Hybrid Horizons 2025

Christian Brandt

Head of Design, Zenvo Automotive

Christian Brandt has fulfilled the role of Head of Design at Zenvo Automotive from the very beginning and now leads an all-Danish design team at the factory. Classically trained in car design and having worked with some of the top Italian automotive brands, Christian's understanding of car design language and his passion for Danish design has been the core driver in the styling of the all-new Aurora and future models.

Jack Lambert

Research and Innovation Manager, JLR Motorsport

Jack Lambert is JLR's Motorsport Research and Innovation Manager for Jaguar TCS Racing. He is responsible for identifying and advancing innovation through motorsport activity and technical partnerships building readiness for future road going applications.

Jens Sverdrup

Chairman & Chief Commercial Officer, Zenvo Automotive

Jens Sverdrup is Chairman and Chief Commercial Officer at Zenvo Automotive. With a vast experience in the hypercar world, especially with bringing new products to market, Jens has built a specialist team to help take Zenvo to the next level. His understanding of the hypercar world, customers and global demand has been instrumental in the success of Zenvo 2.0.

Jon Harris

Chief Engineer, Engines, Transmissions and Hybrid Power Electronics, JLR

Jon Harris, JLR's Chief Engineer for Engines, Transmissions and Hybrid Power Electronics is responsible for the engineering delivery for all carlines. With a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, Jon Joined Jaguar in 1998 and has experience covering many areas of the vehicle Powertrain System.

Neil Wu

Global Partner, Vice President, Roland Berger Greater China

Neil Wu is a Partner and core leadership of Roland Berger Greater China. He has in-depth and rich project experience along the entire automotive value chain, and supported many local and JV OEMs, parts suppliers and mobility players in their strategic decision making and business strategy planning.

Dr Rebecca Yates

VP Advanced Lubricants Products, Castrol

VP for Advanced Lubricant Products and member of the Castrol Leadership Team, Rebecca is responsible for shaping and delivering the technology roadmap for Castrol, building premium, differentiated products for core lubricants and innovative offers in emergingthermal management sectors.

Rebecca and the Applied Science teams deliver technical support and quality assurance to customers across Castrol's 150 markets.

Steve Schwall

Partner and Managing Director, IDEO

Steve Schwall is a Partner and Managing Director at IDEO Chicago, where he often works with creative leaders and executives in the automotive and mobility industry to design new offerings, drive business growth, and transform their culture. Steve believes that successful change doesn't come from a "big idea," but rather teams looking at problems from new perspectives, challenging deeply held assumptions, and working together in new ways.

Dr Thomas Johansson

Chief Engineer, Powertrain & CAE, Zenvo Automotive

Dr Thomas Johansson is Chief Engineer of Powertrain and CAE at Zenvo. His expertise lies in powertrain and combustion engines. He has always used Computer Aided Engineering or CAE tools resulting in numerous speed records. However, he understands that if one can design and optimise an engine, one can design and optimise pretty much anything.

Mr Toshifumi Takaoka

General Manager, Powertrain Certification Division, Toyota

Mr Toshifumi Takaoka is General Manager of the powertrain certification division at Toyota. He was a key player in the task force that developed the Toyota Prius, the world's first mass-produced petrol-electric hybrid vehicle. Since joining Toyota in 1986, he's held a number of research, development and engineering positions.

Awie Erasmus

Chief Strategy Officer, Ogilvy Brussels

Awie joined Ogilvy Social Lab in 2018. He has always been a big believer in pervasive creativity – and this has resulted in numerous creative and effectiveness awards on the clients he worked on.

Georgia Hunter

Senior Account Executive, Automotive Retail, Google

As Senior Account Executive, Automotive Retail, Georgia leads the client relationships and ad strategy for the top auto groups in the US. She is focused on partnering with leadership at these groups to help grow their business and utilize the power of Google to help transform their business models for the future.

Hannah Marcus

Independent Consultant and Cultural Strategist

Hannah Marcus is a cultural strategist with deep experience in understanding how culture, technology and society overlap, with a particular focus on how this impacts women's experiences in today's world. Her outside in perspective and methods involves taking these cultural signals and understanding how they apply and shape sectors like the automotive category.

Karla Jakeman

Director of Grant Funding, Head of Automation & Employee Director, TRL

Karla Jakeman is the Director of Grant Funding, Head of Automation & Employee Director at TRL.Karla plays a crucial role at TRL, a company with over 90 years of experience in transport research. She focuses on supporting innovation to efficiently, sustainably, and safely deliver transport.

Michelle Harris

Head of Automotive, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

Michelle leads the UK automotive category at Linkedin, delivering solutions to Enterprise clients encompassing communications and data. With a strong focus on Thought Leadership, Michelle works closely with automotive brands to tell their corporate and product stories across the Linkedin platform as well as providing wider industry expertise.

Rebecca Oldfield

EVP Digital Innovation and Technology, Infineum

Rebecca joined Infineum in 2000 as a research scientist, she now heads up the Global Digital Innovation and Technology function, accountable for delivering innovative products and digital solutions to meet customers' needs in current and future markets. Rebecca is the Executive sponsor for one of our Affinity groups, supporting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Infineum, and is a member of a number of external networks supporting gender equality in the workplace.

Ruchi Kaushal

Global Lead for Car and Bike Workshops, Castrol

Ruchi Kaushal leads Global Channel marketing for Cars & Bikes for Castrol. She is responsible for creating marketing offers across Castrol's OEM partners and its vast independent workshop network. She is passionate about bringing inclusivity in car and bike servicing, especially to women consumers; doing this by upskilling customers and partners and creating change in the industry.

Sophie Nathan-King

Strategist, Discover.ai

With a background in Fine Arts, Sophie has a passion for storytelling and cultural insights. Guided through visual and language cues, she loves to unearth the now, the near, and the next and their strategic potential for brands. Discover.ai are a team of experts in analysing online content to deliver meaningful cultural insights in an ever-changing world.

Yana Wilkinson

Global Lead & Vice President Energy Practice, Kline and Company

Based in London, and with 20 years of experience in management consulting and market intelligence, Yana Wilkinson is the global lead and VP of Kline's Energy practice. Her focus is on the entire lubricants value chain and end-use applications. This includes energy specialties, alongside a broad range of automotive and industrial end-use applications. Her aim is to help clients see further and act smarter.

Adam Baker

CEO, Audi Formula Racing GmbH

Adam Baker is the CEO of Audi Formula Racing GmbH. Adam joined Audi in 2021, where he developed the technical, strategic, operational and financial concept for the brand's first involvement in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The hybrid power unit developed in-house at Audi's Neuburg facility will head to the starting line at the beginning of the 2026 season.

Allan McNish

Former Audi racing driver

After winning the FIA World Endurance Championship, Allan McNish retired from his active driving career. He became a brand ambassador for Audi, was the Team Principal of the Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Formula E team and coordinated the Audi Group Motorsport. Now, Allan is part of Audi's Formula 1 Project.

Amanda Davies

Sponsorship, Media and Comms Manager EMEA

Our Motorsport zone host, Amanda has been in the lubricants business for 25 years with much of that time dedicated to managing and activating Castrol's motorsport & other sponsorships. Amanda also manages events relating to product launches, customer conferences & trade shows.

Donald Smith

Global Sponsorship Manager, Castrol

Donald started at Castrol back in 1997, quickly taking on the F1 Sponsorship management and then progressing to the role of Castrol Sponsorship Manager. Donald leads the global management of Castrol's motorsport sponsorship assets, working closely with the partner teams to ensure technical co-operation and product development, as well as global Castrol market activations.

Neel Jani

Simulator Driver Power Unit Development, Audi F1 Project

Neel Jani is the official simulator driver for the power unit development in the Audi Formula 1 project. The Swiss racing driver is a 24h Le Mans winner & FIA World Champion, and has previously also raced in Formula E.

Rolf Michl

Managing Director, Audi Sport GmbH

Rolf Michl has been responsible for the motorsport engagement at Dakar Rally and Audi Sport customer racing. Furthermore Michl is Managing Director of Audi Sport GmbH, since September 2022. Audi Sport shapes the sporty and exclusive image of the brand with the four rings. In addition to the dynamic RS models, Michl and his team handle customizations through the Audi exclusive program, the Audi collection, and Audi Sport Performance projects.

Stefan Dreyer

CTO, Audi Formula Racing GmbH

Stefan Dreyer began his career at Audi Sport as an engine engineer and worked his way up to head of development for all motorsport projects. Dreyer was involved in the early planning of the F1 project. Under his leadership, the technical and sporting regulations were negotiated with the FIA, as a result laying a key foundation stone for Audi's entry into F1. As CTO of Audi Formula Racing GmbH in Neuburg, he is responsible for the technical development of Audi's power unit.

Chris Lockett

Senior Vice President, Electrification & Castrol Technology

Chris Lockett has been leading and building bp technology teams and facilities for over 27 years in different parts of the world across bp Chemicals, bp Fuels, bp Group and Castrol. He currently heads up the global R&D team covering Castrol fluids, EV charging and energy management.

Colin McKerracher

Head of Clean Transport, BloombergNEF

Colin manages coverage of the transport and energy storage sectors at BloombergNEF. This includes electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, batteries, shared mobility, autonomous driving, as well as the decarbonization of aviation and shipping. Colin's team advises the world's top automakers, battery manufacturers, electric utilities, oil and gas companies, governments and financiers.

David Read

Head of Hybrids and Drivelines, Ricardo

David Read is the Head of Hybrids and Drivelines at Ricardo, responsible for a team of engineers and technical specialists engaged in the development of the technology and leading engineering programmes in transmission, driveline and hybrid powertrain development. This includes the responsibility for the mechanical system design, analysis and simulation, control software development, powertrain system integration and product validation and test.

James Newton-Savage

Expert Technologist, Castrol

James Newton-Savage is an Expert Technologist at Castrol responsible for the development of new product technical claims used across the world. His role includes focus on claims for engine oils for hybrids, including development of the HYSPEC technical specification. In James' previous role he designed bespoke lubricants for motorsport partners competing in Formula 1 and Formula E.

Mike Bassett

Engineering Director, MAHLE Powertrain Ltd

Mike Bassett is the Engineering Director at MAHLE Powertrain, responsible for leading a team of highly skilled engineers engaged in developing technologies to enhance electrified mobility, as well as advanced combustion systems for renewable and zero carbon fuels. His experience spans fuels cells, electric propulsion systems and internal combustion engines.

Thomas Lüdiger

Director and Head of Propulsion Systems Strategies, FEV Group

Thomas joined FEV Consulting in 2012 and is now Director and Head of Propulsion Systems Strategies for the FEV Group. He has over 10 years of Management Consulting experience in the area of e-mobility, powertrain and vehicle strategies, business and product portfolio strategies.

Wajih Hossenally

Associate Director, EMEA Light Vehicle Powertrain, S&P Global

Wajih Hossenally brings over a decade of valuable industry insights to automotive stakeholders. Renowned for his engaging presentations, he delivers in-depth analyses of powertrain regulatory frameworks and their implications on propulsion trends to diverse audiences. As a specialist in powertrain specifications, volume planning, and OEM CO2 compliance strategies, Wajih is committed to empowering clients with actionable intelligence.