Simulation World.

Ajei Gopal is president and CEO of Ansys. Ajei has been associated with Ansys since joining the board of directors in 2011.

He previously served as operating partner for Silver Lake Partners, one of the largest technology investors in the world. As senior vice president and general manager of Hewlett-Packard Software, Ajei was directly responsible for $2.6 billion in revenue and leading core business initiatives, including growing license revenue by attracting new customers through organically developed SaaS offerings. As executive vice president for CA Technologies, he directly managed $4 billion in revenue, defined and implemented a winning strategy to compete in SaaS and cloud markets and drove double-digit new license growth for strategic products.

Ajei was the founder, CEO and director of Reefedge Networks, a wireless LAN security company, which was acquired by Symantec. He held several roles at IBM Research and IBM’s Software Group and began his career at Bell Communications Research in 1984.

Prith Banerjee is chief technology officer at Ansys, responsible for leading the evolution of Ansys' technology strategy and championing the company's next phase of innovation and growth.

Prior to joining Ansys, Prith served as senior client partner at Korn Ferry, responsible for IoT and digital transformation in Global Industrial Practice. Before that, he was executive vice president and chief technology officer at Schneider Electric. Prith also served as managing director of Global Technology Research and Development at Accenture, chief technology officer and executive vice president at ABB, senior vice president of Research at Hewlett-Packard and director at Hewlett-Packard Labs.

Mr. Cannizzo joined Ferrari in 1996 as junior aerodynamicist in the F1 department. Over the following 10 years, he developed his career by taking a number of more senior roles while building his experience on F1 racing car design, CFD, wind tunnel and track testing, and performance analysis, finally becoming the Principal Aerodynamicist of the Scuderia.

In 2005 he moved to GT road car design as Head of Aerodynamics, Thermal and Energy Management and in 2007 became Head of Vehicle Innovation. From 2011 to 2016 he led the design and development of transmissions and hybrid systems and created the first hybrid powertrain of the prancing horse, the one used on LaFerrari. Since 2016 he has been covering the role of Head of GT Racing Car Design and Development.

Journalist, reporter and author, Kate Russell, has been writing about technology since 1995. A regular on BBC technology programme Click for over a decade, she also speaks at conferences and digital strategy and policy meetings, as well as lecturing in schools and universities to inspire the next generation of technologists.

Born in France, Zurlinden trained as an automotive engineer and holds a Masters of Science in Motorsport Engineering and Management. With his passion and qualifications in race technology, Zurlinden has supported French racing teams, the DTM department at the Opel Performance Center, as well as the Phoenix Racing squad. In 2008, he moved to Audi Sport and spent several years working on the preparation, implementation and follow-up of the technical aspects of the DTM vehicles. He has been with Porsche since 2014. His first task there was as test and strategy engineer in the LMP1 project. In 2017, he took over responsibility for the ‘Balance of Performance’ in the GT field and, in 2018, the role of Director of GT Factory Motorsports. Under his leadership, Porsche achieved prestigious wins at Le Mans, Bathurst and Spa as well as at North American races including Sebring and Road Atlanta. In August 2019 Pascal Zurlinden took on a key role in Formula E in addition to his role in GT works racing as Director Factory Motorsport.

… has motorsport in his genes. His grandfather: A passionate fan of the iconic Rally Monte Carlo. His father: Rally driver. And Sven Smeets himself was also active on the rally scene: His career as a rally co-driver from 1995 to 2005 saw him reach the dizzy heights of the World Rally Championship. From 2012 to mid-2016, the Belgian was Team Manager of the WRC team at Volkswagen. Since 1 September 2016, he has been responsible for managing Volkswagen’s motorsport activities in his role as Motorsport Director.

Detlef is Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial, Technology & Engineering Officer for MARELLI Corp. Prior to joining Marelli, Detlef held various executive and management positions at Johnson Controls. His most recent role was Chief Technology Officer at Adient.

Detlef is passionate about the philosophy of Engineering Excellence to drive transformational change and believes in creating a globally connected, fully digital "engineering factory". Leveraging digital twin, big data and AI as well as state of the art infrastructure, processes and systems, he believes in the highly skilled & diverse engineering teams who are leading the way in mastering the speed of change within the auto industry toward connected, autonomous, shared and electric mobility.

He was born in Hamburg, Germany and is currently based in Detroit Michigan with additional prime work locations in Tokyo, Japan and Milan, Italy.

Mr. Parent is responsible for digital transformation and fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies like edge, additive manufacturing, and AI across the business. He also oversees three Baker Hughes enterprise technology and innovation centers located in Oklahoma, USA, Houston, USA and Mumbai, India focused on driving disruptive technology across the industry.

Upon retirement as President of Shell Oil Company in 2008, Mr. Hofmeister founded and heads the not-for-profit membership association, Citizens for Affordable Energy.

A business leader who has participated in the inner workings of multiple industries for over 35 years, Hofmeister also has held senior executive leadership positions in General Electric, Nortel and AlliedSignal (now Honeywell International).

Hofmeister speaks frequently to interested companies, associations, and other groups globally on the themes of the 21st Century energy transition, including the future of supply, efficiency, environment, infrastructure and governance. He also provides insight and commentary to a wide range of media regarding current energy issues and topics, including the geopolitics of energy. He also provides information and perspective to relevant policy making and government organizations.

Sam Abuelsamid is a principal analyst leading Guidehouse Insights' E-Mobility Research Service with a focus on transportation electrification, automated driving and mobility services. With Guidehouse, Sam has worked with numerous clients to help them understand emerging technology trends and shape strategies. Sam regularly contributes to a number of publications including Autonomous Vehicle Engineering, Forbes and One Zero and co-hosts the Wheel Bearings podcast. Trained as a mechanical engineer, Sam worked in the automotive industry for more than two decades, developing advanced electronic control systems and embedded software. Prior to joining Guidehouse Insights (formerly Navigant Research) in 2014, Sam worked as an automotive journalist and in product and technology communications at Ford and GM.

Ashkan received a dual Bachelor's in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Ph.D. from University of Southern California working on photonic crystal devices, high-speed nanowire photodetectors, efficient white LEDs and solar cells. While at Hewlett Packard Enterprise as a research scientist, he has been working on developing high-bandwidth, efficient optical interconnects for exascale and high performance computing applications.

Dr. Mallik, as CTO of Ericsson Silicon Valley & Group Function Technologies & Architectures, is responsible for innovation, incubation, technology strategy & leadership efforts focusing on 5G, distributed cloud/edge compute, SDN/NFV, AI/ML and Internet of Things (IoT). He closely works with the Silicon Valley ecosystem, and collaborates with universities, VC firms, start-ups, Ericsson Business & Market Areas and Customers. Before joining Ericsson, Mallik was VP/GM & CTO of Service Provider, Cloud & IoT solutions at F5 networks. Prior to F5, he held various leadership positions at Ericsson, Juniper, Cisco, Motorola, Nortel and Indian Telephone Industries.

He has his PhD, Master's and Bachelor’s degrees in “communication engineering and networking technologies” from The University of Tokyo (Japan), Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai (India) and National Institute of Technology, Warangal (India) correspondingly.

Pradeep Dubey is an Intel Senior Fellow and Director of Parallel Computing Lab (PCL), part of Intel Labs. His research focus is on defining computer architectures that can efficiently handle emerging machine learning/artificial intelligence, and traditional HPC applications for data-centric computing environments. Dubey previously worked at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center, and Broadcom Corporation. He has made contributions to the design, architecture, and application-performance of various microprocessors, including IBM® Power PC*, Intel® i386TM, i486TM, Pentium® and Xeon®, line of processors. He holds 36 patents, has published over 100 technical papers, won the Intel Achievement Award in 2012 for Breakthrough Parallel Computing Research, and was honored with Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award from Purdue University in 2014. Dr. Dubey received a PhD in electrical engineering from Purdue University. He is a Fellow of IEEE.

Sujeet Chand is responsible for leading global technical innovation and business development with a focus on making a difference for customers by helping them achieve greater productivity and sustainability.  A strategic leader and engineer with a unique perspective on technology, innovation, and customer needs, Sujeet serves on a number of industry, government and higher education boards. 

J. Douglas Boles is responsible for the daily operations of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and all three world-class racing events at the facility – the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, the Indycar Grand Prix, and the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard. He also is responsible for exploring and expanding business opportunities for the Speedway.

During his time as president, Boles has overseen the investment of over $100 million in the highly publicized Project 100 renovation of the 108 year old venue, the largest sporting venue in the world and the implementation of the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.

Boles serves on the boards of the 500 Festival, IEEI/GSF Center Advisory Board, Indianapolis Public Safety Foundation, Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, and United States Auto Club. He has previously taught courses at his alma mater, Butler University, and was selected as a member of the first group of “50 Under 50” highlighting Butler graduates.