After studying business administration, Arnd Franz started his career in 1992 with Deutsche Industrie‐Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Frankfurt am Main, initially in Group Controlling and then as Commercial Director of several subsidiaries. He was then Commercial Director with TEV GmbH, Erlensee and Director Finance with Magna Seating Systems Europe GmbH, Lohr am Main. Franz, who was born in Stuttgart, joined MAHLE Tennex North America Inc., Murfreesboro (USA) as Managing Director in 2001. In subsequent years, he held various positions at the Stuttgart headquarters of the MAHLE Group: he was Director Controlling of MAHLE Filtersysteme GmbH from 2004, Member of the MAHLE Management Committee responsible for Aftermarket from 2006 and Member of the MAHLE Management Board responsible for Sales and Application Engineering and Aftermarket from 2013 to 2019 before becoming CEO of LKQ Europe.

Arnd Franz is committed to clean, safe, affordable mobility. He supports fair competition between the best technologies for a carbon-neutral future mobility. In his current role as MAHLE CEO he has launched a new strategy for the technology group. MAHLE 2030+ comprises three strategy fields: electrification, thermal management and efficient internal combustion engines that can run on hydrogen and other non-fossil fuels, such as e-fuels. Applying all available technologies is the fastest way to climate neutrality.

M. Gürcan Karakaş was born in Antalya in 1965 and grew up in Germany. In 1988 he graduated from Middle East Technical University (METU) with a degree in mechanical engineering. In the same year he joined Aselsan in Ankara. In 1990 he started his career at Bosch. In 2002 he joined the executive board and in 2004 he was promoted to CEO of Bosch Türkiye. In 2007 he took over the management of global sales and the Bosch Car Service network at the Bosch Automotive Aftermarket division in Karlsruhe. In 2011, he took over the management of marketing and sales and automotive strategies at Bosch headquarters. In 2013 he returned to active operational business and became a member of the Board of Directors of the Electrical Drives division with global responsibilities with a focus on the NAFTA and Asia markets. After a long and successful career at Bosch, on September 1, 2018, he took over responsibility as CEO of the Turkish mobility technology and ecosystem provider Togg.

As COO of the Advanced Research Center of Excellence and Managing Officer at Honda R&D, Atsushi Ogawa leads the organization dedicated to a variety of projects aimed at achieving carbon neutrality, zero fatal traffic accidents, and the creation of a new mobility world. After being engaged in aerodynamics development for Honda Jet, F1, Indy, and passenger cars, as well as automobile platform development, and holding positions in thermal management, acceleration performance, and vehicle dynamics, Atsushi Ogawa was appointed to his current COO position in 2020.

Honda R&D Co., Ltd. plays a vital role in technical development of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (commonly called Honda), a Japanese automobile manufacture.

In the area of environmental sustainability, we are striving to achieve a sustainable society through the development of solid-state batteries, fuel cells, and initiatives to promote resource circulation, among other efforts. We are also working on intelligent driving technology, autonomous drive, and a secure and safe communication network for vehicles to achieve zero traffic collision fatalities. Moreover, we are challenging new areas of mobility, such as eVTOL, robotics, and micro-mobility, based on the concept of expanding people's potential in life and experiencing the joy that comes with technological innovation.

Honda will continue taking on challenges to share joys and excitement with customers and communities around the world to strive to become a company society wants to exist.

Honda is aiming for “carbon neutrality” and “zero traffic collisions” and is also working on “challenges in new areas.” Honda’s own core technologies such as combustion, electrification, control, and robotics are indispensable to achieving these. Leveraging these strengths, we will serve people worldwide with “the joy of expanding their life’s potential” in new mobility areas such as reusable small rocket, eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing), and avatar robots.