Vice President
Wuhu ACTECO Powertrain Co., Ltd., China

Zhiguang Zhou, a senior engineer, a joint doctor of Hunan University and the University of Michigan, an expert in the new energy expert pool of the Ministry of Science and Technology, a project leader of the key new energy special project of the national key research and development plan, and a deputy general manager of Wuhu ACTECO Powertrain Co., Ltd., is responsible for the development of Chery hybrid transmission and electric drive products. He has more than 15 years of experience in new energy technology research and product development. In recent 5 years, more than 60 patents have been applied and more than 30 patents have been authorized. 17 papers were published, including 11 papers included in SCI/EI. He was selected as a member of the "Special Support Plan" of Anhui Province in 2021, one of the technological leaders of Anhui's strategic emerging industries in 2017, and one of the leaders of Wuhu's "5111" industrial innovation team in 2017; and he won the second prize of 2017 Anhui Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award; he also developed the plug-in hybrid powertrain system, which won the 2016 New Energy Vehicle Powertrain System Excellence Award of "China Heart".

Peter Willemsen is Chief Operating Officer at Gotion Global with more than 15 years of experience in the automotive industry. He has majored in industrial engineering and management from TU Berlin, Germany and extended his studies in Business Administration at the Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. Having lived and worked most of his career in Asia, Mr. Willemsen acquired a thorough understanding of the different cultures as well as of the local languages (Chinese and Japanese).

Peter Willemsen has a strong background and proven leadership skills in R&D, as well as product and program management in a wide range of vehicle applications. Efficiently managing P&L led to sales of more than 1.3 billion Euro at above-industry level profitability.

Furthermore, he has more than 5 years of extensive experience in Joint venture negotiations and strategic cooperations overlooking the setup of advanced engineering teams, venture capital entity and incubator spaces.

Senior Vice President of Engineering and Managing Director
Torc Europe GmbH

Since May 2022, Gern has been named senior vice president of engineering and managing director for Torc Europe at the Technology and Software Development Center in Stuttgart, Germany. Gern joins the Torc team after serving as the the chief technology officer for the Daimler Truck Autonomous Technology Group, where he had a leading role in the technological strategy for the company’s SAE-Level-4 autonomous truck development. Initially, Gern was on the Daimler Truck team that investigated autonomous driving partnerships that led to the successful 2019 acquisition of a majority stake in Torc. After serving as vice president of Autonomous Driving North America in Sunnyvale, California, for Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Gern joined Daimler Truck in 2018 as the technical project lead, Autonomous Trucks. Earlier he joined what was then Daimler AG in 1998 as a research and development engineer and earned successively higher-level positions in the organization. Gern studied computer science at the University of Stuttgart, focusing on software engineering, distributed artificial intelligence, and robotics, and earned his Ph.D. in 2005.