Dr. Kayser joined Siemens in 1995 and was promoted to President of the Industrial Automation Systems in 2001. In 2004, Dr. Kayser was named President and CEO of Siemens Ltd. Seoul and Speaker of Siemens Corporation in South Korea. Dr. Kayser has served as Chief Strategy Officer of Siemens AG since 2006.

Jenny Bofinger-Schuster, Senior Vice President for Sustainability and Cities, leads the Siemens Center of Competence Cities. The purpose of the center within Siemens is to offer integrated solutions addressing the challenges caused by urbanization, climate change, and globalization, shaping tomorrow's urban infrastructures.

Her additional responsibilities include the company’s global sustainability program and its implementation. Bofinger-Schuster’s professional focus encompasses resource and energy efficiency, sustainability management, and Siemens’ Business to Society approach.

Prior to her 2017 promotion to senior vice president for sustainability and cities, Bofinger-Schuster served as a partner with Siemens Management Consulting, joining the company in 2008. In that role she developed trendsetting strategies in areas ranging from mobility to healthcare on a global scale. Bofinger-Schuster has more than 12 years’ experience in management consultancy within and outside of Siemens, previously working with Horváth & Partners Management Consultants, where she focused on financial and controlling projects as well as information technology project management.

Bofinger-Schuster holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Dayton and a bachelor’s degree from Kauffrau University of Augsburg.

Frank Braunschweig, senior product manager at Bentley Systems, holds a degree in civil engineering and a Master of Science in environmental modeling. He has extensive experience in software development and environmental modeling, including coastal areas, reservoirs, watersheds, and urban areas. Braunschweig is responsible for ACTION Modulers’ software products—recently acquired by Bentley Systems—and technical coordinator of the MOHID Modeling System. Over the past 20 years, he has participated in several European research projects and many consulting projects related with numerical modeling and software development.

After working several years as a researcher at the University of Lisbon, he continued his work in the private sector, becoming responsible of ACTION Modulers’ research and development unit. Braunschweig participated and coordinated many projects where the usage and the integration of the MOHID Modeling System play a central role. MOHID Studio, ACTION Modulers’ core product, is used by hundreds of water professionals around the globe. He recently coordinated the development of new cloud-based server products, such as ACTION Flood a flood early warning system. As senior product manager at Bentley, he is responsible for further developing software products for the global water market.

Ton de Vries has over 25 years of experience in the utility and government solution business. During his 13 years with Bentley, he has been responsible for Bentley utility and government success in the Netherlands, Germany, and Eastern Europe as sales director for these regions. Upon his relocation to Exton, Pennsylvania in 2008, he has led Bentley’s 3D City initiative as a solution executive for government. More recently, de Vries was responsible for the global water and wastewater modeling sales team. In 2016, he became business development director for utilities and is currently leading the global business development activities for Bentley’s OpenUtilities solutions, in close coordination with Siemens Energy Management.

Before joining Bentley, de Vries worked for seven years as the sales director for a Dutch Bentley partner. Prior to that, he was co-owner of a regional software and consultancy firm, specializing in document management for utilities and government. He started his career at Intergraph Benelux as a MicroStation support engineer. de Vries holds a bachelor’s degree in automotive engineering.

Chintana Herrin is a reality modeling product marketing manager with Bentley Systems primarily focused on applications pertaining to 3D photogrammetry and point clouds. She is responsible for Bentley’s ContextCapture, Descartes, and Pointools applications. Herrin has nearly 20 years’ experience marketing engineering software. She provides current and prospective Bentley users valuable insights into the advantages the company’s technologies provide to their organizations.

Raoul Karp is responsible for the strategic direction and management of Bentley’s structural, offshore, and pipe stress analysis and design products. He was previously with RAM International responsible for development and product management and joined Bentley as part of an acquisition. Prior to this, Karp was with Degenkolb Engineers in San Francisco, specializing in seismic analysis and design.

A native of South Africa, Karp earned a bachelor’s degree from Rice University, in Houston, and a master’s degree in structural engineering from the University of Texas, in Austin. He is a well-published author and has made several presentations at various conferences including the World Earthquake Conference, the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), and the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). He is also an active industry partner on the Committee of US Resiliency Council, of which Bentley is a founding member.

Robert Mankowski leads the product teams responsible for Bentley’s AssetWise capabilities and services for water and wastewater, geospatial, and communications infrastructure. AssetWise provides informed decision support from capital planning through proactive asset maintenance, enabling owner/operators to mitigate risk, increase operational efficiency, and ensure regulatory compliance.

Mankowski has over 20 years’ experience in software development and is a co-inventor of seven patented technologies. He joined Bentley Systems in 2004 as part of Bentley’s acquisition of Haestad Methods, a pioneer in object-oriented hydraulic analysis software, where he served as chief technology officer. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Drexel University and is a licensed professional engineer.

Trudy Norris-Grey is a recognized leader in the information technology industry, with over 30 years of success spanning global sales, marketing, channel and partner strategies, business development, and portfolio transformation. As Microsoft’s leader for business development for its industry business, Norris-Grey heads a team focused on digital transformation – including creating, incubating, and accelerating new markets and business models for Microsoft’s CityNext program, serving public-sector customers as their operations and responsibilities evolve and change.

Prior to assuming her current role, Norris-Grey held leadership positions at Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and BT. In all these positions, she was a champion of the customer, seeking to discover their unmet needs to provide better service and increase customer satisfaction, revenue, and profit. In 2012, Norris-Grey joined Microsoft as general manager where she oversaw the public-sector business in central and eastern Europe.

Norris-Grey attended the University of South Wales, INSEAD Fontainebleu, Harvard Business School, Smith College, and the Judge Business School - Cambridge. She is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales (2008); Honorary Fellow of the University of South Wales (2013); and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA).

Patrick Quigley is executive vice president and general manager of Nearmap’s international partnerships and expansion business. He is responsible for driving the growth and expansion of Nearmap’s global partner business. Quigley joined the company in February 2016 and he lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Quigley brings more than 25 years of experience to Nearmap, helping fast moving international companies deliver disruptive content and analytic solutions across a wide variety of industries. His passionate leadership style, along with his customer-centric and consultative approach, has allowed his teams to tailor complex technology offerings into business solutions for his clients and partners in the global marketplace.

Prior to joining Nearmap, Quigley held senior executive positions at both early stage and established leaders in software, content, and the analytics space, such as SPSS, IRI, and MarkLogic. During his successful career, he has been part of some of the industry’s more innovative times, such as the emergence and growth of the predictive analytics space while at SPSS and the disruptive NOSQL Big Data movement while at MarkLogic.

Quigley earned a Master in Business from DePaul University’s Kellstadt School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Dayton.

Jarmo Suomisto is the manager of Helsinki 3D+ and is responsible for creating, maintaining, and delivering virtual models over the whole city. 3D+ integrates new technology and workflows to processes and city services. 3D+ is a 2016 Be Inspired award winner, and currently the program’s focus is on creating the Helsinki Energy-Atlas, the Masterplan on City Information Model, and the Smart Kalasatama Digital Twin.

Working more than 25 years with 3D and geographic information systems (GIS) in building design and city planning, Suomisto has a practical understanding of 3D’s great potential. Suomisto is an architect and holds a Master of Science in civil engineering from Helsinki University of Technology.

Ken Adamson is responsible for all aspects of the building, electrical, plant and structural detailing products from conceptual design through detailed design and into lifecycle operations. He recently returned from Beijing, China, where he was based for three years helping to identify new opportunities and expand on Bentley’s design modeling set of applications to meet the specific needs for the Chinese market.

Adamson has over 25 years’ experience in the development of software applications for infrastructure industries. Prior to joining Bentley Systems in 2004, he worked for Aspen Technology, Inc. Adamson has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Liverpool, England.

Valentijn de Leeuw's responsibilities include research and consulting in the process industries, with a concentration on clients in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. De Leeuw's focus areas include organizational change and effectiveness, business process improvement, value-based performance management, governance, project management, knowledge management, operations management, asset management, innovation and engineering, and manufacturing IT.

His technology focus is on manufacturing operations, performance, and supply chain management, as well as the role of the knowledge worker in manufacturing. De Leeuw has extensive experience in best management practices in process industries, including chemical, polymer, metals, energy, food, pharmaceutical, and petroleum manufacturing. His experience includes knowledge of unit processes, simulation, and modeling, and business practices utilizing application software designed for manufacturing operations.

De Leeuw serves as point of contact for ARC's Benchmarking Consortium in Europe and acts as an independent expert-evaluator of research projects for the European Commission in the Information and Communication domains. De Leeuw holds a Ph.D. in technical sciences from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands (in cooperation with Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris and IFP) and a master’s degree in chemistry from Utrecht State University, The Netherlands.

Bernd Kokkelink heads the COMOS plant engineering and operation organization within Siemens’ process and drives division. Kokkelink has more than 25 years of experience with industrial software solutions for the process industry in various technical and management roles. In 2008, he joined Siemens and worked on different software projects for process engineering, plant design and operation, data analytics, and visualization.

Jaco Kruger is a process control engineer with Hatch working on industrial process plant projects. He is involved with control and instrumentation design, software and system engineering, commissioning, and advanced process control. Kruger worked on various large industrial projects and has recently been involved in the SO2 Abatement project using Siemens COMOS design software integrated into Bentley’s OpenPlant solution. Kruger holds a BEng degree in computer and electronic from North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa and is a candidate engineer member of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA).

JJ van der Merwe started his career in the aerospace industry as production engineer before exploring the world of finance and data mining as a consultant. Moving into mining allowed him to explore his passion of developing statistical modelling and information architecture. This lead to the development of a project office for De Beers Marine to drive an integrated portfolio management to ensure benefit realization is achieved. During this time he establishes key building blocks in developing the business to grow and perform more efficient. This included a detail information management system and philosophy ensuring baselines and learning’s are being captured, repeats of wrong behavior is limited while good initiatives finds its way into the rest of the business.

Understanding the problems of project management he followed the route of systems engineering to assist the engineering and technical disciplines to align their requirements with business requirements. This enabled him to change career and became the operations manager at De Beers Marine. He assisted and developed scenarios for De Beers Marine future linking to business and asset optimization to ensure competitive and clear direction is given and followed to provide maximum benefit to shareholders and employees regarding growth as well as a high performance organization.

He joined the De Beers global mining team as Group Lead: Project Management Support to assist in driving value from capital projects and ensuring stay in business capital is aligned to future business growth and benefit realization. This allowed De Beers capital allocation excellence and not having projects that exposes the business. Currently he has moved to De Beers Principal: Project Performance where he continues his vision of having an organization that has an integrated information approach to improve overall asset and project performances, ensuring step changes in Revenue and Cost respectively to ensure a sustainable future. Driving performance from a capital management and portfolio management with focus on costs, people and systems to allow maximum benefit to the business and clients.

Steve Cockerell joined Bentley Systems in 2002 through the company’s acquisition of Infrasoft, and has since worked as part of a team delivering knowledge and expertise to its users in the transportation industry, speaking at international conferences in the U.K., U.S., Middle East, China, Japan, and Australia. More recently, he has focused on rail and transit, helping to establish Bentley as the leading supplier of software and services to the global rail infrastructure community.

Cockerell has more than 20 years of industry experience, which he began by studying civil engineering and working as a highway designer for local government in the U.K. He joined MOSS Systems in 1990 as an application engineer demonstrating functionality and highlighting the benefits delivered by CAD-based design applications for highways, rail, and land development projects.

Following Infrasoft’s acquisition of MOSS Systems, Cockerell served as channel marketing director where he helped develop and launch Arenium, an engineering collaboration product that enabled multi-user access to MX 3D design models. This paved the way for technology that supports building information modelling processes now demanded by industry and governments around the world.

James Colclough is leading the advancement of digital project delivery within civil infrastructure (EMIA region) for AECOM. He is at the forefront of project delivery, working with clients and project teams to deliver innovative approaches to provide efficiency and quality improvements. This includes working across a number of sectors and major projects. Colclough has a technical background in geographical information systems (GIS) and started applying building information modeling (BIM) to the transportation sector in the early days of the Level 2 mandate. He has since set and implemented digital/BIM strategies for AECOM and clients. Colclough provides holistic digital leadership on major programs of work and is focused on addressing behavioral change whilst implementing innovative and progressive solutions.

Mike Coldrick has worked within the AEC market for the over 30 years. He current focus is on the global rail market. Prior to this he held the position of Vice President EMEA for transportation and local infrastructure department for over 12 years. Before joining Bentley, he was the Managing Director for Cadac, EMEA’s largest Bentley reseller before the company was purchased by Bentley Systems in 2002.

Coldrick is a strong advocate for BIM in the civil engineering market and has worked with large engineering firms and government departments in order progress this process as a standard in the UK. Coldrick’s business ambition is to help ensure that the design process generates data that is as reliable, trusted and accurate and as mobile as possible.

Mark Eaden is a technical director and head of digital engineering for the Arcadis UK Rail Sector. In this role, Eaden is responsible for the realization of Arcadis global rail strategy in the rail sector. He brings 25 years of experience in the rail industry and has been fortunate to have worked on several high profile rail projects in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Eaden has long been an advocate for the use of digital technologies in engineering, delivering papers on proto-BIM in the late 1990s including the pioneering use of signal sighting visualizations (with Infrasoft) and other digital solutions on the Thameslink 2000 project. In 2007, Eaden secured the Bentley Be Inspired Award in Los Angeles for the use of visualization techniques to inform design development on the East London Line Project; he followed this again in 2009, winning the Be Inspired Award in Charlotte, again demonstrating the usefulness of visualizations to drive engineering decisions on projects large and small.

Taylor Gilmore is the senior product manager of OpenRail for Asset Performance at Bentley and oversees the direction of Bentley’s AssetWise products and supporting mobile applications. Gilmore has spent the past eight years working on infrastructure asset management software and has been directly involved in the successful planning, design, and delivery of over 20 infrastructure management systems during his time as a project manager and product manager at Bentley.

During this tenure, Gilmore has been closely tied to the infrastructure industry by attending and presenting at transportation, preservation, and asset management conferences, in addition to his role in numerous inspection and asset management software implementations. As a product manager with Bentley, Gilmore utilizes his knowledge of the industry by working jointly with Bentley development teams to define requirements for the next generation of asset management solutions. Gilmore has bachelor’s degree in computer science from Grove City College and is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Mark Hansford is the editor of New Civil Engineer, responsible for driving content across all activities and for the development of new digital and event products. Hansford has over 20 years’ civil engineering industry experience, first as practicing qualified engineer and then as award winning journalist. His remit is simple: to help professional engineers become better engineers by providing thought-provoking and inspiring content around future technologies and technical excellence.

Jon Kerbey is director of BIM at High Speed 2, responsible for the strategic and standardized implementation of BIM across the programme to increase efficiency through design, construction, testing, operations and maintenance. He has focused his career primarily on software development, systems architecture, integration, and information management in various organizations within the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Kerbey is passionate about process efficiency and has led successful process-, change-, and technology-driven projects. He holds a master’s degree in business and management and is a chartered IT professional.

Kivanc Karakas is product manager for OpenRail Designer and OpenRail ConceptStation applications. He is also responsible for interoperability of solutions under the OpenRail brand. Karakas is a civil engineer and has a Master of Science in construction management. He is currently working on his Ph.D. thesis on rail lifecycle.

Prior to Bentley, Karakas worked in the transportation industry as a design engineer and delivered a wide range of projects, from rail design to highways and drainage. At Bentley, he worked extensively on rail track design and rail electrification. He also developed add-ons addressing local requirements. His experience in design engineering and software development provides him a unique perspective on product management.

Mowbray was appointed as chief executive at National College for High Speed Rail in September 2016. Her involvement with the National College started in 2014 when she joined HS2 Ltd. to lead on its development. Since then, she has been instrumental in taking the project from concept through to its current stage of development working across stakeholders to achieve buy-in and support for the project.

Mowbray’s career has been varied working in both the public and private sector. Her roles have included being a Management Consultant at PwC, Project Director at Tribal Education and running her own business. The common thread throughout has been working with organisations dedicated to supporting people through skills development. Her wide experience is an excellent platform for successfully implementing the National College, given its clear mandate to closely link skills development with the economy.

Mowbray is passionate about promoting the opportunities that the high speed rail sector affords to a wide range of learners through an innovative teaching model.

Chris Preston is currently a senior engineer with the safety, technical, and engineering directorate for Network Rail; in addition, he is currently the Bentley visiting professor to the National College for High Speed Rail.

Preston’s surveying career spans more than 40 years, including professional practice in the fields of asset information, engineering, and topographic survey. Preston has worked in private practice, nationalised industry, independent consulting, and at a not-for-profit company, primarily in the railway industry. His work focuses on collaboration among all institutions and bodies with emphasis in rail, geomatics, and geospatial engineering.

Preston is a fellow of RICS and a fellow of Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors and PWI member. He is the senior vice president of ICES, and he is the current chair of the ICE Geospatial expert’s panel and past chair of RICS Geomatics Professional Group Board. He was the first chairman of GeoBusiness in 2014.

Andrew Smith is a manager for rail asset performance with Bentley Systems. He has more than 25 years of civil engineering software experience, with 20 years focused on rail and transit solutions globally. He is regarded as an industry expert in management, integration, and analysis of railway related linear data. Smith’s most recent project with Bentley was providing technical leadership for the implementation of a linear asset decision support system for Network Rail.

Prior to his current position, Smith led Bentley’s professional services team for rail for 6 years, where he successfully delivered numerous projects around the world before joining the solutions executive team. He also provided technical leadership and rail operations and maintenance to Network Rail during the roll out of a linear asset decision support system based on Bentley Optram. Smith was also instrumental in the design and implementation of the signal sighting solution on top of Bentley Rail Track used to assess proposed signal locations.

Malcolm Taylor is Head of Technical Information for Crossrail in London, UK where he manages a team of over 50 people delivering and enabling information management and technical services. His current responsibilities include: overall programme BIM strategy and implementation; the Crossrail Geographical Information System (GIS); asset information management; technical data management; document control; data handover strategy; and cyber security for business systems. He recently took over the role as Innovation Lead for Crossrail. He also developed and wrote the infrastructure Whole Life Cost Principles for the railway.

His work has focused on using digital technologies and information drivers for better decision making and management of projects through design and construction - and into operation and maintenance.

He is a Chartered Engineer - prior to joining Crossrail he was Rail Director for a major global consultancy working on many UK and international rail projects. He has worked on rail and infrastructure projects around the world, spending 10 years in Hong Kong working on major road and rail infrastructure design and construction across the Far East. His early years were spent working with contractors on various underground and tunnelling projects.

Mark Thurston joined High Speed Two (HS2) as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in March 2017. With more than 25 years’ experience in project and programme management, Mark has worked in both the public and private sectors on some of the UK’s largest infrastructure projects.

Previously, Thurston was Managing Director for Europe at CH2M and was with the company from June 2008. During his career with CH2M, Thurston spent a significant amount of time in leadership roles on major programmes, including three years as Strategic Projects Director on Crossrail, leading the Programme Partner joint venture Transcend.

Prior to this Thurston was Programme Delivery Manager on the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games, where he led the Power Lines Under Grounding project and the £500 million Structures, Bridges and Highways programme on behalf of the CLM delivery partner consortium.

Thurston has a Master’s Degree in engineering project management from Loughborough University. He is also a visiting professor at the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management at University College London and is an honorary Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Association for Project Management.

Eberechi Weli has a doctorate degree in risk management with expertise in safety systems optimization, systems engineering, and the economics of safety. He is a chartered engineer with the Engineering Council (UK). Weli is a consultant lecturer in systems risk and reliability engineering at the Robert Gordon University School of Engineering and has supervised post-graduate studies and research at other United Kingdom universities. He also supports some of the largest infrastructure projects as an engineering safety management consultant. He was previously the principal engineer and head of the safety engineering department for a major oil and gas service company.

Weli is currently a principal consultant at Absolute Risk Technology (ART), currently a provider of systems engineering and assurance services globally. He has authored several technical papers and presented his work on systems and safety engineering/management in international journals and conferences.

He has advised executive level management, government ministers, and department heads in major Infrastructure and energy projects on strategies and methods for achieving cost-effective risk reduction and subsequent compliance to engineering and legal requirements.

Kevin Cornish currently oversees AECOM’s Surface Transportation Market Segment in North America for their Design and Consulting Services group, DCS Americas. This market segment has sales revenue that exceeds USD 1 billion annually with diversified services, including planning, design, program management, construction management, inspection, operations, and technology for transportation infrastructure.

Cornish is a professional engineer and 30-year industry veteran, having spent 23 years with Parsons and the last seven years with AECOM. He has diverse transportation experience, with a focus on complex large projects, including design-build and alternative delivery.

Cornish is a graduate of Drexel University and lives in Florida.

Tom Dengenis is senior director of project delivery, Synchro Digital Constructioneering Platform for Bentley Systems. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the design and development of the Synchro product line and its integration into the Bentley platform. With a passion and drive for improved quality of life through the built environment and advanced infrastructure, Dengenis works closely with industry leaders and users to ensure the products, solutions, and services are created, applied, and improved.

Dengenis comes to Bentley Systems with more than 40 years’ experience in and around the construction industry, from designer drafting to construction engineering and executive management. For the past 11 years, he has worked to design, build, and deliver the Synchro Software environment to the global construction industry, and he joined Bentley Systems as part of the acquisition in June 2018.

Before Synchro Software, Dengenis held several jobs in both business and government that were directly related to serving the global construction industry’s industrialization agenda. He has a formal construction engineering education from degree programs at Wentworth Institute of Technology and Montana State University and earned his Master of Business Administration at Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jason Hallett is Vice President of Global Software Business Development for Topcon Positioning Group. He joined Topcon in 2007, leading the development of the MAGNET® software suite of products. Prior to his current position, he served as Vice President of Product Management. He is responsible for expanding the company’s global software and services business in the horizontal and vertical construction markets.

Mo Harmon earned an engineering degree from Louisiana State University. He worked in the consulting industry for 26 years before joining Bentley Systems as the solution executive for roads and bridges in 2014. Harmon spent his first eight years in transportation design before moving into a firm-wide role managing training, support, and R&D activities associated with core design and production technologies at HNTB.

In his role as the solution executive in the design modeling group with Bentley, Harmon will be tracking industry trends and working closely with Bentley users to provide strategic input into Bentley products.

Ron Oberlander is the vice president of global professional services for Topcon Positioning Group. During his career at Topcon, he has held multiple roles including support, systems integration testing, and product management for construction products. The focus of Oberlander’s current role is the continued development of educational programs for users of Topcon technology through his leadership of the global professional services team, based out of their corporate headquarters in Livermore, California.

He is a licensed professional land surveyor with more than 25 years of experience in the surveying and construction industry. Oberlander has an educational background from The Pennsylvania State University in surveying and engineering and obtained a Master of Business Administration.

Agnes Otto joined WSP in February 2014 and is the senior area manager responsible for transportation and infrastructure operations in Kansas (+KCMO metro), Nebraska, Iowa, and Oklahoma. She is responsible for strategic business growth across the four states as well as western Missouri and the Kansas City metropolitan area. Otto is also currently assisting with WSP’s global digital strategy development task force.

Otto focuses on establishing and maintaining strong client relationships, expanding the firm’s presence in all markets, and managing project performance. She is a tactical leader and skilled facilitator with focus and strength in strategic planning and applied technology. Otto is experienced in leading the development and implementation of client-facing, high-value technical capabilities and services. She most recently served as WSP’s director of the Integrated Solutions Technical Excellence Center, where she led a 170-person team of technical individuals across technology, public engagement, planning, travel forecasting, and design visualization disciplines.

Otto has served as principal, project director, and project manager for multiple clients. She brings many years of management, strategic planning, marketing, communications, and technology experience.

Ian Rosam is Director of Product Management for Civil Design with Bentley Systems. He joined Bentley Systems in 2002 through the company’s acquisition of Infrasoft and has more than 25 years industry experience with infrastructure design and construction, 18 of those years in software development and Product management. He was instrumental in the development and launch of Bentley’s OpenRoads technology and is now responsible for leading the company’s civil product management team.

Dustin Parkman is vice president of product development with Bentley Systems. He is responsible for managing Bentley’s civil product development team, which is a global group of product managers, developers and experts who develop Bentley’s civil line of products. Previously, he held positions as director of software development for platform, plant, electrical, and building groups during his 14-year tenure with Bentley.

Prior to Bentley, Parkman held a position with Rebis in product development, where he oversaw the development of their process application portfolio. He spent the early part of his career in the oil and gas industry as a software solution provider for Shell Oil & Chemical. Dustin Parkman holds degrees in computer science and business administration.

Matt Simon is a vice president at HNTB with almost 30 years of experience delivering complex transportation infrastructure projects for owners and contractors in design-bid-build, design-build, and CM/GC across multiple states in the United States. The projects he manages require coordination from multiple agencies, multidiscipline design, heavy traffic, and extensive public information. Simon was also the recipient of the 2017 Be Inspired Special Recognition Award for Conceptioneering.

Dan Vogen is Vice President, Roadway Asset Management at Bentley Systems. Vogen has worked with transportation agencies for the last 25 years, focusing on asset inventory, operation, maintenance and oversize / overweight permitting automation. Vogen works with global development and implementation teams in the United States, Europe, and Asia, supporting transportation asset management systems worldwide. He has a Master of Science degree in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

At World Highways, Mike Woof writes about the road construction sector as well as the associated materials supply segments on an international basis. The magazine is recognized globally as the leading publication covering the road construction market, with its readership and presence having grown in the 12 years he has been editor. Woof has a strong history of producing incisive articles on construction as well as the extraction industries and is recognized as a leading expert in these fields.

Prior to joining World Highways, Woof was editor of World Mining Equipment, a part of the Metal Bulletin Group. Global travel, often to remote areas to look at mining operations, was an aspect of the job. Preceding that, Woof was a reporter for Construction News, Plant Hire Review, and Construction Weekly. Additionally, he previously worked for two years in Nigeria as a development worker, as a photographer at a local newspaper in Scotland, and as a design and development engineer in the aviation sector.

Woof graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Roberto Bianchi is head of technology and innovation and research and development at customer services in the energy management (EM) division at Siemens AG. In this position, he is responsible for overseeing development and innovation projects. Bianchi’s responsibilities are spread across a broad range of disciplines, ranging from high voltage hardware developments to software solutions for condition monitoring to innovation topics. Before holding his current position, Bianchi held positions in product management and as innovation project manager within Siemens.

Bianchi came to Siemens with a strong background in product management and research and development in infrastructure, having worked several years as product manager and research and development project manager in the telecommunications infrastructure sector, both in startups and at the Erlangen University. Bianchi’s main interest is the interplay of technology and market. He is constantly working to match breakthrough technologies with the creation of value for his customers.

Paul Boulos, Ph.D. is currently serving as president of the Academy of Coastal, Ocean and Port and Navigation Engineers (ACOPNE) and is past-president of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers. (AAWRE). He is one of the world’s foremost experts on water resources and navigation engineering and the author of ten authoritative books and over 200 technical articles on issues critical to the water and wastewater industry.

Boulos has received numerous honors and awards, most recently including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Parcel-Sverdrup Civil Engineering Management Award and the Simon W. Freese Environmental Engineering Award. He was also awarded Honorary Diplomate status by the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers and Distinguished Diplomate status by the Academy of Coastal, Ocean, Port & Navigation Engineers, the top honors for both Academies. He was elected to the grade of Distinguished Member of ASCE, the Society’s highest honor; and to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the highest professional distinction accorded to an engineer.

Boulos is a former President and Director of MWH Global and former Chairman, CEO and President of Innovyze. He currently serves on the Boards of Trustees of AAWRE and ACOPNE; the Advisory Group for the NAE Center of Engineering, Ethics, and Society; and the ASCE Industry Leaders Council.

Gregg Herrin joined Bentley Systems in 2004 when Bentley acquired Haestad Methods, a pioneer in the hydraulics and hydrology software industry. He has served in a variety of roles focused on the combination of engineering technologies and data systems, and currently leads the team responsible for product management of Bentley’s geospatial offerings and hydraulics and hydrology applications.

Herrin earned his Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from the University of Vermont, and he continues to maintain his professional engineering license. He is the co-inventor of five patented technologies and has been the editor or contributing author for numerous publications.

Keith Hays is a seasoned market insight professional with over 15 years’ experience in the telecommunications and energy sectors as a management consultant and industry analyst. Prior to joining Bluefield Research, Hays built market insight services for Pyramid Research, Emerging Energy Research, and IHS in the United States and Europe. In these roles, he provided strategy guidance to infrastructure investors, global energy companies, utilities, and equipment manufacturers.

Hays holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from IESE Business School. He leads Bluefield Research’s team of water experts in Barcelona, Spain.

Eleonore Lazat is an analyst on the digital industry team at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The team analyzes developments in new technologies to assess what impact they might have on the future of energy and industrials. The team’s work covers the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, cybersecurity, data analytics and machine learning, and advanced materials. This includes understanding the business strategy of industrials, start up companies, utilities, investors, and technology firms.

Lazat holds a Master of Science in environmental technology from Imperial College London and a Bachelor of Science in international relations from the London School of Economics.

Robert Mankowski leads the product teams responsible for Bentley’s AssetWise capabilities and services for water and wastewater, geospatial, and communications infrastructure. AssetWise provides informed decision support from capital planning through proactive asset maintenance, enabling owner/operators to mitigate risk, increase operational efficiency, and ensure regulatory compliance.

Mankowski has over 20 years’ experience in software development and is a co-inventor of seven patented technologies. He joined Bentley Systems in 2004 as part of Bentley’s acquisition of Haestad Methods, a pioneer in object-oriented hydraulic analysis software, where he served as chief technology officer. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Drexel University and is a licensed professional engineer.

Linda Supanich leads the product success team in Bentley’s Energy Infrastructure organization. In this role, Supanich directs a global team of solution engineers responsible for the successful deployment of utility infrastructure applications and brands, including OpenUtilities and sisNET. She works with major energy industry organizations to identify business challenges, strategic implementation and planning of technology solutions, engagement management, account development, as well as technology evangelizing and business consulting.

Supanich brings more than 30 years of professional experience working with utilities and energy infrastructure organizations, with a deep understanding of geographic information systems (GIS) and utilities network design applications as well as a thorough understanding of the energy sector ecosystem. For the past 11 years, she has focused on growing international teams of consulting professionals who devise, deliver, and maintain complex software solutions that provide key value in the areas of engineering design, mapping, and distributed energy resources.

A native of Chicago, Supanich earned a Master of Applied Geography degree from Texas State University and resides in Austin, Texas.

Vonnie Smith is vice president for energy infrastructure. She joined Bentley in 2005 and has worked in leadership capacities related to asset performance, geographic information system (GIS), utilities, and communications. Prior to joining Bentley, Smith was president and CEO of Cook-Hurlbert, having served in that capacity for over 20 years. During her tenure at Cook-Hurlbert, she focused corporate strategy and initiatives toward the company’s mission of providing software to the electric, gas, and water utilities industry. Cook-Hurlbert was subsequently acquired by Bentley and the company’s landmark product, Expert Designer, became the basis for Bentley’s OpenUtilities range of products.

Smith has a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, with a specialization in electric power systems.

Iain Miskimmin is a digital asset advisor and director of the London Academy, part of Bentley Institute’s Digital Advancement Academies. Miskimmin has spent the better part of two decades working in support of the infrastructure and construction industries, helping to deliver the first BIM projects in the UK. Since 2012, he has run the Crossrail Information Management Academy in London, allowing him to interact with over 5,000 industry professionals from around the world. He has captured their thoughts and experiences with BIM processes, including from some of the biggest infrastructure projects in the world. He has worked closely with the UK BIM Task Group, UK BIM Alliance, and leads the Infrastructure Asset Data Dictionary for the UK (IADD4UK) initiative. Miskimmin also chairs the UK’s ceter of excellence for innovation in construction, called COMIT, and is part of the Bloodhound Supersonic Car team.

Ryan Posnikoff is the director of the Bentley Construction Academy. In his role, he oversees delivery and strategy of Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) and WorkFace Planning (WFP) best practices training, a Construction Industry Institute (CII), and Construction Owners’ Association of Alberta (COAA) best practice. Additionally, he consults with Bentley clients on AWP implementation and education plans. Posnikoff has over 17 years in the construction space, including over 10 years in heavy industrial projects, from small capital projects to mega-projects, and significant plant turnarounds. Before joining Bentley, he held roles as a trades person, supervisor, WorkFace Planning Lead, execution consultant, and construction claims analyst in capital projects.

Posnikoff sits on the COAA AWP Committee and AWP Scalability committee, as well as the CII AWP Community of Business Advancement to continue refining and driving best practice. He regularly speaks at conferences and universities on AWP best practices and lessons learned.

Mo Harmon earned an engineering degree from Louisiana State University. He worked in the consulting industry for 26 years before joining Bentley Systems as the solution executive for roads and bridges in 2014. Harmon spent his first eight years in transportation design before moving into a firm-wide role managing training, support, and R&D activities associated with core design and production technologies at HNTB.

In his role as the solution executive in the design modeling group with Bentley, Harmon will be tracking industry trends and working closely with Bentley users to provide strategic input into Bentley products.

Ron Oberlander is the vice president of global professional services for Topcon Positioning Group. During his career at Topcon, he has held multiple roles including support, systems integration testing, and product management for construction products. The focus of Oberlander’s current role is the continued development of educational programs for users of Topcon technology through his leadership of the global professional services team, based out of their corporate headquarters in Livermore, California.

He is a licensed professional land surveyor with more than 25 years of experience in the surveying and construction industry. Oberlander has an educational background from The Pennsylvania State University in surveying and engineering and obtained a Master of Business Administration.

Jan Boehm is a senior lecturer in the department of civil, environmental, and geomatic engineering at University College London. His research and teaching focus on 3D imaging, photogrammetry, and LiDAR. This specialty includes automation, image understanding, machine learning, and information extraction from images and 3D data. Boehm has more than 20 years of experience in research on 3D imaging. His aim is the automated extraction and identification of objects or artefacts from reality capture data to aid the digitization of the built environment and ongoing construction projects.

Ajith Kumar Parlikad, Ph.D. is a senior lecturer in industrial systems at Cambridge University Engineering Department (CUED), and a Co-I for the Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction and the Centre for Digital Built Britain. He is based at the Institute for Manufacturing, where he is the head of the asset management group. His research focuses on examining how asset information can be effectively managed and used to improve asset investment and maintenance decision-making. His research has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Innovate UK, and EU H2020. Parlikad’s current work focuses on how data from disparate sources, such as BIM models and condition-monitoring and sensing technologies, can be integrated to improve infrastructure asset management.

David Robertson is director of digital advancement research within Bentley Institute, working with the Digital Advancement Academies and collaborators around the world. Robertson was formerly in charge of the Connected Academies initiative, starting with the Crossrail Academy in Bentley’s London office and anchoring the expanding network of academies. Robertson now leads research initiatives that engage government, university, technical schools, and industry visionaries to generate innovative solutions for industry needs. Digital advancement research initiatives include partnerships and research investments with Cambridge University, Imperial College London, and University College London, including a variety of study initiatives and the development of a new generation of university academies.

Robertson has spent the past 24 years in various roles within Bentley, initiating software development based around specific client requirements for rail, power, and other global infrastructure assets. Prior to Bentley, he was directly involved in architectural practice and implementing systems within architecture and construction users. He holds a bachelors’ and a post-graduate degree from the Oxford School of Architecture. Robertson is a registered architect within the United Kingdom and a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Jennifer Whyte’s research interests are in systems integration in infrastructure, particularly the integrated digital delivery of infrastructure projects. She is director of the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation at Imperial College London, working closely with Bentley Systems, Laing O’Rourke, Mott MacDonald and the Project Production Institute. Whyte holds a Royal Academy of Engineering / Laing O’Rourke professorship in systems integration in the department of civil and environmental engineering. A fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, she co-curates the World Economic Forum ‘Engineering and Construction’ transformation map. Whyte also teaches on innovation in civil engineering, design for manufacture and assembly, and BIM processes. Her research is published in leading international journals and she recently co-authored Virtual Reality and the Built Environment.

David Adjiashvili is a co-founder and chief scientist of Drone Harmony, a software company dedicated to developing the advanced automated mission planning software for the industrial drone market. He is also senior scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. His field of expertise is algorithm design and mathematical optimization.

Adjiashvili received his Bachelor of Science in computer science from the Tel Aviv University and his Master of Science in applied mathematics from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He completed his Ph.D. in mathematics at the ETH Zurich in 2012, specializing on algorithm design for planning and optimization problems. He has since been employed in the mathematics department at ETH and worked on various research and industrial projects in the field of optimization. He co-founded Drone Harmony in 2016 and has since been responsible for algorithmic development of the Drone Harmony Mission Planner, the flagship product of the company.

Ian Best is the managing director at Co – Surveys Ltd. His career has largely focused on the capture, processing, and management of engineering and infrastructure data, helping owner-operators and contractors with the efficient operation and maintenance of their assets. Best has worked to aid projects in adopting technology to acquire data from site, such as brownfield 3D modeling, photogrammetry, and 3D laser scanning. Currently, he provides specialized consultancy and management services by leading organizations that are looking to radically improve their methods, efficiencies, and costs.

Kevin Kwok is the product manager for Nearmap’s content. In this role, Kwok oversees the strategy, design, and development of the location content product line, which includes imagery, 3D, and geospatial content.

Kwok discusses Nearmap 3D to key markets, such as smart cities, Internet of Things, digital construction, and data visualization. He holds degrees in geomatics, computer science, and business management, which have helped guide his 14-year career in geospatial technology. Kwok holds a deep understanding of GIS systems and data management across government and industry use, including the implementation of geo-enabled software for public safety and management of Australia’s National Broadband infrastructure roll-out for the past seven years.

Jake Lydick created Eye-bot Aerial Solutions in 2014, combining his passion for photography and aviation with the rise of the “drone age.” Being a general aviator, he applies the competencies that he learned in flight school to his business and personnel. Lydick and his team now provide a myriad of drone-based assessment services, from infrastructure inspections to communications asset modeling. They have, and will continue to, pioneer innovative ways to capture and deliver the current state and position of critical assets, in the US or abroad. He currently lives in the outskirts of Pittsburg, PA with his family.

Sylvain Lotteau is the reality modeling academy project manager with Bentley Systems and a specialist in reality modeling topics. Lotteau leads the initiative to foster knowledge and best practices for the infrastructure industry to capture existing conditions in 3D to provide real-world context for design, construction, operations, and inspection workflows. His main objective is to build trainings to help industry professionals leverage reality modeling techniques and workflows.

Lotteau has six years of industry experience in reality modeling. Before joining Bentley, he worked as an application engineer at both Ecartip SAS, mastering the art of laser scanning by overseeing many aerial and mobile mapping projects for the civil industry, and at Acute3D SAS, where he focused on photogrammetry techniques and best practices.

Lotteau has both a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in land surveying from the National Institute of Applied Science of Strasbourg in France.

Baptiste Tripard holds a master’s degree in aerospace engineering. He had been working in the aviation industry designing jet engines before shifting to the drone industry in 2011. At Intel, Tripard is the director of strategy of the drone group, focusing on the commercial segment and he became general manager for Intel Insight in 2018. Tripard is leading the development and go-to-market strategy for this cloud-based data processing, analytics, and reporting service, which allows users to store, share, and manage data from commercial drone systems. Until 2016, he was also a board member of the small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) coalition, an organization that is bringing together leading technology companies to pave the way for commercial, philanthropic, and civil use of small UAVs.

Monika Zibolyte is an application engineer at GeoSLAM and is primarily responsible for REVO, REVO RealTime, and ContextCapture products. She oversees the user adoption, training, and testing of new applications and products.

After completing her master’s degree in GIS at University College London in 2014, Zibolyte joined Bentley Systems as an application engineer. She has five years of experience working with photogrammetry, laser scanning technologies, and their applications in various industries, ranging from GIS and construction to asset management and infrastructure assessment. Currently, Zibolyte collaborates with developers, application engineers, and industry leaders to make sure that new technologies are relevant, successfully applied, and technologically viable.

Thomas Tauchnitz is a consultant in process automation, engineering tools, and Industry 4.0. Previously, he worked in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry for 32 years. With his academic background in instrumentation and control engineering, he managed the engineering, maintenance, operation, and technology for production plants. Tauchnitz engaged in NAMUR, the Germany-based user association of automation technology in process industries, for 27 years, including seven years as member of the board. He introduced an integrated engineering tool as early as 2001 and published a strategy for integrated engineering and plant operation in 2005.

Nancy Li leads global partnerships for the mixed reality and artificial intelligence (AI) perception group in Microsoft. She is relentless in driving global partner adoption and platform market success in mixed reality and the new categories of consumer experiences and commercial solutions built on mixed reality, cloud services, the Internet of Things, and AI. Li is an avid believer in location-based experiences (LBE) and drives the mixed reality LBE program. She works hard to help our partners and business succeed.

Combining his passion for technology with his background in process and project engineering, Luca is supporting some of the largest UK contractors leveraging technology to deliver better business results and actively contributing to Microsoft’s investment in the industry as part of the Construction Community LT.

Luca joined the tech industry after successfully delivering multiple large projects in the Oil & Gas and Power sector whilst working for one of the leading EPC contractors. He holds a master degree in Energy Engineering and a Master in Business Administration

Torsten Beste is the director for strategic solutions in the product driven services (PDS) group at Siemens Digital Factory (DF). Beste has been with Siemens for more than 18 years and leads the cross company vertical and cross industry business, technology, and partner strategy. He is responsible for the Siemens DF–Bentley Systems strategic alliance to integrate product lifecycle management, digital manufacturing, automation, and the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) with BIM processes. His mission is to develop next-generation software solutions for the digital product, process, and asset lifecycle to help customers in their digital transformation. Beste holds a bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering.

Mark Confer is a business innovation expert with over 30 years of experience in Siemens Energy, searching out and developing blue ocean business opportunities for Siemens. Currently as digital product director, he is the co-founder of Siemen’s APM for Power Plants business. Previously, Confer has been the global director of Siemens Long Term Service and Fuel Gasification Service businesses. He also serves as a board member of the nonprofit Water Ministry in Costa Rica, Agua Viva, and masquerades as a semi-professional guitar player in the rock band Barley Wine. Confer grew up in Jackson, Michigan, graduating from University of Michigan with a BSE in mechanical engineering. He has been married to his wife Karen for 28 years and has two adult children.

Andreas Geiss has worked in Siemens AG since 2000. During the last 17 years, he has undertaken different responsibilities in Germany and China. Geiss joined the chemical and pharmaceutical company Hoechst AG in 1996, working in plant and project engineering as engineer and then as project director. In 2004, Geiss transferred to the automation and drives group of Siemens in Nuremberg, building up a contract management group for enterprise customers. After working as a general manager for three years, Geiss integrated and lead the business segment of Comos Industry Solutions within Siemens Process Industries and Drives division for six years. In 2016, Andreas became CTO for the cloud-based, open Internet of Things operating system Mindsphere, assuming the responsibility of vice president for strategy in 2018.

He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University in Mannheim and an executive transition certificate of the European School of Management & Technology (ESMT) in Berlin. Geiss lives in Karlsruhe with his wife. In his free time, he likes Nordic walking, barbequeing and cooking, and is active in missionary projects for a Christian church group.

Bernd Kokkelink heads the COMOS plant engineering and operation organization within Siemens’ process and drives division. Kokkelink has more than 25 years of experience with industrial software solutions for the process industry in various technical and management roles. In 2008, he joined Siemens and worked on different software projects for process engineering, plant design and operation, data analytics, and visualization.

Peter Löffler is a senior executive and technology thought leader currently serving as Vice President and Global Head of Trends and Industry Affairs at the international headquarters of the Siemens Building Technologies (BT) Division in Zug, Switzerland. In this role, he provides guidance and strategic leadership for the most important technological initiatives of BT. In addition, Löffler oversees all advancements with relevant standardization bodies and fosters dialogue with the governmental and institutional decision makers who are shaping the company’s public policy positions.

Prior to joining Siemens, Löffler held consulting, entrepreneurial, as well as COO positions within the IT industry. Starting in 1986, he occupied various management positions of increasing responsibility in Siemens` Information Technology and the Metals-, Mining- and Paper-Business before joining Siemens Building Technologies in 2003. There, he progressed through various stages to become Chief Technology Officer and Head of Global R&D as well as Head of the Security Lifecycle Solutions Segment.

Furthermore, he is a member of the Scientific Program Board for Security Research of the German Ministry for Education and Research and is a well-respected and sought-after speaker. Löffler studied computer science at Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany.

Jan Pawlewitz currently heads a team in oil and gas, chemical, and petrochemical for COMOS Plant Engineering and Operation Software. Starting his career in a mid-size software company based in Germany, he joined Siemens in 2009 as the head of business development for COMOS Software. In July 2010, he took over the responsibility for the COMOS Software Business in the greater China and APAC regions. Pawlewitz has more than 25 years of experience in oil and gas and process industries regarding engineering and operation around the world.

Jason Hallett is Vice President of Global Software Business Development for Topcon Positioning Group. He joined Topcon in 2007, leading the development of the MAGNET® software suite of products. Prior to his current position, he served as Vice President of Product Management. He is responsible for expanding the company’s global software and services business in the horizontal and vertical construction markets.

Ray O’Connor is President and Chief Executive Officer of Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc., a position he has held since 2002. He is also President of the Positioning Company, one of three business segments that form Topcon Corporation, where he serves as Senior Managing Executive Officer. Additionally, he has served as Chairman of Topcon Europe Positioning Business since 2005. He is a Director of Topcon America Corporation and Topcon Europe BV.

O’Connor has received multiple business and academic honors as a result of his leadership in the positioning and geospatial industries. Recent awards include honorary doctorates from his alma mater, the Dublin Institute of Technology (Ireland), for “achievements in international business and innovation” and the Second University of Naples (Italy) for “industrial design for innovation.” He was named Geospatial Business Leader of the Year for 2012, recognized “as the champion of surveying and positioning technologies in the world.”

In 2013, O’Connor became the youngest inductee into the elite Association of Equipment Manufacturers Hall of Fame, which recognizes and celebrates outstanding individuals in the off-road equipment industry, and their legacy of innovation, service and leadership.