Dirk Michels studied chemical engineering at Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences in Krefeld, Germany. Since September 2000, he has been a member of the scientific staff at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) in Stuttgart. From 2006-14, he held various positions with responsibility in projects and personnel in various companies in the paint processing industry as well as in consulting. Since 2014, he has been working as a project manager in the department of coating systems and painting technology at IPA. His major topics are the development and planning of innovative coating processes as well as the optimisation of existing coating plant concepts.

Meiko co-founded AOM-Systems in 2013 as a spin-off from Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany). Besides other areas, he is responsible for the business development at AOM-Systems. He managed the market introduction for the analytical measurement division, the market introduction for the automotive paint division, and he is currently managing the business creation for AI-driven sensor solutions at AOM-Systems.

Raquel Machado is a smart surfaces engineer in GTS films and coating. She is a chemical engineer by education, obtaining her degree from FEUP. Raquel went on to study envi­ronment management at De Montfort University and completed an MBA in business from Barcelona University. She joined KPI as a painting process engineer in 2000 and then joined Faurecia in 2010. She started at Faurecia as a pole of competence engineer of painting and then became the painting GTS team leader of Faurecia in 2013. She took up her current role at Faurecia in 2017.

Hande Kilic is a chemical engineer (BS) and Ph.D. Candidate with extensive experience in corrosion and painting skills. As a Senior Corrosion Expert, she was certified by the International Corrosion Authority, NACE (AMPP - The Association for Materials Protection and Performance) in Houston HQ. She works for an automotive company within the VW Group, MAN AG, since 2012. The German company develops and produces buses and delivers to the world with high-quality voice. She has 9 years of experience in paints, protective coatings, paint shop processes, adhesives, material science, paint and corrosion standards, and corrosion protection. She is responsible for the management of all corrosion processes within the company under the R&D department. 

Dr. Stalmach studied chemistry in Mainz, Germany, earning his PhD in 1997. After a postdoctoral period in Groningen, NL, he started his coatings career in 2000, first in R&D and later in supply-chain controlling.

He joined ORONTEC GmbH & Co. KG in 2019, taking care of projects for process optimisation and automation as well as general digitalisation in the coatings industry. Besides hosting the XING group “Smart Paint Factory”, Ulf is the initiator of “Stammlack”, a virtual roundtable focussing on coating topics, and a co-founder of the Smart Paint Factory Alliance. He also moderates two roundtables of the VCW, a subgroup of the German Chemical Society (GDCh), actively promoting networking within the chemical community.

In 1987, Ullrich Möllmann earned a degree from the University of Aachen (RWTH) as Dipl.- Ing. for process technologies. Between 1987-96, Ullrich worked as a sales engineer at Eisenmann, one of the world’s leading companies in painting technologies. From 96-02 he was head of sales at Hager + Elsässer, a leading company in industrial water treat­ment. In 2003, Ullrich joined Dürr Systems AG as a key account manager for assembly sys­tems, and since 2008 he has been the head of product management worldwide for EcoEMOS.

Markus Mahn is director of global marketing coatings at Specialty Carbon Black at Orion Engineered Carbons. He focusses on the global strategic orientation of the coatings segment and considers new industry trends, pain points, challenges, and demands. A key element of his responsibility - complementing his role in new market development and addressing evolving trends - is to initiate the development of products that best fit the coatings industry’s needs.

Based in Frankfurt, Germany, Markus joined Orion Engineered Carbons in 2017 from Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, where he was global marketing manager of coatings and project leader. Prior to joining Merck, he was at Clariant in Frankfurt, first as application manager for new business development of functional coatings, and later promoted to global technical marketing manager for organic pigments in automotive coatings.

Markus earned his MSc in chemical engineering with specialisation in colours and coatings at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, Esslingen, Germany.

Debbie Thorp is the business development director at Global Inkjet Systems (GIS). She has worked in digital printing for over 30 years and is an applications specialist. Earlier in her career, Debbie worked at specialist digital printing consultancy companies such as IT Strategies and was head of group marketing at inkjet printhead manufacturer Xaar.