Jason Andersen leads the team responsible for setting the business strategy and product roadmaps for Stratus Products and Services.  He has a deep understanding of both on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and has been responsible for the successful market delivery of hardware, software, and cloud products and services for almost 20 years.  Jason currently spearheads the company’s initiatives to assist partners and customers evolve their existing industrial automation footprint into IIoT-enabled architectures.  He is frequently sought out for his thought leadership on industry trends, challenges, and best practices.  Prior to joining Stratus in 2013, Jason was Director of Product Line Management at Red Hat where he was responsible for the go-to-market strategy and product introductions for JBoss Application Products.  Jason also previously held Product Management positions at IBM Software Group.

Harry Forbes is ARC’s lead analyst for the Distributed Control System (DCS) market.  In addition, ARC leverages Harry’s utility expertise in its coverage of Smart Grid, industrial networking, networking and communication standards, and the electric power vertical industry.  His research topics include DCS integration and architecture, Smart Grid, smart metering, energy storage, industrial wireless, industrial Ethernet, and emerging network technologies.  Harry has 30 years of experience in automation, power generation, energy management, modeling and simulation, advanced control, and optimization.  Prior to joining ARC, Harry served in a variety of marketing, sales, and engineering posts for Simsci-Esscor, Invensys, and Foxboro.  He also worked as a performance and automation engineer in fossil and nuclear power generation at Detroit Edison.

Kenji Fujita has accumulated a wealth of experience in Plant Control Engineering ever since he joined IHI in 1984, including control system engineering, construction and start-up for LNG terminal mostly in Japan. He has been leading this group as a manager since 2013.

Hirofumi Isobe has been with IBM's R&D Department for over 15 years and has been in charge of the product development and solution design for IT System Management and Enterprise Asset Management.  He is currently in charge of the design for the IoT industry solution, focusing on manufacturing and automotive industries.

Hideki Matsuo joined Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals, a predecessor of Mitsui Chemicals, in 1982.  He began as a process engineer, having been in charge of process improvement and plant constructions.  In 2000, he was involved in projects in Singapore and managed plant constructions and operations.  In 2005, he committed to establish a joint venture to work with a Chinese company, constructed a new plant, and managed its operations.  He has been with the Production and Technology Center in Mitsui Chemicals since 2011. 

The Honeywell Connected Plant line of business delivers software solutions to the process industries through a unique set of advanced software and consulting led services.  Since joining Honeywell in 1996, Wah Heng Ow has held business development, operations, and consulting positions in the organization serving customers in Asia Pacific.  He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Nanyang Technology University, Singapore.

Keiji Sato joined Yokogawa in 1990 and has experience in DCS engineering and as a development leader of the operation efficiency improvement package ‘Exapilot.’  In recent years, he was engaged as a data analyst and consultant for production improvements based on quality engineering.  Curently, he is furthering the development of productivity-improvements for software packages based on actual production information.

Having just completed a six year assignment in the European headquarters of Mitsubishi Electric’s factory automation European business group, Hajime Sugiyama has a proven track record working in multi-cultural environments.  During that time he dealt with diverse partners from small, local companies to global groups establishing the foundation for win-win collaborations. This ideally complemented his formative years working in the PLC marketing section of Mitsubishi Electric’s premier factory automation plant in Nagoya. He is now taking up his new challenge to bring both of these experiences together on a global basis to the benefit of e-F@ctory Alliance partners and the customers they serve.

In 1973, Go Suzuki joined Toyo Engineering where he worked in the process department mainly in the petrochemical area.  In 1985, he was CMU in the U.S. as a visiting researcher.  In 1986, he worked in the process technology department (process simulator, training simulator, APC and process revamping design).  In 2003, he worked in the instrumentation department (training simulator, APC, plant data historian).  In 2015, he retired at Toyo Engineering Corp.  He is a SICE member, SICE Advanced Measurement and Control Engineer.

When and where should you consider distributing additional computing into your operations? In this session Dell’s IoT Solutions Director will explore architectures for computing ‘at the edge’ and specific customer use cases where edge analytics have generated significant business value. In addition he will share insights from Dell’s 15 years of developing computing solutions which thrive in dirty, dank, and dangerous environments to help you overcome challenges of deploying and managing these solutions.

This will allow him to talk about customer stories, edge vs. cloud architectures, and Dell's rugged testing/tier 1 benefits. He made it ‘smarter operations’ instead of manufacturing because his experience with ARC in the past is that it is mixture of industrial verticals.

Dr. Turmel has over 20 years’ experience in process automation, where he has held roles in projects, application engineering, product management, and consulting, coupled with nearly a decade of cybersecurity-related experience.  During this time he advised major corporations on automation, the architecture of control systems, and how to keep them secure.  He has conducted security assessments on industrial systems ranging from the unit of a plant to global security assessment programs involving many sites.  He currently helps industrial and commercial corporations secure the critical link between their operations and the enterprise.

Anne-Marie Walters is a chemical engineer with the combined experience of marketing and engineering, having worked for systems vendors, systems integrators, and oil and chemical owner-operators.  She is especially passionate about establishing the value of engineering information in the world of operations and what real differences information technology can make to the challenges that both EPCs and owner-operators face.  At Bentley, she is currently responsible for the global industrial process, offshore, and natural resources industries.