Smart Mobility Summit 2019

Speakers 2016

Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister of Israel

MK Mr. Yuval Steinitz

Israel's Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources

Dr. Yuval Steinitz was appointed Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources in 2015. Minister Steinitz kept his leading role on behalf of the Israeli government in the international campaign against the Iranian nuclear program and is overseeing the Israeli Atomic Energy Committee from the previous government. Prior to his current position Minister Steinitz was the Minister of Intelligence (2013 - 2015), and as number of the 2009 – 2013 government, the Finance minister. Before joining the governmenthe he was also a pivotal member in the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Before to joining politics, Dr. Steinitz was a philosophy professor in Haifa University, where he focused on metaphysics and philosophy of science. He holds B.A and M.A (with honors) from the Hebrew University, and Ph.D from Tel Aviv University.

James Woolsey

Chariman FDD; Former Director of The Central Intelligence Agency

R. James Woolsey is Co-Chairman of the United States Energy Security Council. He also Chairs the Board of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Woolsey previously served in the U.S. Government on five different occasions, where he held Presidential appointments in two Republican and two Democratic administrations, most recently (1993-95) as Director of Central Intelligence. During his 12 years of government service, in addition to heading the CIA and the Intelligence Community, Mr. Woolsey was: Ambassador to the Negotiation on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Vienna, 1989–1991; Under Secretary of the Navy, 1977–1979; and General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, 1970–1973.

Mercouri Kanatzidis

Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry, Northwestern University, USA

Mercouri Kanatzidis was educated in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece to earn a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. He received his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Iowa in 1984. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University from 1985 to 1987. He currently is a Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Chair Professor at Northwestern University and a Senior Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Kanatzidis has been named a Presidential Young Investigator by the National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, Beckman Young Investigator, Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teaching Scholar, Guggenheim Fellow, and Alexander von Humboldt Fellow.

Shai Agassi

Founder, Better Place

Shai Agassi is a successful Israeli entrepreneur with proven track record who sold three of his startups for the aggregate sum of more than $500M+ in total. Agassi is most recognized for his role as founder of Better Place – a globally renowned leader in the EV space. Prior to that, Agassi served as the President of SAP’s Product and Technology where he managed 12,000 engineers in 50 countries around the world. Agassi was the youngest member of SAP’s management board and is credited with a number of its key products and technology products.
Agassi holds tens of patents to his name in a multitude of fields, and received numerous awards and accolades, including: Time 100 Most Influential People in the World (2009), CNN/Time 20 Most Influential People Global Economy (2003), Scientific American Top 20 Innovators (2009), Fast Company 3rd Most Innovative Person in the World (2010), TED Speaker (2009), and was awarded the France Legion d’honour (2012).

Virgilio Cerutti

Vice President, Business Development Central Coordination, FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles)

Mr. Virgilio Cerutti has been Head Business Development Central Coordination at FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) Group since February 2013. He served as CEO at several Magneti Marelli’s Business Lines and he served as CEO for Latin America for Magneti Marelli Sistemas Automotivos from 2008 to 2012. He held several position within Fiat Group as Vice President Purchasing and Vice President Corporate Initiatives. Prior to these positions he held positions at Teksid, Lear Corporation, Officine Giordano and Trade Component Systems. He holds an High School Diploma in Engineering from the Engineering School C. Olivetti of Ivrea, a Degree in Political Science from the University of Turin, as well as a Master in Business Administration from the University of Bologna.

Amnon Shashua

Mobileye Co-founder, Chairman and CTO; Sachs Professor of Computer Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Prof. Amnon Shashua holds the Sachs chair in computer science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His field of expertise is computer vision and machine learning. For his academic achievements he received the MARR prize Honorable Mention in 2001, the Kaye innovation award in 2004, and the Landau award in exact sciences in 2005. He is the co-founder of Mobileye (NYSE:MBLY), an Israeli company developing systems-on-chip and computer vision algorithms for detecting pedestrians, vehicles, and traffic signs for driving assistance systems and is moving forward on the development of autonomous driving technology. Mobileye’s IPO on the NYSE was the biggest Israeli IPO ever raising $1B at a market cap of $5.3B. Prof. Shashua is the cofounder of OrCam, an Israeli company which recently launched an assistive product for the visually impaired based on advanced computerized visual interpretation capabilities.

Jörg Wind

EU-Projects and Energy Systems Analyses, Daimler AG, Germany

Dr. Jörg Wind has studied physics at the Technical Unversity of Munich (TUM). After his Ph.D. in semiconductor physics and sensor technology at the TUM in 1992, he started working in fuel cell and hydrogen technology. He was responsible for material development for MCFCs and exhaust aftertreatment at DASA and DaimlerChrysler from 1992 until 1998. Until 2002, he was responsible for PEM stack development at DaimlerChrysler. Since 2002, he is responsible for energy- and EC funded projects, comprising FCEVs and BEVs (including energy systems analyses and WTW-analyses). He has been involved in the setup of the EU FCH JU and is currently co-chair of the Hydrogen Europe transportation committee.

Sunita Satyapal

Director, Fuel Cell Technologies Office, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Sunita Satyapal is the Director for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Fuel Cell Technologies Office within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. She is responsible for the overall strategy, program execution and staff in the area of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, including oversight and coordination of approximately $100 million per year in research, development, demonstration and deployment activities. She was at United Technologies prior to DOE, a visiting professor at Vassar College and has numerous publications and 10 patents. Her PhD was in physical chemistry from Columbia University and postdoc in applied and engineering physics at Cornell University.

Yaxiao Liu

Chief Information Officer, CAR Inc.

Mr. Yaxiao Liu is the Chief Information Officer in CAR Inc., the leading rent-a-car and on demand chauffer services provider in China. Mr. Liu is in charge of IT innovations and operations. His interests include autonomous drive, deep learning, stream computing and IoT.
2014.6 – Present, CIO, CAR Inc.
1999.7 – 2014.6, CTO, Global Technology Services, IBM Greater China Group
- Joined IBM as an IT architect since 1999
- Was in charge of innovation solution engagements and design, including smarter cities, cloud computing, software defined architect and etc.
- Was the board member for architect career development and chief architect of services in IBM

Mr. Liu received his Master degree in Computer Science from Tsinghua University in 1999. He received his Bachelor degree in Computer Science from Tsinghua University in 1997.

Anne Korin

Co-director, Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS)

Anne Korin is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) and senior adviser to the United States Energy Security Council. She appears in the media frequently and has written articles for Foreign Affairs, The American Interest, The National Review, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary Magazine, and the Journal of International Security Affairs. She is co-author of Energy Security Challenges for the 21st Century (2009,) Turning Oil into Salt: Energy Independence through Fuel Choice (2009) and Petropoly: The Collapse of America's Energy Security Paradigm (2012).

Eyal Rosner

Chairman, Fuel Choices Initiative, Israel

Eyal is the head of the National program serving as a catalyst for reduction of global dependency on oil by establishing Israel as a center in the field. Eyal is heading the steering committee and responsible for the operation including synchronizing nine government's ministries. Eyal's background include 20 years in the investment and business world, including 4 years as the CEO of a $3 billion privately owned company, control among others El Al – Israel Air Line.
Eyal was responsible for the purchase of EL AL, Tambour paint and Granite and served as a board member. Prior, Eyal was VP at Bankers Trust for 5 years and a navy captain.

Eric Denhoff

President and CEO, Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association (CHFCA)

Eric Denhoff is the President of the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association. He has served as Chief Negotiator for the Government of Canada; Deputy Minister of the Government of British Columbia; Chairman of an advisory board for SNC-Lavalin, Canada’s largest engineering and construction firm, and as Chief Negotiator for TransCanada Pipelines, Canada’s largest energy pipeline and alternate energy company.

Mr. Denhoff serves on the Board of Directors of the Energy Council of Canada, and on the Communications Committee of the World Energy Council. He has served on national boards such as Fair Trade Canada, the National Capitol Commission in Ottawa and hospital foundation and school boards.

He is a director of Foresight Clean Technology Accelerator, and has significant experience in major public project development in Canada and in mediating large-scale land use disputes and modern-day Treaties.

He is married with two children.

Anat Lea Bonshtien

Technology and Regulation Manager, Fuel Choices Initiative, Prime Minister's Office

Dr. Anat Lea Bonshtien is the Senior Manager of Technology and Regulation at the Fuel Choices Initiative, Israel's Prime Minister's Office. Dr. Bonshtien is heading and coordinating the inter-ministerial team in charge of pilots and demonstration process of alternative fuels and alternative mobility technologies. She is also heading the academic program under the Initiative with a focus on creating the Israeli Biofuels Academic Program. In addition, Dr. Bonshtien is in the board of directors of the Israeli Smart Transportation Center. She is also a member of the National Science Committee for Energy under the Ministry of Science and Technology. Dr. Bonshtien is a former Mimshak Fellow, a science and policy fellowship program which integrates scientific knowledge with decision making. Dr. Bonshtien holds a MSc and a PhD in Biochemistry from Tel-Aviv University, Israel.

Lilac Amirav

Assistant Professor, Schulich Faculty of Chemistry, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Lilac Amirav received a Bachelor's degree (B.Sc.) from Tel Aviv University at the age of 18. She received numerous awards for her PhD dissertation from Technion, and the prestigious Rothschild and ‘Sara Lee Schupf’ postdoctoral fellowships. After her postdoctoral research with Prof. Paul Alivisatos at the University of California, Berkeley, Amirav joined the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor. She is affiliated with the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), and the Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP), and a member of the I-CORE “Israel Solar Fuels Consortium” center of excellence in renewable and sustainable energy. Amirav is interested in photocatalysis on the nano scale and related photophysical and photochemical phenomena, with focus on photocatalytic solar-to-fuel conversion.

Lioz Etgar

Senior lecturer, The Institute of Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Lioz Etgar obtained his Ph.D. (2009) at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology and completed post-doctoral research with Prof. Michael Grätzel (2009–2012) at EPFL, Switzerland. During his post-doctoral research, he received a Marie Curie Fellowship and won the Wolf Prize for young scientists.
Since 2012, he has been a senior lecturer in the Institute of Chemistry at the Hebrew University. Etgar’s research group focuses on the development of innovative solar cells. Dr. Etgar is researching new excitonic solar cells structures/architectures while designing and controlling the inorganic sensitizer structure and properties to improve the PV parameters. Dr. Etgar published a pioneer work in the emerging field of perovskite-based solar cells; he was the first to demonstrate the possibility to work without hole conductor in perovskite based solar cells.
Recently Dr. Etgar was awarded the prestigious Krill prize.

Oren Shoval

CTO / Co-Founder, Via

Oren Shoval is the co-founder and CTO of Via, a fully dynamic, on-demand transit network currently operational in NYC. He is a former strategy business consultant at McKinsey, and has spent 10 years in the Israeli Air Force developing and deploying real-time avionic systems for fighter jets. Oren holds a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science where he focused on finding simplifying patterns in complex biological phenomena. He also holds an MSc in electrical engineering and a BSc in physics and math.

Dario Dekel

Associate Professor, Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

After being awarded with the prestigious Katzir Award from the Ministry of Defense of Israel, Prof. Dekel joined Rafael Ltd. where he served as senior researcher, R&D manager, and General Manager of the Power Sources Department. He co-found CellEra in 2007, where as VP for R&D&E led to the development of a novel Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (AEMFC) technology. In 2015 Prof. Dekel joined the Technion. He is the Head of the TEEM Lab for R&D of fuel cells and redox flow batteries for both energy generation and storage. Prof. Dekel published more than 30 patents and papers on battery and fuel cell technologies. He currently holds more than $2M government and company research grants.

Lei Zhou

Partner, Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting LLC

Dr. Lei Zhou has worked on global projects across several regions including the U.S., Europe, Japan, China, and India and has significant experience working on projects in all aspects of consulting; from upstream projects-such as those related to corporate, technology, and overseas business development strategy; to downstream operations-such as constructing detailed business management systems.
Dr. Zhou's recent interests focus on business and technology innovations involving artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and connected mobility.
Dr. Zhou has earned a Ph.D. in Economics.

Piotr Zelenay

Professor of Chemistry, Laboratory Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Dr. Piotr Zelenay received his Ph.D. and D.Sc. (“habilitation”) degrees in chemistry from the University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Texas A&M University, College Station (1983-1986), a visiting professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1988, 1989, 1990-92), University of Alicante, Spain (1994), and Colorado State University (1996-1997). Dr. Zelenay was appointed a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw in 1983 and remained at the University until 1997 when he accepted permanent research position with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). He has been associated with Materials Physics and Applications Division (formerly Materials Science and Technology Division) at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the past 19 years. He is currently Los Alamos Laboratory Fellow, as well as Project Leader and Team Leader at LANL, focusing primarily on fundamental and applied aspects of polymer electrolyte fuel cell science and technology, electrocatalysis and electrode kinetics.

Alex Schechter

Founder & head of the center for hybrid energy systems, Ariel University

Dr. Schechter serves as served until recently as the Chemical Sciences chair. He is the founder and head of the center for hybrid energy systems at Ariel University and the leader of his fuel cells and electrorochemistry group at AU. The prime research fields of his group are advance materials for fuel cells, in particular-nano catalysts for methanol oxidation and non-platinum oxygen reduction catalyst. He is currentlyinvolved in several successful applied research projects including R&D of membrane-less alcohol based fuel cell, and hydrogen generator from chemical hydrides. In addition his group is promoting an extensive research effort to investigate novel electro-catalysts nano-materials for acid type fuel cells. His lab has been awarded by ISF as a center of knowledge in renewable energy. Dr. Schechter is a member of the electrochemical society (ECS) and of IEA.

Christopher Hebling

Director, Division Hydrogen Technologies, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems

Dr. Christopher Hebling is the director of the division Hydrogen Technologies at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. His division comprises like 100 scientists, engineers and students which do research in the field of PEM water electrolysis, PEM fuel cells for the mobility sector and synthetic fuels from green hydrogen and CO2 (Power to Liquid). Next to the research in materials, components and systems, the Institute comprises energy system modellings in order to describe and quantify the various scenarious to reduce the CO2 emissions by at least 80% until the year 2050. Dr. Hebling did his physics PhD in the field of Silicon Photovoltaics at the University of Constance, then he founded a group Micro Energy Technology at Fraunhofer ISE and was then appointed Department Head in 2001 and Director Division in 2011. He is member of various national and international advisory boards such as the Energy Storage Europe and Japan or the HySA Flagship program in South Africa.

Wolfgang Bernhart

Senior Partner, Roland Berger GmbH

Dr. Wolfgang Bernhart has been working for the automotive industry for over 20 years. In 1993, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Karlsruhe's Institute of Production Science and started his career in consulting as a Senior Project Manager. He has been Senior Partner at Roland Berger GmbH since 2007.
Within Roland Berger's Global Automotive Competence Center, he holds global responsibility for all topics related to "Innovation and Technology". His focus areas are "Emission reduction strategies and eMobility", " Intelligent Transportation Systems, incl. Connected vehicles, Driver Assistance and Autonomous Driving", "Big Data analytics/applications of Artificial Intelligence ", and "Future vehicle concepts, incl. low-budget cars".

Mat Schubert

CEO & Founder of Coup Mobility and Head of BBM Mobility Services, Robert Bosch GmbH

Mat has been CEO of Coup Mobility Head since July 2016. He bears responsibility for development of Mobility Services on a business sector level as well as Bosch’s new subsidiary Coup Mobility GmbH in Berlin. In his private life he is doing the 7 summits, loves scuba diving, golfing and his family.

Ariel Sella

Managing Director Capsula - Smart Mobility @ TAU

Prior to Capsula Ariel Sella was an advisor, in the areas of smart energy, smart mobility and entrepreneurship to venture funds, firms, startups and universities; CEO of Silicon Valley startups in the semiconductor and supply chain domains; co-founder of pioneering Internet startups one of which was acquired by AOL; founding partner of Formula Ventures, an early stage Israeli fund; executive at Cadence Design and other EDA firms and chip designer at Intel and other semiconductor firms. Ariel spent his childhood in Israel, Ghana, Japan and the Philippines and received a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Shani Elitzur

PhD Student, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

Shani Elitzur is a PhD student at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, where she also received her MSc Cum Laude (2013) and BSc (2007). After her Bachelor studies Shani served as a Captain in the Aero-Design Branch of the Aircraft Engineering Department of the Israeli Airforce. Shani’s PhD research, under the supervision of Prof. Alon Gany and Dr. Valery Rosenband, investigates on-demand hydrogen production via the aluminum-water reaction and its combination with fuel cells for electric energy storage. During her PhD studies Shani has won a number of prizes, including Ministry of Science Fellowship for PhD students in the field of alternative fuels for transportation (2016), Rieger Fellowship (2015, 2016), 1st Prize in EcoMotion Challenge (2015), and Falling Walls Young Innovator of the Year 2015.

Zviya Baron

Principal, PetroQuantum B.V. and Consultant to the National Energy R&D Council, MOLMOP

Ms. Zviya Baron, a leading Energy Innovation and Policy expert, serves as Director of Innovation at PetroQuantum. Using her 16 years of energy experience, she specializes in designing policies and strategies to promote energy innovation, at the country level and at the corporate level. One of her major assignments is serving as the consultant of for the National Energy committee at the Israeli National Council for Research and Development. Ms. Baron earned her BA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her MBA at the Erasmus University of the Netherlands.

Ayala Karniol

Director of the Life Sciences Department at ISERD - The Israeli R&D Directorate for the European Research Area

Mrs Ayala Karniol is the Director of the Life Sciences Department at ISERD - The Israeli R&D Directorate for the European Research Area. Mrs. Karniol is the member of European Commission Program Committees of 4 thematic areas: Health, Food Security, Energy and Environment. She also serves as Israel State Representative for the Fuel cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking initiative. In addition, Mrs. Karniol is the Legal & Financial National Contact Point to Horizon 2020. Mrs. Karniol holds a MSc in Botany from Tel Aviv University, Israel and MBA from The Open University of Israel.

Michele Ziosi

Head of Institutional Relations Europe, Middle East, Africa Asia Pacific, CNH Industrial, Italy

Michele Ziosi is responsible for CNH Industrial Head of Institutional Relations in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific since 2014. CNH Industrial is global leader in the capital goods sector that designs, produces and sells agricultural (New Holland Agriculture; Case IH) and construction equipment (Case and New Holland Construction), trucks, commercial vehicles, buses (Iveco; Ivecobus) and specialty vehicles, in addition to a broad portfolio of powertrain applications (FPT Industrial). Before joining CNH Industrial, Mr. Ziosi was Head of Institutional Relations and Regulatory affairs at Philip Morris Italy. His responsibilities included the development, management and implementation of regulatory affairs strategy with special focus on national and EU regulations, WTO/Free Trade Agreement, market access of innovative new generation products. Previously, Mr. Ziosi was Responsible for Local Public, Government and Regulatory Affairs and Environmental Policies for Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) Spa in Rome and manager of European Institutional Relations at the Fiat Group Representative Office in Bruxelles and Environmental Policy Manager at FGA Representative Office to the EU in Brussels. For many years Mr. Ziosi led the Italian Association of Natural gas for transport (NGV System Italia). Michele Ziosi was born in Italy where he studied Management Engineering. After his studies he joined the Fiat Group working as Project Manager for CNH in Berlin and as Business Development Manager for FPT Industrial in Lyon.

MK Mr. Ofir Akunis

Israel's Minister of Science, Technology and Space

Ofir Akunis was born in Tel Aviv in 1973. Prior to entering politics, he served in the IDF as a military journalist in the Department of the Head Educational Officer, and earned a B.A. in International Relations and Political Science. A former spokesman for the Likud, he served as Media Consultant to Likud Chairman Netanyahu, Advisor to the Minister of Finance, and Advisor to the Minister of Justice. He was elected to the Knesset in February 2009, serving as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, Chair of the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, and a member of various other committees. In March 2013 Ofir Akunis was appointed Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office. In December 2014 he was also appointed Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection. In May 2015 he was appointed Minister and in September 2015, Minister of Science and Technology. He is married and a father of two.

Norbert Barthle

Parliamentary State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Germany

Norbert Barthle is Parliamentary State Secretary for the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Germany. He also serves as the Chairperson of the Advisory Council at DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH. Norbert Barthle is a Member of the German Bundestag.

Gregory Stephanopoulos

Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, MIT, USA

Greg Stephanopoulos is the W.H. Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at MIT. He received his degrees from the National Technical University of Athens and Minnesota and taught at Caltech before joining MIT. His research focuses on metabolic engineering, the engineering of microbes for the production of fuels and chemicals. He has co-authored or –edited 5 books, more than 430 papers and 50 patents, and supervised more than 120 graduate and post-doctoral students. He has received more than 20 major awards including the Eni Prize for Renewable and non-Conventional Energy. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and Academy of Athens and serves presently as President of AIChE.

Shaul Meridor

Director General, Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources

Shaul Meridor is General Manager of the Infrastructure, Energy and Water ministry in the Government of Israel. Previous to Shaul Meridor’s current position, he held the position of Deputy Director of the Budget Department of the Finance Ministry and led the economic plan & reforms of infrastructure sectors such as energy, transportation, aviation, water & agriculture. During his tenure he initiated many reforms and managed them from idea to execution, among them: Sheshinski committee, Gas export, Israel railways reform, The light-rails in Jerusalem & Tel Aviv and Open skies.
Shaul Meridor holds a BA in PPE (Philosophy, Political Science & Economy) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Moshe E Ben-Akiva

Director, Intelligent Transportation Systems Lab, Edmund K. Turner Prof. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, MIT

Moshe Ben-Akiva is the Edmund K. Turner Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Director of the MIT Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Lab. He holds a PhD degree in Transportation Systems from MIT and honorary degrees from the University of the Aegean, the Université Lumiére Lyon, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), and the University of Antwerp. His awards include the Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Association for Travel Behavior Research, the Jules Dupuit prize from the World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTRS), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ITS Society Outstanding Application Award for DynaMIT, a mesoscopic simulator with algorithms for dynamic traffic assignment, traffic predictions and travel information and guidance. Ben-Akiva has coauthored two books, including the textbook Discrete Choice Analysis, published by MIT Press, and over 200 papers in refereed journals or conference proceedings. He has been a member of over three dozen various scientific committees, advisory boards, and editorial boards. He has worked as a consultant in industries such as transportation, energy, telecommunications, financial services and marketing for a number of private and public organizations, including Hague Consulting Group, RAND Europe, ChoiceStream and Cambridge Systematics, where he was previously a Senior Principal and member of the Board of Directors.

Patrick Ho Chi Ping

Deputy Chairman and Secretary General, China Energy Fund Committee

HO Chi Ping Patrick is the deputy chairman and secretary general of China Energy Fund Committee, a think-tank devoted to public diplomacy, with special emphasis on energy and culture. It is a charitable non-governmental organization with special consultative status from the United Nations Social and Economic Council. In July 2014, he was invited by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, to serve on his High-level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport. He was the Secretary for Home Affairs of the HKSAR Government with a policy portfolio ranging from district administration, arts and culture, youth and religious matters, to overall liaison with the civil society.

Takao Asami

Senior Vice President, Research & Advanced Engineering, Nissan

Takao Asami is the Senior Vice President at Nissan and is in charge of Technology Planning and Advanced Engineering at Nissan. Mr. Asami and his teams are working to establish efficient and effective development methodologies, processes and tools for testing and designing electrical systems. In his current role Mr. Asami also focuses on the role autonomous vehicles will play in society in the future - hopefully eliminating more than 90% of traffic accidents on the roads as well as consuming less energy.
Mr. Asami has also been deeply engaged in helping to develop advanced motoring technology, such as navigation systems, around view monitors, distance control assist systems, and telematics.
Mr. Asami holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Tokyo and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California.

Elmar Frickenstein

Senior Vice President for Fully AutomatedDriving and Driver Assistance, BMW Group

Elmar Frickenstein began his career in the computer and aerospace industries and joined the BMW Group in 1988. After taking on a variety of management positions at BMW, he was appointed Senior Vice President in 2006 and was responsible for the division Electrics, Electronics and Driver Environment for a total of 10 years.
Elmar Frickenstein is one of the pioneers of digitalization in the car. Under his leadership AutoSAR, Ethernet as well as the first apps in the vehicle in 2009 became industry standards. Since beginning his tenure at BMW, he pursues the vision of seamlessly networked and safe vehicles that can run fully automated in the future.

Meital Lehavi

Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo for transportation, construction and infrastructure

Meital Lehavi serves as a city council member since 2003 and as the deputy mayor since 2009. Chairwoman of "Meretz" faction in Tel Aviv-Yafo. Winner of the 2016 "Green Globe" award for her life-long environmental activity.
Throughout her political activity Meital Lehavi has been acting to promote values of democracy, equality and empowerment of disadvantaged communities as well as improving life quality, health, and the environment.
Nowadays, she leads initiatives for technological innovation in the fields of transportation, including projects with the EU.
She participates in Knesset sessions about transportation and bicycle regulations, and acts to change the Israeli wage system by allowing workers to convert their car holding reimbursements for a "Green arrival to work" bonus.
Initiator of Tel Aviv-Yafo's city plan for safe walking to school, the renovations of the city's train stations, and their connectivity with other means of public transport ion. She promotes the expansion of the "Shirot" layout in the city.

Gal Luft

Co-Director, Institute for the Analysis of Global Security

Dr. Gal Luft is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) a Washington based think tank focused on energy security, and a senior adviser to the United States Energy Security Council, a cabinet level exta governmental advisory committee. He is also co-chairman of the Global Forum on Energy Security. He specializes in strategy, geopolitics, energy security, natural resources and economic warfare.

Klaus Bonhoff

Managing Director (Chair), NOW GmbH National Organisation Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology

Dr.-Ing. Klaus Bonhoff, born in 1968, studied Mechanical Engineering at the RWTH Aachen, Germany and ENSTA, Paris, France. He finalized his PhD in energy process engineering at the Research Center Jülich in 1998 and started his professional carreer as assistant to the Board of Directors at the Research Center Jülich in the field of energy and materials research. Later he became head of Fuel Cell Project at Research Center Jülich. In 2001 he joined Ballard Power Systems GmbH as Manager for business development Europe. In 2003 he started working for DaimlerChrysler AG where he held various positions within their fuel cell activities. In 2007 he received a contract with the German National Government to coordinate the German National Innovation Program Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies (NIP). Since February 2008 he is managing director (chair) of NOW GmbH. Dr. Bonhoff is a member of the advisory boards of Fraunhofer ISE, Next Energy Institute, erdgas mobil and ZSW.

Bracha Halaf

Acting Chief Scientist Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources, Israel

Dr. Bracha Halaf is the Chief Scientist and Senior Manager of Oil Replacement Program at the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water resources. Bracha also serves as the Head of the National Coal Ash Board and a member at the Natural Gas Authority Council. Prior to that position she was the Scientific Advisor to the Director General of the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources, Mr. Shaul Zemach. In 2009, Dr. Halaf received her Ph.D in Biophysics from the Weizmann Institute of Science. In addition, Dr. Halaf holds M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

Shahar Waiser

Founder and CEO, Gett

Shahar Waiser is a serial entrepreneur. In 2000 - Founded Russian entity of Comverse and served as its first CEO with a $300M record in total sales. In 2005 founded and successfully sold Loyalize, a social engagement & loyalty start-up based in SF (acquired by Viggle). In 2010 he founded Gett (GetTaxi) on-demand service operating in 52 cities, including: NY, UK, Israel, Moscow and St. Petersburg. Gett is expected to hit $500M in Revenues by Dec’15 and keep growing by 300% per annum. In 2013 Gett was selected by FORBES as one of the fastest growing companies in the world.

Taras Wankewycz

CEO, HES Energy Systems

Taras Wankewycz has over 15 years' experience in business development, corporate venture capital and marketing consulting in France, Netherlands, UK and US. Taras also worked at Eastman Chemical, where he was developing new venturing opportunities within the Cleantech sector, with a focus on the EMEA region. Earlier in his career, he developed business across Europe for Frost & Sullivan’s Chemical practice as well as for Halogen Arkwright, a Scandinavian consulting firm. At Horizon, Taras was instrumental in the company’s fundraising, driving its distinct product designs, as well as international PR & marketing capability. Since February 2011, Taras took charge of Horizon's new venture focusing on high energy density fuel cell systems for aerospace/defense applications (Horizon Energy Systems in Singapore).

Emanuel Peled

Professor, School of Chemistry,
Tel Aviv University

Professor Emanuel Peled is the inventor and developer of the Solid-Electrolyte-Interphase (SEI) model for nonaqueous alkali-metal batteries. This model constitutes a paradigm change in the understanding of lithium batteries and has thus enabled the development of safer, durable, higher-power and lower-cost batteries. He pioneered the development of several electrochemical systems including: lithium/sulfur battery, alkali-metal/air batteries, a very-low-cost nanoporous proton-conducting membrane (NP-PCM), a direct methanol fuel cell, a direct ethylene glycol fuel cell, hydrogen tribromide fuel cells and developed low-cost core-shell nanosize platinum-based catalysts. Emanuel Peled was a co-founder of three energy-related startup companies based on the technology developed in his laboratory.

Detlef Stolten

Director, Institute of Electrochemical Process Engineering IEK‐3 Juelich Research Center

Professor Stolten is director of the Institute of Electrochemical Process Engineering at the Juelich Research Center (DE), holds the chair for fuel cells at the RWTH Aachen University and used to work for Bosch and Daimler Benz/Dornier.
His research is focused on electrochemistry and process engineering for different types of fuel cells and electrolyzers. Energy systems analysis and energy strategy were taken up in 2010. Professor Stolten is chairman of the Executive Committee of the Technology Collaboration Program ‘Advanced Fuel Cells’ of the IEA and fulfills further official and advisory functions in international committees. He has also published 200 scientific articles and edited six books.

Eiji Ohira

Director, New Energy Technology Dept., New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)

Eji Ohira is Director at NEDO and in charge of NEDO’s fuel cell and hydrogen technology group.
Mr. Ohira graduated from Tokyo University of Science in March 1992, and joined the New Energy and Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in April of the same year. He dispatched to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a visiting researcher 1997, subsequently serving as both Deputy Director at NEDO’s Representative Office in Bangkok, and Director of the Electricity Storage Technology Development Division, before taking up the current position in April 2013.

Thomas Jordan

President, the International Association for Hydrogen Safety HySafe & Head of the Hydrogen Group, IKET, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Thomas Jordan is mechanical engineer working in the multiphysics domain at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT, since 1989. He is heading the Hydrogen Group of IKET and teaching “Hydrogen Technologies”.
In 1994 he received his doctoral degree from University Karlsruhe. In 2001 he founded a spin-off for data mining in the semiconductor industries and returned to KIT to coordinate the EC Network of Excellence HySafe in 2003. Since 2009 he is member of the executive board, since 2015 president of the succesor organisation, International Association for Hydrogen Safety HySafe, and member of ICHS scientific and organisation committees.

Lior Elbaz

Head, Israel Fuel Cells Consortium & Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Bar Ilan University

Lior Elbaz received his PhD in chemical engineering from the Ben-Gurion University, Israel where he specialized in electrochemistry and worked on the development of bio-inspired catalysts for fuel cells. He continued his research in the field at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM, USA, a world leader in the development of fuel cell technology; there he worked on various aspects of this technology, from electrocatalysis to inorganic chemistry, materials chemistry and engineering as a postdoctoral associate. During his time there, he expended his interests into photovoltaics and metal-air batteries. He is now continuing his research on renewable energy related projects at the Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

Matthew Tirrell

Deputy Laboratory Director for Science, Argonne National Laboratory

Matthew Tirrell is Deputy Laboratory Director for Science at Argonne National Laboratory and also serves as Founding Pritzker Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering (IME) at the University of Chicago. His personal research specializes in the manipulation and measurement of polymer surface properties. Dr. Tirrell’s work has provided new insight into phenomena such as adhesion, friction, and biocompatibility, and has contributed to the development of new materials based on self-assembly of synthetic and bio-inspired materials. In addition, he has provided leadership to numerous national and regional organizations, including the Science and Technology Panel of the University of California President’s Council for National Laboratory Administration from 2000 to 2010.

Dana Lowell

Director, Open Innovation & Technology Ventures, Faurecia xWorks

As Director of Open Innovation and Technology Ventures at Faurecia’s xWorks Innovation Centers, Dana Lowell is responsible for leading a global open innovation network to find new technologies, concepts, and companies for collaboration at Faurecia. Mr. Lowell and his team identify key market, partnership & investment opportunities through open innovation models across a global network.
Faurecia xWorks is a cross functional product & business incubator focusing on strategic innovation. xWorks employs a “lean” pre-development activity heavily focused on leveraging technology collaborations, joint development, licensing, and strategic investing. Mr. Lowell's primary focus is to develop an advantaged portfolio of consumer driven product solutions for the automotive market sector.

Ding Lei

SEE Plan Co-founder Global Vice Chairman & Managing Director, LeEco

As Co-founder, Global Vice Chairman and Managing Director of the SEE plan, Ding
Lei is fully responsible for and leads the strategic developing and overall planning of
LeEco's EV ecosystem across the entire industry chain. He is dedicated to promoting
the Internet connected EV ecosystem. Since mid-2015, under Ding’s leadership,
the ecosystem has been making rapid progress, represented by the world-leading
technologies LeEco has developed for smart connected EVs. Ding has also develop
a whole-industry strategy covering R&D, manufacturing, sales, IOV, smart driving,
charging, post-sales service, car sharing and social operations, which is rapidly
driving LeEco's SEE plan towards greater success.

Intakhab Khan

Director, Electrics/Electronics Competence Center Asia, Audi China Enterprise Management Co., Ltd.

Under Mr. Khan's leadership and guidance, the complete Electrics/Electronics area in Asia was successfully restructured, in order to have it future compliant for the impacts of disruptive technologies from CE industry and Chinese & Japanese OEMs. Meanwhile, Mr. Khan has established the lean and innovative processes in Project Management, Product Development, Purchasing and Quality with existing and new suppliers.
The development time of the Software and hardware in EE (Electrics / Electronics) was reduced during his leadership, while the German automotive DNA in products are still kept. Mr. Khan is Initiating new development projects for the next evolutionary generation of Connected Vehicle modules and features. As the component and functional owner, he is responsible for development of in-car components, backend and the connection to the content providers.

Mary-Rose de Valladares

Manager, The International Energy Agency Hydrogen Implementing Agreement (IEA HIA)

Mary-Rose de Valladares is the Manager of the International Energy Agency Hydrogen Implementing Agreement (IEA HIA), the largest global innovation collaboration in hydrogen R,D&D. She has a track record for leading the transformation of ideas, policies, projects, organizations, and technology from concept and development through financing and implementation. Formerly with the DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Ms. de Valladares is the founding principal of M.R.S. Enterprises, LLC, providing management consulting services in energy, environment and sustainability. Proficient in four languages, she holds an MBA from Georgetown University, an MA in an urban planning field, and a Diplôme from the Sorbonne.

Igor Derzy

Manager, The R&D Department at Chief Scientist office of Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources

Dr Igor Derzy manages the R&D Department at Chief Scientist office of Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources. He is a Chemist, Physicist, true Multidisciplinary Scientist, well experienced Project Manager and Entrepreneur. Through his diverse career Igor initiated and managed several R&D and commercialization projects and enterprises in Biomedical, Energy and Fuel Cell fields. Dr Derzy holds a PhD in Experimental Chemical Physics from Tel Aviv University, is a coauthor of more than 12 peer reviewed papers and an inventor and co-inventor of several patents.

Guy N. Michrowski

CEO, TerraGenic

Mr. Guy Nevo Michrowski has been Terragenic's CEO since January 2015. He brings 20 years of experience in growing the business of technology companies in the consumer electronics and energy markets. Guy's track record includes co-founding a start-up in the consumer electronic market which was acquired by a NASDAQ traded company, as well as various leadership roles as VP marketing and sales. Guy is the inventor of one patent, and holds a Bs.C (Hons) in Business Management, from the University of Surrey.

Clement Chandon

Head of Gas Development for IVECO in Europe, Middle East and Africa

Clement Chandon - 43, Married, one son & a daughter.
Mr. Chandon is the Head of Gas Development for IVECO in Europe, Middle East and Africa in charge of commercial stakeholders relations and of engagement of boosting the infrastructure network for gas in the transport sector. Before of that Mr. Chandon held various managerial positions within IVECO as IVECO Bus chief engineer for diesel and CNG engines in Lyon France and IVECO Trucks Marketing and Product manager for France. Previous to that he has been in charge of commercial logistic in Germany for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and of quality for New Holland, one of the agricultural brand of CNH Industrial. He holds a Master degree in Mechanics and CAD-CAM programming of the University of Metz (France).

Arieh Meitav

CTO, ETV Energy Ltd.

Pioneer of Li-Ion battery technology, with over 35 year industrial experience. Founder of ETV Energy; R&D management in Tadiran Battery Division; co-founder of Electric Fuel; Inventor of a proton conductive super-capacitor (EDLC) (AVX-USA - www.avx.com) and was in charge to its development and industrialization; leader of four start-up ventures in the area of material science: Tribology, Sapphires, Piezoelectric micro-generator; Ice Generator.

Holds a BSc in Chemistry and a PhD in electrochemistry and is the author of 10 patents and 7 applications and has published numerous technical monographs.