopes to identify pilot opportunities with European auto companies with an interest in engaging in projects in Michigan.
Will Foss Head of North America
Derq
Will is Derq's Head of North America, where his
focus is business development, global strategy, and
partnership formation. Derq is focused on mobility
services that reduce accidents, save lives, and make
roads more efficient. Its Artificial Intelligence-based
V2X applications are live in Michigan and Dubai,
and improve safety and mobility for connected
vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and fleets. Will
joined from Techstars Mobility, where he advised top mobility entrepreneurs
on strategy and growth. Prior to Techstars, Will was a Strategy Consultant at
Monitor Deloitte and a mobility entrepreneur inside Deloitte's Venture Lab,
where he built and sold an auto telematics business that generated ~$30M in
annual growth for its customers.
Will’s goal is to identify international collaboration opportunities for Derq's
mobility services offerings and he is excited to hear how different partners are
investing in new offerings.
Liz Geisleman Chief Operating Officer
Rocky Mountain Reagents
Liz has spent the past 20 years at multi-million
dollar company Rocky Mountain Reagents. RMR
has been named in the Top 100 Woman Owned
Businesses and Top 250 Private Owned Companies
of Colorado for 6 years. In 2013, RMR won a
coveted Colorado Company to Watch Award. Liz
serves on the Board of Directors of the Jefferson
County Economic Corporation as Chairman of the
Board and the West Metro Chamber of Commerce as Secretary.
Colorado and Jefferson County in particular are beginning to move toward
more cost effective measures for transportation. With this in mind, Liz’s goal is
to learn as much as she can so that she can contribute that knowledge to her
state legislators as well as local officials. She also wishes to work to highlight
her community to companies that might be looking at an American presence.
Our Participants
Paul Krutko President and Chief Executive Officer
Ann Arbor SPARK
Paul is Ann Arbor SPARK’s president and CEO.
Ann Arbor SPARK is a public-private partnership of
business, government and academic institutions
working to create economic prosperity in the Ann
Arbor area of innovation. In his role as CEO, he
leads the organization’s efforts to expand the
regional economy through initiatives to support
entrepreneurs and early-stage companies
accelerating their growth to full potential. Paul has nearly four decades of
economic and community expertise. He led San Jose, California’s economic
development efforts in Silicon Valley where he served as the chief development
officer.
Paul is interested in strengthening partnerships between Germany and Ann
Arbor Mobility clusters, meeting innovative companies, and learning more
about opportunities for furthering collaboration between Germany and Ann
Arbor.
Yuriy Gorlov Vice President
Aurora Economic Development Council
Yuriy is Vice President at the Aurora Economic Development Council (AEDC), a public/private partnership dedicated to enhancing the economic
strength of its community within and abroad. The organization focuses on connecting business and industry with civic leadership via strategic advocacy efforts and initiatives.
During the past eight years, he has enjoyed growing
relationships with real estate professionals nationwide, advising C-level busi-ness decisions large and small, and leveraging public resources. He has led ne-gotiations with a variety of companies, including Amazon, Eaton, JPMorgan Chase, and United Natural Foods. Since joining the organization, he has helped
create more than 13,000 jobs.
Yuriy wishes to establish relationships with experts in the field to encourage
cross-pollinated smart development and create pro-business policies for various industries to accommodate new technologies.
Lauren Masias Managing Director
Denver South Economic Development
Partnership
Lauren is the Managing Director of Denver South
Economic Development Partnership. Her current
area of work is in corporate engagement with a
focus on transportation. She has worked within the
transportation realm in her organization for 9 years.
She covers everything from infrastructure,
transportation demand management to E-Mobility.
Her goal for this trip is to identify potential strategic partnerships between
Germany and the Denver South region. Denver South in particular focuses on
smart city and smart community initiatives and has the unique opportunity to
test and deploy new technologies before they are tested elsewhere. The Denver
South region is home to the largest green space in all of the Denver Metro Area.
This enables the piloting of new projects with a focus on smart and thoughtful
development.
Brandon Mendoza Head of Product, New Mobility
Arity
Brandon currently serves as Head of Product, New Mobility at Arity. Arity is a mobility start-up founded by Allstate Corporation. Its mission is to make
transportation safer, smarter and more useful for everyone. Brandon’s core expertise is in product management, analytics and technology development in the fields of Connected Transportation, IoT and
Consumer Technology. He has led product teams focused on these topics at Arity, Gogo Inflight,
Microsoft and BMW/MINI. Brandon leads a portfolio of 4 businesses that focus on the challenges of target customers in the Shared Mobility, Smart City, Data
Monetization and Automotive spaces. Brandon wants to use this opportunity to accelerate Arity’s learning cycle, understand German consumer mobility trends, explore new E-Mobility
business models and identify potential customers and partners.
Our Participants
M.L. Richardson Director of Strategy and Sustainable
Development APC (Asphalt Paving Company)
Mary Lynn is the Director of Strategy and Sustainable Development at APC. She is proud to be
involved in her community both professionally and as a volunteer. She is an Attorney for public park land and worked for a federal regulatory agency. Mary Lynn chaired the Jefferson Economic Council
(JEC) and is the only recipient of the Community Spirit Award. She also serves on the Nominating
Board for both the Government Affairs Committee and Governance Committee. Adding to her accolades, Mary Lynn was awarded “Women Making a Difference
in Jefferson County” and is a member of a Business Lobby advising on policy matters. Mary Lynn’s goal is to learn more about the advances in autonomous vehicles
and what the next steps are in the process. She hopes to bring back connections for local entities including the Colorado School of Mines and the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Leigh Seeger Vice President
Jefferson County Economic Development
Corporation
Leigh has ten years of experience in economic development and currently serves as the Vice
President for Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation. Leigh is responsible for the creation, implementation and management of the economic development workplan and its efforts
to attract, expand and retain primary employers in Jefferson County, Colorado. Her main
responsibilities are focused on business recruitment and expansion of primary employers focused in targeted industries.
Leigh’s goal is to develop a better understanding of the E-Mobility industry in general, learn about best-practices in Germany, explore ways to develop long-term collaboration, strengthen and create more opportunities to increase
educational interest and promote policies that support innovation and stimulate R&D.
Kathryn Snorrason Business Relationship Manager
PlanetM
As a Business Relationship Manager, Kathryn focuses on both business attraction and business development in the mobility space. PlanetM is
focused on mobility - innovative technology supporting the movement of people and things in the air, on the land and in the sea. Kathryn also works to ensure that the PlanetM business
development platform supports both large and small mobility companies.
Kathryn hopes to meet and build relationships with OEMs, suppliers, investors
and startups. This will give her the opportunity to understand their business and how Michigan might be able to provide no-cost support services to help them reach their goals. Kathryn also hopes to meet and build relationships with support organizations (economic development organizations, universities,
accelerators). This, she believes will give her the opportunity to identify collaboration opportunities between Michigan and Germany.
Steve Vozar Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
May Mobility
Steve is Co-Founder and CTO of May Mobility. Prior
to founding May Mobility, Steve focused on
next-generation automated vehicles during his
tenure with the APRIL and PeRL Labs at the
University of Michigan. His passion for robotics and
extensive research has impacted technology used by
DARPA, NASA and Ford Motor Company, and can
be found in each May Mobility solution from
software to hardware.
Steve wishes to learn about current research and engineering projects with
regards to electric vehicles, charging stations, vehicle batteries and portable
power packs. He is interested to connect with leaders in order to exchange ideas
regarding deploying self-driving electric vehicles, and enhance understanding of
the EU's regulatory environment with E-Mobility.
Our Participants
Milena Zilo Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Zilo International Group
Milena is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zilo International Group. She has over a decade of experience in Wall Street and
International Consulting. She started her career in New York and has worked at Merrill Lynch, Bloomberg and BlackRock.
She founded Zilo International Group in 2014 and has worked with companies of different sizes in
multiple industries, both domestically and internationally.
Milena wishes to broaden her knowledge of the global markets, in the E-Mobility space and make successful business connection with German companies.
About GACC Midwest
The German American Chamber of
Commerce® of the Midwest (GACC
Midwest), headquartered in Chicago
with a branch office in Detroit, was
founded in 1963. Our continuing mission is to further, promote, and assist in
the expansion of bilateral trade and investment between Germany and the
United States, especially the Midwest.
Our organization combines elements of a trade commission, a membership
association, and a service provider - quite a unique concept in international
trade promotion. GACC Midwest is an integral part of the network of
German Chambers of Commerce Abroad (AHKs) with 130 offices in 90
countries around the globe. For more information, visit www.gaccmidwest.org.
GACC Midwest Contacts
Jessica Ferklass
Manager, Consulting Services | GACC Midwest
Tel.: +1 (312) 585-8344
E-Mail: [email protected]
George Wallworth
Consulting Services | GACC Midwest
Tel.: +1 (312) 561-9797
E-Mail: [email protected]
Stefan Noeth
Project Manager, Detroit Office | GACC Midwest
Tel.: +1 (313) 596-0399
E-Mail: [email protected]
Publisher
German American Chamber of Commerce® of the Midwest, Inc.
321 North Clark Street, Suite 1425
Chicago, IL 60654
Date
September 27, 2018
Picture Credits
© jamesteohart ǀ Adobe Stock
Peter Green
www.gaccmidwest.org/cluster