HERE Technologies

Senior Vice President and Head of Brand Organization

Kristina Bohlmann oversees all marketing and communications activities for HERE Technologies. A passionate, energetic and down-to-earth leader, she brings to the role deep experience in both agency and corporate PR for consumer and B2B organizations. She has been a long-time advocate of placing social media at the heart of the company’s communications strategy. Prior to HERE Technologies, she led the communications function for Nokia in Germany.

Vice President and Head of HR

Werner Buskermolen leads the Human Resources team at HERE Technologies. With more than 20 years of HR experience to draw upon, he acts as a senior advisor on all people-related and organizational matters to ensure the talent agenda aligns with the company’s vision in a best-in-class global, inclusive workplace. Werner joined HERE in 2016 from Informatica, where he was responsible for Global HR Operations and Talent Acquisition.

Chief Data Officer

Denise Doyle oversees Strategy & Data, which includes data sourcing, privacy, content and business models in multiple functions throughout the company. She has two decades of experience in strategy development, business portfolio planning and risk management across North America, Europe and Asia. She joined NAVTEQ – which later became HERE Technologies – in 1999, developing strategies and leading commercial negotiations on major supplier agreements. She also held business analyst roles at AOL and Miller Brewing Company.

Senior Vice President and General Manager EMEAR

In his role as Senior Vice President and General Manager EMEAR, Fred Hessabi is responsible for growing HERE’s business and diversifying the customer base in the region. With more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry, he brings a wealth of Software-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service sales expertise. Prior to joining HERE, Fred held sales leadership roles at several prominent companies, including SAP, Siebel and C3.

Senior Vice President and Head of Mobility

Liad Itzhak is leading the Mobility business unit at HERE Technologies, driving the next revolution of the mobility ecosystem. Itzhak brings vast experience as a leader in the world of smart mobility, with expertise in consumer apps and big data. Prior to joining HERE, Itzhak built key units at Waze/Google from the ground up, including Data, Maps and QA. Itzhak led the data strategy of the company, turning Waze into a data-driven organization.

Senior Vice President and General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

David joined HERE in 2017 from Toptal, a global network of software developers, designers and finance experts. Prior to that he served in a variety of legal executive and leadership roles for other technology companies, most notably Google, Lenovo and Motorola Mobility, where he served as Corporate Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.

Senior Vice President, Global Content Operations

Damandeep Singh Kochhar is responsible for end-to-end content management and delivery at HERE Technologies, where he leads a team of more than 4,000 associates across India, Europe and the Americas. Since joining HERE in 2015, he has been instrumental in scaling global operations and taking the Indian team to the top-50 “Great Place to Work” top 50 ranking. He has over 20 years of experience in the technology services and product domain, and he previously spent 16 years at GE and Genpact, where he was SVP and COO for the health-care business unit.

Senior Vice President and General Manager APAC

Stanimira was appointed SVP and General Manager of APAC in January 2019 with the remit to drive revenue growth within the region. One of her key priorities is to accelerate the value the business brings to customers and partners. She has more than 25 years of general management, sales and business development experience within the information and communications technology space.

Senior Vice President Development and Chief Technology Officer

Giovanni Lanfranchi is Senior Vice President Development and CTO at HERE Technologies. He steers the venture of HERE Technologies into the next generation of location-based services based on platform-enabled applications and solutions in areas such as autonomous driving, asset management and augmented reality. Lanfranchi joined HERE Technologies from IBM in 2018, where he served as Vice President Global Technology Services and Head of WW Service Delivery Architecture & Technology in charge of the overall IBM Services Platform with Watson.

Chief Financial Officer

Petra Marita Meiser serves as CFO, overseeing various areas, including corporate finance, treasury, financial planning and analysis, tax, and accounting. 
Meiser joined HERE in February 2020 from Daimler where her responsibilities ranged from strategic program management and M&A to corporate law and various corporate financial initiatives. At Daimler, she successfully led the program of Project Future, one of the biggest transformation initiatives in Daimler’s history, culminating in the November 2019 launch of a new corporate structure designed to optimally position the company for success in the era of connected and autonomous transportation. Prior to that, Meiser led M&A for Daimler in the Americas, Middle East and Africa and corporate worldwide, and held various other global responsibilities.

Senior Vice President and General Manager Americas

Kirk joined HERE in 2005 and is a veteran in the industry with over 25 years of experience with location and mapping technologies. Most recently, Kirk was Vice President of Tech, Media & Telco (TMT) at HERE, where he developed comprehensive sales strategies to promote customer growth and satisfaction. Prior to leading the TMT segment, Kirk held a number of roles including Head of Global Consumer Sales as well as Head of APAC Sales.

Chief Innovation Officer

Kelley Steven-Waiss serves as Chief Innovation Officer for HERE Technologies. She has more than 25 years of executive management and consulting experience in human resources, change management and corporate communications and has spent the last 13 years as a CHRO, including her prior role at HERE and across semiconductor, software and networking companies. She is also the founder of a cloud-based SaaS talent mobility solution, Hitch, that uses machine learning and AI to match project-based opportunities to internal employee skill profiles. Since 2015, Kelley has served as a public board director for Form Factor, Inc, (NASDAQ; Form).

Board Member

Senior Vice President Corporate Investments, BMW Group

Board Member

Executive Vice President – Member of Divisional Board of Mercedes-Benz Cars, CASE

Board Member

Executive Vice President, Group CEO, Consumer Industry Group, Mitsubishi Corporation

Board Member

Senior Vice President, Head of 2020 Project and Business Collaboration, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT)

SVP and General Manager of IoT Group, Intel Corporation

Thomas Lantzsch is the SVP and General Manager of the Internet of Things (IoT) Group at Intel Corporation. He leads the worldwide organization responsible for Intel® architecture computing solutions across IoT market segments, including manufacturing, industrial, retail, transportation, smart buildings and homes, and aerospace.

Member of Board of Management & CEO Global Automotive, Allianz 

Dr. Leibfritz is a member of the board of management, Allianz Worldwide Partners SAS – German Branch and CEO Global Automotive Munich, Germany. Prior to this, he managed regional groups at Allianz and was Principal of the Boston Consulting Group’s German entity. Before this he spent more than ten years at Boston Consulting Group conducting various international projects. After graduating in Business Administration at the University of Tübingen, he earned his doctorate in Economics and Controlling at the University of Bern.

Innovation & Digital Transformation Advisor, NTT DATA 

Imran Sayeed is part of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation faculty at the MIT Sloan School of Management where he teaches Disruptive Technologies, New Business Models, Software and Internet Entrepreneurship, and Global Innovation in Large Companies. 

Previously, Sayeed was CTO and Head of the Digital Practice for NTT Data, Inc., a subsidiary of the 6th largest technology consulting company in the world with 75,000 employees in 45 countries and $16 billion in annual revenue. Sayeed also led the global Innovation initiatives across NTT DATA focusing on Disruptive, Incremental, Top Down, Grassroots, Industry-specific and Horizontal innovation and the mechanisms for developing, measuring and creating impact across 4 continents. 

Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business/Partner, XSeed Capital

Robert Siegel is a lecturer in Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and has led primary research and written cases on Google, Box, Stripe, AngelList, 23andMe, Lending Club, PayPal, SurveyMonkey, Medium, Wikimedia Foundation, Minted, 500 Startups, Axel Springer, General Electric and Starbucks (La Boulange).

He is also a partner at XSeed Capital. His investment areas include business operations where computational technologies automate and improve company performance, mobile solutions for firms of all sizes, and software systems that shape both business and consumer behaviors.

VP & General Manager Map, Tencent Holdings Ltd.

Cham Zhong leads three departments at Tencent MIG (Mobile Internet Business Group): Browser Product, Map Platform Product and Smart Platform Product. He established the Wireless R&D Department in 2008, and in early 2009, he launched the browser project, which hatched the basis of the mobile phone QQ browser.

President and Chief Strategy Officer, Samsung Electronics, and Chairman of the Board, HARMAN International Industries

Young Sohn is president and chief strategy officer for Samsung Electronics, and Chairman of the Board, Harman International. He leads development and strategy for global innovation, investment and new business creation. Young led the $8 billion acquisition of Harman International Industries. 

Prior to joining Samsung Electronics, Young served as CEO of Oak Technologies, Agilent Semiconductor (now Avago) and Inphi Corporation. Under his leadership as CEO and board member, he took PLX Technologies, Synnex Technologies and Inphi public. He also has served on the Boards of ARM, Synnex Corporation and Cymer, Inc. 
 

SVP, Purchasing & Supplier Network Digital, BMW 

After graduating in electrical engineering at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Stephan Durach joined BMW Group in Munich in 1998.

Durach started his career in software processes and methods by working across various departments in the Electronics division. In 2008 he became Head of Technology for the Palo Alto/Mountain View office. Returning to BMW headquarters in 2011, he took over the Entertainment, Mobile Devices and App Centers department before going on to lead ‘Electronics’ in the product line for luxury class BMW. In 2015, he joined the Purchasing and Supplier Network division to take the lead on purchasing for information and communications electronics and ConnectedDrive. In 2015, he extended his responsibility to the complete Electric/Electronic portfolio with the BMW Group.   

Member of the Board of Management, CDO, CTO, Robert Bosch GmbH

Dr. Michael Bolle has been President of the corporate sector for research and advanced engineering at Robert Bosch GmbH since April 2014. 

He joined Bosch at the very beginning of his career, working in various positions in advanced engineering for multimedia systems. In 1999, he founded Systemonic AG. However, he returned to Bosch in 2003, including a stint in Japan with DENSO, and since 2006 has worked in positions for driver-information systems, as well as development and product sectors for Robert Bosch Car Multimedia GmbH.

Vice President for Digital Vehicle & Mobility, Daimler 

Georges Massing is the Vice President Digital Vehicle & Mobility at Daimler AG. He joined Daimler as Director User Interaction & Software for the Mercedes-Benz vehicle portfolio in 2016. Previously, he was responsible for Driver Experience, mechatronic controls and interior light for BMW AG in Munich and held various management positions in areas such as gesture and eye control, driver assistance systems, EV/hybrid vehicles and lighting systems at Magna. Georges Massing holds a graduate degree in aerospace engineering from Technical University of Berlin. 

Executive Vice President, Development Electrics/Electronics, AUDI AG

Dr. Klaus Büttner is a Mechanical Engineering graduate who started his professional career in 1997 at BMW Group in Munich. While there, he operated in different strategic and operative management positions including in innovation management, advanced driving assistance and safety systems as well as Human Machine Interface. From 2013 to 2019, he took over responsibility as VP for various strategic fields like Electronics, User Experience, Connected Car and Autonomous Driving. In his current role as Head of Electrics/Electronics of AUDI AG, he is responsible for developing vehicle electronics and Car IT.

Senior Vice President, member of the VNI Management Board at Continental AG

Werner Köstler is a member of Continental AG’s VNI (Vehicle Networking and Information) management board and has been heading the VNI strategy department since 2014. He joined Siemens VDO in 1992 where he headed the Chassis Electronic NAFTA, Body & Security business units for Tier-1 customers as well as the Corporate Strategy Asia Pacific in Shanghai. After the acquisition of Siemens VDO by Continental in 2007/2008, Werner Köstler took over the position as Vice President of the Interior Korea division in Seoul, after which he led the Body & Security Asian OEM division in Yokohama, Japan. In 2014, he moved to Regensburg and has been heading the VNI strategy department.

Advisor, Digital Strategy Department, Mitsubishi Corporation
Fellow, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation

Dr. Kazuo Iwano has been working for Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation to realize new business model and digital transformation by exploiting digital technology and its concept as Chief Digital Officer since 2017 and as a Fellow since April 2020. Prior to the Mitsubishi Corporation, he worked at IBM and engaged in various roles such as VP of Emerging Businesses Opportunities, Director of Tokyo Research Laboratory, Director of Autonomic Computing, T.J. Watson Research center and VP of Yamato Software Laboratory. He is a member of IEEE, ACM, and SIAM, a fellow of the Information Processing Society of Japan, and an associated member of the Science Council of Japan. He has been a visiting professor of the Tokyo Institute of Technology since 2010.