digital manufacturing summit north america

Jake Hall is the Manufacturing Millennial. With over a decade of experience working with manufacturers, system integrators, and distributors in the manufacturing and automation industry, he understands the importance of advocating Industry 4.0, digital technology, robotics, and automation solutions. But more importantly, he recognizes the need and demand for companies and organizations to begin attracting and mentoring the future skilled workforce of upcoming generations. With Jake’s personal brand, the “Manufacturing Millennial,” he has created an audience of 50,000+ followers with over 50 million views on social media in less than two years. But Jake’s advocacy doesn’t stop online; he has given dozens of high-energy keynote presentations discussing the future of our manufacturing industry and how it needs to change through technology, culture, and workforce. When Jake isn’t advocating manufacturing, you’ll find him at a Chicago Cubs game, smoking BBQ, fishing, or building Lego with his two daughters.  

Susanne joined AGCO Corporation in 2012, initially as a project manager for Manufacturing Automation. In her current role as Director, Global Advanced Manufacturing Technology she represents the business in regards to the Enterprise PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) implementation at all global sites. This is an enabler for AGCO’s Design Anywhere Build Anywhere platform strategy, because it allows the virtual collaboration between the plants. Expanding on this she also governs projects in other areas of the digital shop floor transformation. Susanne is therefore one of the main contributors to the global strategy for Manufacturing 4.0 (Smart Factory),and is part of a team that investigates the applications for advanced production tools, such as Additive Manufacturing, Collaborative Robots, AGV’s and Wearable Technologies, as well as simulation tools. Susanne holds a degree in Production Engineering from her native Germany, and came to the United States in 1993 as part of the Space Shuttle manufacturing team. In April of 2017 Susanne received the prestigious STEP Ahead Award from the Manufacturing Institute for her achievements as a female in the manufacturing industry, and a few weeks later she was voted on the national BoD for Women in Manufacturing. Later that year she also received the Front Line Leadership Award from the Georgia Manufacturing Alliance. In February of 2021 Susanne was being named one of 20 women making their mark in robotics and automation by the Society of Manufacturing Engineering (SME).Susanne currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Women in Manufacturing(WiM) Educational Foundation, and heads the WiM Georgia chapter. She also serves on the BoD for the ASM Materials Education Foundation. In her spare time Susanne is an avid equestrian.

Cameron Peahl has an extensive career in aerospace manufacturing at Eaton and now leads the Eaton Research Labs – AM Center of Excellence. Cameron started his career in conventional aerospace manufacturing in various roles across in manufacturing and quality functions working with multiple processes such as milling, turning, grinding, EDM, and Welding. Cameron joined the ERL in 2018 to lead the AMCoE in obtaining their AS9100 certification and becoming Eaton’s first aerospace AM production site. He and the ERL team, with support from Eaton Aerospace’s AM Team, have successfully developed L-PBF aluminum parameters, developed Qualified Metallurgical Processes, and obtained aerospace customer manufacturing approval. Cameron holds a bachelors of science in Mechanical Engineering from Roger Williams University and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth.

CHARLES C. BYERS is Associate Chief Technology Officer of the Industry Internet Consortium and also Chief Technology Officer at Valqari. He works on the architecture and implementation of edge computing systems, common platforms, media processing systems, and the Internet of Things. Previously, he was a Principal Engineer and Platform Architect with Cisco, and a Bell Labs Fellow at Alcatel-Lucent. During his three decades in the telecommunications networking industry, he has made significant contributions in areas including voice switching, broadband access, converged networks, VoIP, multimedia, video, modular platforms, edge-fog computing and IoT. He has also been a leader in several standards bodies, including serving as CTO for the Industrial Internet Consortium and OpenFog Consortium, and was a founding member of PICMG’s AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC, and MicroTCA subcommittees.

Mr. Byers received his B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In his spare time, he likes travel, cooking, bicycling, and tinkering in his workshop. He holds over 110 US patents.

Tracy Schrauben has over 20 years of experience in manufacturing with time spent at Kimberly Clark and the majority of her career with John Deere with various roles in Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Global Project Management, and Operations Management. Her current role in Manufacturing Technology brings together her background in manufacturing and her passion for technology and continuous improvement, where her team focuses on emerging technologies that will positively disrupt the manufacturing facilities at Deere. She has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from The University of Akron, Ohio and a Master’s degree in Project Management from University of Wisconsin-Platteville. She has a passion for growing diversity in the field of manufacturing and has spent the last decade involved in many organizations from the Girl Scouts of America to Society for Women Engineers and is also heavily involved in the employee resource groups at John Deere.

Sarfraz is a former data scientist who helped develop large scale platform and analytics capabilities, at big tech & startups. Currently he is driving Digital & Innovation at J&J’s Supply Chain organization. Previously, he led development of an industry-leading digital attribution solution with an analytics startup. During his time at Microsoft, Sarfraz was part of the early team building data & analytics infrastructure for Bing, which ultimately form the building blocks for Microsoft Azure. He holds an MS in Information Retrieval from Columbia University and is a classically trained vocalist

Abhishek is Platform Chief Engineer in the Power Systems Business Unit at Cummins. In 15 years of extensive experience at Cummins, he has worked in different disciplines including performance engineering, quality, controls, technical managing, system validation and manufacturing engineering. Most recently, he completed a 3-year expatriate assignment in China, leading establishment of cross functional technical team of 100+ engineers. In his current role, Abhishek leads engine platforms Q19, Q38, Q50, Q23 and V28 for global product lifecycle development with a team of 300+ engineers and product teams.

He has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from USC, Los Angeles along with MBA from Kelley School of Business.

Nikki Gonzales boasts a decade-long background as a sales engineer specializing in machine vision systems and mechatronics in smart manufacturing. Throughout her career, she has implemented and supported automation solutions across a wide range of industries. Nikki’s expertise also extends to the design aspect of engineering, including multi-physics simulation used in virtual prototyping and design optimization of electronics. Nikki also led business development and implementation of advanced analytics for supply chain management, such as forecasting and inventory optimization for retail suppliers at Algo.

Currently, Nikki is transforming the procurement process in industrial automation distribution through Quotebeam, an innovative online marketplace and workflow automation platform. This platform enables distributors and customers to collaborate efficiently, streamlining the procurement experience. Nikki is also a co-host of the podcast Automation Ladies. As a panelist, Nikki offers invaluable insights into the latest developments in automation, digital transformation, and smart manufacturing practices.

Shameka Lewis is an EHS Professional from Fort Worth, Texas. She has over 8 years’ experience in manufacturing and supply chain services. Her responsibilities include management and implementation of company strategies and initiatives as well as ensuring compliance of regulatory standards and procedures. 

Shameka is a graduate safety professional, with an established track record of driving down TRIR, leading project manager on numerous capital projects, developing and delivering safety training and ensuring compliance among vendors and contractors. 

Shameka has a passion for the overall safety and health of employees and environmental management. She continues to strive for innovative, sustainable solutions and increasing employee engagement within the workplace.

Shameka serves on the Women in Manufacturing Education Foundation Board of Directors, on the board for Women in Manufacturing Texas Chapter as Vice Chair and Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Lead, and as a Dallas Independent School District industry partner for CTE.

Shameka holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Health and Safety and a Master of Science in Environmental Management. 

Accomplished IT Business Expert with 20+ years industry experience. Works with Enterprise Clients to help them conceptualize and build solutions to meet their goals. Highly customer centric and passionate about business transformation. 

I am a Business Transformation Expert, with expertise focusing on Product Manager in Cloud, IoT and Artificial Intelligence.

I focus on 3 keys areas:
• Delivering Business Value to my Customers through innovative initiatives
• Guiding my Customers Journey of Modernizing their Infra to the Cloud and any Transformation
• Driving enterprise digital transformation through Intelligent Assets

I help my Customers:
• Create efficiencies
• Allow for stronger business decisions through analytics
• Reduce product delivery lead times
• Scale with industry demands
• Simplify their IT estate  

As an engineering professional, Tinika is passionate about bringing value to organisations and the world, through the application of engineering. 

Her foundational experience in based in FMCG operations. During this time, she observed the gap in engineering being applied to the exploding needs of Sustainability. 

This led to her leading operational efficiency improvements, across global facilities, in the Energy and Water space. Through this, transitioned to leading Digital Transformation that focusses on integrating engineering competencies with digital tools to support, drive and deliver sustainability goals, in the global context. 

Her practical insights, leadership and application of strong engineering skills has allowed successful value-add to organisations. 

When not leading digital tools development and implementation, she can be found reading, smothering her furbabies or watching a movie with her husband.