ZF Global Supplier Summit

After completing his studies in Business Administration with a Master of Commerce from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, he started his professional career in 2003 at ZF Group. He held various management positions and moved in 2015 to the Car Powertrain Technology Division as Senior Vice President for Finance, IT and Process Management before taking over as head of the division in 2018.

Stephan von Schuckmann has been a Member of the Board of Management of the ZF Group since January 2021. He heads the Electrified Powertrain Technology division and is responsible for the Asia-Pacific region and group-wide materials management while being based in Asia.

After completing his studies in mechanical engineering and working as a research assistant at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Prof. Dr. Peter Laier began his professional career at Continental in 2000. At the same time, he completed his Ph.D. in 2001 at the Faculty of Engineering Design and Production Engineering at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. At Continental, he assumed various management roles in Germany and Japan until 2012. After holding Board positions at Osram and Benteler International, Prof. Dr. Peter Laier joined Knorr-Bremse in 2016, where he was a member of the Board with responsibility for the commercial vehicle division until 2021.

Prof. Dr. Peter Laier has been a member of the ZF Group Board of Management since January 2023. He heads the Commercial Vehicle Solutions and Industrial Technology divisions and is responsible for the India region as well as group-wide production. In October 2023, he was appointed Honorary Professor at the Technical University of Munich.

Daniele Pontarollo started his career at ZF Friedrichshafen AG in 2002. During his 20 years in the company, he gained extensive experience in Finance & Controlling in different roles worldwide in Brazil, Mexico, US, Italy, and Germany. After being Vice President of Finance & HR for ZF Marine and Special Driveline Technology, he was responsible for ZF Aftermarket business as Senior Vice President of Finance from 2017 to 2021. Since January 2022 he has been leading ZF Group Materials Management as Executive Vice President.

He studied Business Administration, Languages and Public Relations at universities in Padua and Venice.

Manfred Meyer is Senior Vice President Engineering, Active Safety Systems at ZF Friedrichshafen AG. In this position, he holds global engineering responsibility for braking, brake control systems, steering systems and Software for Active Safety Systems including X by Wire System Development.

In addition to his leadership role in Active Safety Systems, Manfred is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ZF Active Safety GmbH and a member of the ZF Executive R&D Leadership Group.

Fabian Schlegel, Senior Vice President at ZF Group, has been leading the Global Commodity Organization & Supplier Management department since July 2023. In this function he is head of a global team which is responsible for part family strategies, all new sourcing decisions, and all existing supplier contract negotiations, besides the supplier management responsibilities.

He started his career at ZF Friedrichshafen AG in 2018 as VP Corp. Materials Management Div. E-Mobility after many years at Knorr-Bremse CV Systems, where he held different Senior & Executive Management positions. In May 2020 he took over the role of Head of Materials Management Div. Powertrain, in addition to his position as Head of Materials Management Div. E-Mobility. After merging the two organizations, he had been responsible for Materials Management for the newly created Div. Electrified Powertrains starting from 01/2021.

During the worldwide chip crisis, Fabian had been officially appointed as ZF Group Task Force leader from January 2022 until June 2023 as SVP Corp. Mat. Management Electronics.

Michael Karrer studied International Business Administration in Innsbruck (Austria) and Louvain (Belgium) and worked for 5 years as a research assistant. He received his doctor’s degree with a thesis on Supply Chain Performance Management.

He joined ZF in 2006 and worked for 5 years in the field of strategic logistics, leading projects on inventory optimization, delivery performance and lean logistics in several of ZF’s global sites. For three years, he served as project lead for the industrialization of a truck transmission in Hangzhou China. From 2014 to 2016, Michael was responsible for supplier management at ZF group, focusing on supplier quality performance, risk management and supply chain sustainability. Since January 2021, he is the global lead for sustainability and EHS. He is convinced that sustainability is not only about complying with regulations but must be an integral part of the business strategy. By embedding sustainability in processes and decision-making, it is possible to interlink long-term business success with a company’s responsibility for society and the environment.

Julian Fieres studied management but always loved technology equally as much and is now working towards a vision for zero emissions to leave a better planet for the next generation. He is the Vice President of Transformation, Strategy, Sustainability & Digitalization at the Division Electrified Powertrain at the ZF Group. This includes the areas of strategy, M&A, product planning, digitalization and sustainability. With a revenue of €10 billion and around 30,000 employees at Division E, he and his team strive every day to make an impact for a more affordable and more sustainable mobility of tomorrow.

Having studied Mechanical Engineering in Saarbruecken and Industrial Engineering in Ludwigshafen, he started his career at Robert Bosch GmbH in Special Machinery Production. In 2000 he moved to Schaeffler, an automotive supplier, assuming various management roles within purchasing. His last position at Schaeffler was Vice President Corporate Purchasing Production Materials, before moving to ZF Group in 2019.

Since January 2021, he is responsible for the Corporate Supplier Management of the ZF group, including supplier risk management and sustainability in the supply chain. Michael is located in Schweinfurt, Germany.

Frank Berger leads the Advanced Development of the Car Chassis Technology Division of ZF Friedrichshafen AG.

Being responsible for the innovation process in R&D he brings more than 20 years of experience in different roles within the chassis domain, ranging from multi-body-simulation, lateral & vertical dynamics to project management. In 2010 he and his team brought AKC® rear wheel steering into series production introducing Mechatronics, ASPICE and Functional Safety into a newly founded product line within a 3.5-year-application.

Between 2012 and 2022 he led the growth and global roll out of the product engineering of Chassis Actuators.

Bernd Ehrich has been leading the Corporate Development department of Division Industrial Technology since 2017. This includes the areas strategy development, ecosystem, digitalization coordination, special projects and sustainability. He joined Division Industrial Technology as head of special projects where he gained extensive insights into Div. I’s business, contributing to or leading acquisitions, restructurings, organizational changes and integrations. Before that he led major programs on ZF Group level or contributed to the success of corporate projects either as full-time program manager or in his role as business process architect. Prior that Bernd had various positions with increasing responsibilities within the corporate development department. Bernd started his career with ZF in 1996 as an engineer in the Corporate Development department.

He studied mechanical engineering at the technical university of Karlsruhe.

Christian Wallstabe has been the third-generation managing partner of the family-owned company Wallstabe & Schneider, headquartered in Niederwinkling, since 1999. As CEO and Commercial Director, his responsibilities include sales, finance, controlling, procurement, HR, IT and strategy development.

Before joining the family business, Christian Wallstabe studied business administration in Passau and Bayreuth. From 1995 to 1998, he worked at Bain & Co, a leading international strategy consultancy.

Bernd Grumme is Managing Director of the BILSTEIN GROUP, serving as CSO for several years. With 37 years experience in the steel business, Bernd Grumme took over the responsibility for purchasing raw material four years ago, in addition to his position as CSO. He was also a member of the team that built a greed field operation in the United States, which opened in 2017. He is in touch with suppliers and customers to discuss their ideas of „getting green“ and to evaluate solutions.

Before he joined the BILSTEIN GROUP in 2005, he had been working for Arcelor.