Speakers
Gerald Deren
Executive Director Americas Academic Enablement, Siemens PLM Software
Mr. Deren has spent the past 39 years primarily focused on helping companies in mature and emerging markets find ways to improve their product and/or process development methods. His work has resulted in ways to improve efficiency, reduce development costs and helping them develop a competitive advantage. As a process SME, he helps them focus on improving quality, and improving efficiency and execution through via enabling technology, process optimization and skill enhancement. He represents the voice of the customer and coach’s and counsel’s improvement into solution development.
Gerry leads a team of Academic professionals for Siemens Digital Industries Software (DISW) Americas Zone, focused on helping academia become “relevant” for manufacturers as they face the challenges of sustainment within their innovation, validation and manufacturing lifecycles.
Mr. Deren is on many Advisory Boards focused on establishing / building an OEM to SMB to Academia (K-12 through Higher Ed) ecosystem consisting of engineering and digital manufacturing domains (eg. curriculum adaptation, research and joint projects). He is a well-known speaker on Industry 4.0, and other model-based topics including business process improvement, global supply chain collaboration and product lifecycle management.
He joined Siemens to develop their business development organization in 1998.
Joel SChaafsma
General Manager, Research - SAMA
As the leader of the Research organization within the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA), Joel works with top professionals in the world’s leading companies to develop the practice of Strategic Account management. He conducts practical research focused on creating knowledge and tools for current and emerging trends and practices within SAM.
Prior to joining SAMA, Joel was most recently a Strategic Account Manager in the world of logistics, directly responsible for enabling fulfilment logistics for several brands including Yankee Candle, jARDEN, Hallmark, and AutoZone.
Joel has always put the customer at the center of business strategy, starting his career consulting with organizations on developing Customer eXperience programs in order to create strategies that drive Customer Loyalty.
