Meet Our Speakers
The Digital Manufacturing Strategies Summit 2026 brings together a diverse lineup of industry leaders, innovators, and visionaries who are driving transformation across the manufacturing landscape. From C-suite executives to pioneering technologists, our speakers share invaluable insights, experiences, and strategies that are redefining the future of digital manufacturing.
Interested in joining this distinguished group of speakers?
Enquire now to explore speaking opportunities and contribute your expertise to this premier event.
Michael Clark
Director
OPC Foundation North America
Michael Clark is an enterprise technology sales leader with extensive experience helping organisations adopt innovative software and AI solutions. Currently with Standard Intelligence, he works with customers to solve complex business challenges through strategic technology partnerships. Known for his customer-first approach, commercial acumen, and ability to build trusted relationships, Michael has earned a reputation for delivering successful outcomes and guiding organisations through the evaluation and implementation of transformative technologies.
Stefan Schwab
CO-CEO
Stefan Schwab is Co-CEO of Cybus. He brings more than 20 years of experience at Siemens, where he built and scaled industrial technology businesses across the globe – from early-stage ventures to large international organizations. At Cybus, Stefan leads the company alongside co-founder Peter Sorowka, pairing deep industry expertise with a shared vision for the future of manufacturing, and working jointly on Cybus’ Physical AI strategy. As he puts it: “As machines make decisions and act independently, the underlying data layer becomes a non-negotiable prerequisite” – a perspective that will help shape the next generation of manufacturing.
Shashank Sharma
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Shashank Sharma is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at HiveMQ. With over a decade of experience spanning product marketing, engineering, and software development at firms such as Docker, MathWorks, and BMW, he specializes in making complex technology easy to understand. Shashank holds an M.Sc in Computational Sciences from the Technical University of Munich.
Lauren Dunford
CEO & Co-Founder
Lauren Dunford is the Co-Founder and CEO of Guidewheel, where she helps manufacturers improve productivity, efficiency and sustainability by unlocking real-time visibility across factory operations. Passionate about empowering frontline teams, Lauren works with manufacturers around the world to accelerate digital transformation using AI and machine data. She is a recognised voice on the future of manufacturing and the role of technology in driving operational excellence.
Mike Weller
Global Head of Manufacturing Practice
As the Global Head of Manufacturing Practice at Verizon Business, Michael is responsible for driving strategic business development and high-level industry engagement. He plays a pivotal role in shaping how the industrial sector evolves, focusing on delivering cutting-edge thought leadership to address the complex innovation challenges facing modern manufacturers. Under his leadership, he bridges the gap between technology and industry, fostering digital transformation across the globe. With a deep commitment to the industrial space, he remains at the forefront of identifying and solving the unique hurdles of connectivity, efficiency, and scale in global manufacturing.
Colin Cosgrove
President/CEO
Colin Cosgrove is President and CEO of Laystrom Manufacturing, bringing more than 30 years of experience across production, engineering, project management, operations, sales and executive leadership. Having started his career on the shop floor, he has worked across a wide range of manufacturing sectors and is passionate about continuous improvement, digital transformation and helping manufacturers embrace new technologies while keeping people and processes at the heart of change.
David Hurtado Lopez
Principal Value Engineer
David Hurtado is Principal Value Engineer at Celonis, a process intelligence company that works with more than 1,400 global enterprises, including over 300 leading manufacturers, helping them understand exactly how their operations run and where value is hidden within their processes.
David brings more than 16 years of experience in supply chain and operations. Before joining Celonis, he spent six years at PwC leading large-scale supply chain transformation programmes for Fortune 500 organisations. Prior to that, he held finance and analytics roles at Citigroup.
At Celonis, David helps manufacturers apply process intelligence to bridge the gap between how they believe their operations run and how they actually perform, enabling organisations to identify inefficiencies, improve execution and deliver measurable business value.
Mohamad Sadek
Global Head of Continuous Improvement
Mohamad Sadek is a Global Operations Excellence Manager with 15 years of experience in Lean manufacturing and continuous improvement, currently based in Chicago, Illinois. He has led demonstration projects across the automotive sector with Renault-Nissan in Japan, aerospace with Bombardier, and Cascades in Montreal, Canada. Mohamad brings deep expertise in Lean tools including value stream mapping, 5S, Kaizen, and Six Sigma, applying them to drive operational excellence across diverse manufacturing environments.
