Committee Members

As Global Portfolio Leader, Robotics & Automation for 3M’s Abrasive Systems Division, Ian works on a team that helps customers to automate their abrasive processes, including automotive clearcoat paint defect repair. Previously, he’s held a variety of product development, marketing, and strategy roles, including Innovation Manger for a tier-1 automotive supplier. Ian has an MBA from the University of Michigan and Bachelors and Masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. He currently lives near St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife and young daughter.

Silvia currently leads at BMW AG in Munich the technical planning department for the corrosion protection of the painted body. She has held various expert and leader positions within the technical planning at BMW AG as well as in the engineering at Airbus. She has been managing over twenty years teams and departments with the focus on materials and processes development in the aircraft and automotive industry. The main aim of her activities today is to plan a lean, green and digital paint shop.

She graduated in Materials engineering at the University of Ferrara, Italy and her PhD was on the fatigue behavior of friction stir welded Al- alloys (at GKSS today Helmholtz-Zentrum in Geestacht, Germany).

Shuichiro Nakajima joined ABB K.K. in 1998, and has held various management roles for Process Automation’s Measurement Products business in Japan and China.

He joined as Local Product Group Manager, Atomizer Supply Unit Robotics and Automation Division in 2013, has overseen the entire Robotics business since 2015,

assigned as Local Business Area Manager, Robotics & Discrete Automation Business Area since 2019, was appointed President and Representative Director, ABB Japan in September 2020 (concurrent post).

He has expanded role as global paint process automation leader in addition to the aforesaid concurrent post since November 2021.

He holds a Master degree of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tokyo.

Akira Nishimura started his career in Toyota Motor Corporation in 2000. He is responsible for several projects such as paint material development and paint design. He also worked in Toyota Motor North America from 2014 to 2018. Since 2021 he is the head of material engineering in Toyota Motor Europe and promotes SDGs by introducing new materials in the production of automobile.

Cédric, MBA, CEO of SAMES since 2009, has an international multidisciplinary experience with management positions in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the USA.
He started his career with automotive suppliers (Tier 1) but also worked in the aerospace, rail and energy industries.
SAMES has a sustained growth on international markets, capitalizing on its core innovation capabilities, the values and know-how of its teams.

Jean-Francois has been in the auto paint business for more than 30 years with various responsibilities in the R&D field, from product development leader as young PhD to lab management, taking part of the development of most of the new paint technologies that emerged during the last decades.

He is currently as Technical Director leading the Innovation for NPAC in Europe and is in charge of the sustainability program.

Jean-Francois knows very well the Surcar congress as his participation exceeds 20 years as attendee and speaker as well (gaining 2 awards) and is supporting Surcar program technical content as committee member for more than 10 years now.

After education at technical university Graz with the diploma thesis “sprayable sound deadener at Paintshop”, Philipp started at Magna Steyr in 2002 as paint technologist. He was later responsible for equipment planning Paintshop and from 2011 as Head of Centre of competence Painted Body responsible for all planning activities concerning Paint Graz, Maribor Hoče & globally (facility, process, technology & projects). Since 2021 he is as senior director manufacturing engineering & logistics responsible for all manufacturing technologies BIW, Paint & general assembly including overall manufacturing strategy. As father of two boys, one of his main topics is to work on sustainability strategies and drive technologies towards zero emissions. Besides of these activities, he is a passionate golf player and vice president of the GC MSF driving experience.

Luc graduated from the University of Leuven (Belgium) with a Chemical Engineering degree prior to starting his career at Henkel Automotive in 1993.

He started off as a technical advisor for the automotive Industry with a strong focus on surface treatment, sealers and adhesives.

Currently he holds the position within Henkel as Key Account Manager Automotive for the Stellantis account.

In his time off, you probably can probably find Luc cycling or running on a forest trail.

Graduated in chemistry, materials science from the universities of Reims and Bordeaux/ENSAM and business & Finance from INSEAD, Laurent Vaucenat has held managerial positions in production, development and business management sectors within automotive module suppliers and for around fifteen years in the OEM paint business.

Sven Veit studied surface technology and materials science at the University of Aalen (Germany). After completing his degree in engineering, he began his professional career at AUDI AG in 1998. He accompanied various management functions within AUDI AG and at SEAT S.A. After five years as project manager for the AUDI A6 and A7, he returned to paint shop planning in 2017 and has been responsible for manufacturing engineering paint shop for the Premium brand group since 2019.

Patrick Vejrich graduated from ITECH Lyon, started his career in 1987 at a paint supplier. After several job positions in painting activity, he joined Chemetall in 2011 to support the development of thin film technology (Oxsilan) and was part of successful stories in carrying out this sustainable pretreatment process. Automotive Manager France since 2015 he has now the responsibility of Global key account management for Stellantis.