Speaker's Bios

Sammy Rashed
Pharma Head of Sourcing, Global Sites
Novartis

Biog pending...

Gerd Schlaich
Director for Strategy & Support, Procurement Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars
DaimlerChrysler

Dr. Gerd Schlaich studied Mechanical Engineering at the Technische Universität (Technical University) in Stuttgart.

At the “Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung” (Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA)) he began his career with industrial projects in the areas of assembly planning, robot technology and product design.

Afterward he earned his doctorate at the IPA in Stuttgart, writing his thesis on “Wiring Harness Assembly with Industrial Robots”.

From 1989 to 1999, Dr. Gerd Schlaich was in charge of various production planning functions within Daimler-Benz AG. Among his duties were factory and assembly planning; he managed worldwide benchmarking projects and was responsible for productivity controlling within manufacturing.

Since February of 1999, he has been active as director in procurement Mercedes-Benz Cars. The key emphases here were on procurement strategies, IT projects, controlling and quality management.

Currently he is responsible for the areas of advanced supplier and commodity management, with the core focal points being global sourcing, risk and insolvency management, benchmarking and strategic supplier management.

Philippe Advani
Head of Global Sourcing Network
EADS

Biog pending...

Ismo Ojanen
Director, Marketing Sourcing INS EMEA
Nokia

Biog pending...

Minister Robert Szurman
Commissioner of
Ministry of Trade and Industry, Government of the Czech Republic

Biog pending...

Miroslav Pavlíc˘ek
Head of Global Sourcing
Siemens

Biog pending...

Jerome Courtaigne
Purchasing Manager Sourcing Center DPGP - East Sourcing
L’Oreal 

Biog pending...

Atul Malhotra
Head of Purchasing
Georg Fischer Automotive

• Head of Purchasing of GF Automotive Group since over 4 years. Responsible for the worldwide sourcing and procurement activities of the group with a total purchasing volume of about 900 M€ p.a.
• Prior to joining GF Automotive, he was for 7 years Vice President & Head of Supply Management of a large multinational group manufacturing railway vehicles and systems
• In all, about 30 years of professional experience as a business executive. Mostly with renowned international groups, such as Continental, ABB etc. Varied experience including Procurement, Controlling, Business Development etc.
• Aged 57, MBA qualification

Hans-Martin Schweizer
VP Purchasing
Infineon Technologies

Hans-Martin Schweizer is Corporate Vice President Procurement at Infineon Technologies AG.

He has been working for Siemens AG / Infineon Technologies AG since 1987. There he was head of logistics for different business groups and divisions of the Siemens AG for order processing, material-, quantity- and capacity-planning.

From 1999 - 2007 he was head of Corporate Logistics at Infineon Technologies AG. His area of responsibility ran from the strategic alignment of the Supply Chain processes to worldwide traffic management and warehousing.

In May 2006 Mr. Schweizer took over the responsibility for Corporate Purchasing at Infineon. Purchasing covers local purchasing functions (operative) and commodity management (strategic) for material, equipment, central services IT and R&D and production partner management as well as central reporting and project support. The start and implementation of the Purchasing strategy 2010 as well as steering a Best Cost Country Project are actually the major initiatives he is driving.

Robert Smrc˘ka
International Purchasing Director
Skanska 

• born on 21st October 1978 in Brno, Czech Republic
• father, prof. MUDr. Vladimir Smrčka CSc., and brother, doc. MUDr. Martin Smrčka PhD., are neurosurgeons, mother RNDr. Marie Smrčkova worked as a professor at a pharmaceutical university
• unmarried, good health
• email: robert.smrcka@skanska.cz
• address: Czech republic, Brno, Královo Pole, Mánesova 17, 612 00, Brno         
• tel.: +420 737 256 935

EDUCATION

• in June 2002 successfully finished studies on the Faculty of Law of Masaryk university Brno, final examination from Civil law, Business law, Criminal law and Theory of law, graduation paper on Licensing agreement and the Copyright code
• in 1999 passed General state exam from English language – excellent knowledge of written and spoken English
• 1993-96 grammar school Slovanské náměstí – general studies with English language specialisation, 1986-92 primary school Jana Babáka with extended classes of foreign languages, 1984-85 primary school Slovanské náměstí,
• during primary school twice winner of the regional contest in recitation
• passive languages: German, Russian

PRACTICE

• since July 2006 working for Skanska CZ a.s., current position: Director of international purchasing (also member of the Skanska Group Procurement Board and Skanska Group Sourcing Board for business unit Czech Republic) 
• since 2002 working for leading civil construction company - Skanska DS a.s.
  (2002-2004 property management and acquisition department – specialised for Civil and Commercial Law; 2005-2006 financial department – handling investment in construction equipment and technologies, PPP projects, financial analysis…)
• 2000 – 2001 co-ordinator of licensing agreements for Arterit Ltd. – publisher of audio-books
• 1998 - 2000 business agent for Arterit Ltd., realised hundreds of business interviews, took part in several sales courses and seminars
• 1994 – 1998 a lot of student jobs – server in USA, shop assistant, worker ……

HOBBIES

• travelling, meeting new people and cultures, visiting interesting places
• sport – football ( played for a junior league team FC LeRK Brno ), basketball ( school teams ), snowboarding, tennis, squash …..
• arts and culture – deeper interest in movies and music
• science – history, economy, psychology, sociology, ……

Brno, 1.6.2007

Marco Torregrossa
Director
European Partner for Environment

Marco Torregrossa holds several years experience in the strategic communication and policy advisory sector with extensive knowledge of energy and transport, environment and sustainability issues. He is an experienced analyst of CSR, occasional public speaker of sustainability practices and commentator of European policies on climate change.

During his career he has advised large companies on their sustainability reporting and management, above all on the greening of the supply chain, sustainable production and consumption and sustainable trade. He is the main administrator of the “Resource Efficiency Alliance” an initiative developed to advance eco-innovation and the efficient use of natural resources and at EU level with hands-on contribution in the organisation of influential dialogues among stakeholder organisations that operate in the European arena. Active involvement in the production of insight recommendations aimed at giving a different perspective to revitalise the on-going policy debates on the major issues affecting the EU sustainability outlook such as green public procurement and alternative finance schemes to bring eco technologies to the market.

Marco is an active member of DG Enterprise “Stakeholder Group on competitiveness of energy intensive industries in a carbon constrained Europe” and acts as pro-bono advisers for some Brussels based NGOs.

Bjoern Koch
Director Purchasing Emerging Markets
Bosch

Biog pending...

Pavel Zurovec
Commodity Manager Global Procurement
HP

Biog pending...

Kim Chen
Senior Purchasing Manager
Disruptive Limited

Biog pending...

Phil Belsito
Sourcing Director
Kurdziel Industries

Biog pending...

Nima Motazed
CPO
Erste Bank Group

Nima Motazed joined Erste Bank in 2001 and managed the integration of Erste Bank IT-systems with the IT-systems of Austrian Savings Banks and led the integration of Posta Bank into Erste Bank Hungary.

Since 2004, within the framework of a strategic program, he is as CPO responsible for entire Procurement function (sourcing, ordering, accounts payable) of Erste Bank Group and managed the outsourcing of Procure-to-Pay process. Through this outsourcing approach, Erste Bank Group seeks to harmonize its procurement processes and IT environment within 8 European countries.

2007 Mr Motazed was also assigned to the CEO of Procurement Services (s Proserv).

Johannes Schuchlenz
Director Procurement
Strabag

Biog pending...

Marianna Zangrillo
VP Indirect Sourcing and Procurement
Kemira

Marianna Zangrillo is Vice President of Indirect Sourcing and Procurement for Kemira Group, a 2.8 b Euros Chemical company with 425 M Euros Indirect spend. Marianna joined Kemira in May 2007 with the objective to set up Kemira Indirect Sourcing, whose indirect spend was at that time very fragmented and managed individually by each Kemira employee. Marianna’s organization is currently working on the Kemira wide strategy to manage the travel, the office and facilities, the IT and the MRO spend in a consistent and risk-aware manner. A number of sourcing projects are also run in the area of communication and other operating services. On the operational level, the procurement process and team for Indirect are being set up to guarantee and measure the compliance following the strategic sourcing decisions.

Before joining Kemira, Marianna has worked for five years with Nokia Indirect Sourcing, where she has worked with different Indirect spend categories and with the Nokia Alliances team. In her last position she has set up and run the Customer Care sourcing for EMEA.

Marianna holds a Master Degree in Law from the University of Rome (ITA), a LLM in contract and commercial law from the University of Helsinki (FIN) and is currently working on her MBA at the University of London (UK).

Roger Gonourie
Associate Director Global Strategic Sourcing EMEA
Wyeth

Biog pending...

Athanassios Boukas
Manager IPO
NCC

Biog pending...

Francisco Luque
Supply & Sourcing Director Market Unit Iberia
Ericsson

Biog pending...

Ralph Polman
e-sourcing Manager
KLM

Biog pending...

Erik Dam
Global Purchasing Director
Scotts

Biog pending...

Gustavo Horacio Luis Fazzari
Consul General of Argentine in Prague

Biog pending...

José Luis Bernal
Ambassador of Mexico in Prague

José Luis Bernal is a career member of Mexico´s Foreign Service since May, 1980. He was promoted to the rank ofAmbassador in December 1995.

Ambassador Bernal has ample experience on several areas of Mexico´s foreign policy, having served in differenet high-level positions both within the Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Service:

As Ambassador, Mr. Bernal has served as:

• Ambassador in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, January 2002 - August 2007.
• Chief Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2001;
• Senior Official of Mexico before the Asian Pacific Economic Coperation Mechanism (APEC), 2001;
• Consul General in Los Angeles, California, USA, 1999-2001;
• Deputy Representative to the OECD, in Paris, 1996-1999;
• Director General of the Foreign Service and Personnel, 1995-1996

Along his career, he has also held the following positions:

• Director General for Multilateral Economic Relations and Economic Relations with Nort America, 1993-1995.
• Minister in charge of coordinating relations with the U.S. Congress, in the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., during the negotiations of Nort American Free Trade Agreement, 1991-1993.
• First Secretary and Counsellor for Economic Affairs in the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C. from 1985 to 1991.
• Deputy Director General for Bilateral Economic Rrelations, 1981 to 1985.
• Chief of the Department for Economic Affairs in the North American Desk, 1979-1981.

Before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1979 he was an International Financial Analyst at the Ministry of Finance, and an External Advisor for International Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Commerce.

Ambassador Bernal has represented Mexico in numerous bilateral and multilateral negotiations, in many meetings of the United Nations Organization and its subsidiary organs, i GATT/WTO, the G-15, and in a wide range of meetings for international cooperation.

In 1994, he was elected Chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the Ministerial Meeting of the United Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean in Cartagena, Colombia. That same year, he held the Latin America Vice-Chair in the UN Preparatory Committee of the World Summit for Social Development.

He was the main coordinator of Mexico´s participation in the 1994 Cairo´s International Conference on Population and Development, and in the 1995 Copenhagen World Summit on Social Development.

Ambassador Bernal was Mexico´s negotiator for the OECD Anti-bribery Convention from 1996 to 1998. In 1999, he was elected as Vice-Chairman of the OECD Committee on Territorial Development Policies for a two-year period.

He has attended the World Economic Forum at Davos every year from 2003 to 2007, and the Crans Montana Forum in the last four years.

Ambassador Bernal holds a Bachelor´s degree on International Relations, SCL, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and a Master´s Degree on Economics from the Center for teaching and Research on Economics in Mexico (CIDE). He followed courses on Public Affairs and Lobbying at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and on International Security, at distance, from Stanford University.

Mr. Bernal has been a Professor at the School for Political and Social Sciences in the National University of Mexico and at the Technological University in Mexico City. He has also been a guest scholar in the University of California at Los Angeles (UNCLA) Faculty of Public Policies and was member of the Board of UNCLA´s Program on Mexico.

Ha has published extensively on matters related to the Mexican economy, economic relations between Mexico and the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement, regionalism in Latin America, the promotion of social development, foreign policy and competitiveness, and the profile of Mexico´s Foreign Service.

In 1986, Mr. Bernal was awarded France´s National Order of Merit, in the Rank of Chevalier, in recognition of his work as the Mexican Technical Secretary of the Commission on Global Cooperation between Mexico and France.

In 2006, he received the 25 years in Foreign Service" decoration, from Mexico´s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

His native tongue is Spanish; he is fluent in both Ebglish and French and has basic knowledge of German and Italian.

Jisé Luis Bernal was born in Mexicali, Baja California, on March 20, 1956. he is married and has two children.

Fei Yixiang
Embassy of the People's Republic of China
China Economic & Commercial Counsellor

Biog pending...

Ryan Rae Zamora Maclang
Special Assistant to the Ambassador
Philippine Embassy in Prague

Biog pending...

Nomsa Dube
Ambassador of South Africa to Czech Republic

Biog pending...

Marcus Niklasson
Supply Chain Manager
Eltel Networks

Marcus Niklasson is the Supply Chain Manager at Eltel Networks in Finland, where he is responsible for defining the company’s procurement and logistics strategy. His team manages strategic partnerships with key suppliers in both the electricity and telecom sectors.

He has a 12-year career as a supply chain professional with international experience from the services, telecom, automotive and recording media industries. He joined Eltel in April 2007 after 7 years at Nortel where he led several key supply chain improvement projects at an EMEA level, including the implementation of a global 4th Party Logistics model. Prior to Nortel, Marcus worked at Citroen UK in London and Ericsson in Stockholm.