John Casesa, Senior Managing Director, Guggenheim Securities; Former Chief Strategy Officer, Ford Motor Company
John Casesa is Senior Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners, a global investment banking and asset management firm.
He was previously Group Vice President, Global Strategy at Ford Motor Company, where he led strategy and business development and reported to the CEO. At Ford he created numerous new businesses including Argo AI, a rapidly-growing developer of an autonomous vehicle software platform built to serve customers industry-wide.
Casesa was one of Wall Street’s leading auto analysts for almost two decades, at Merrill Lynch and at Schroders. His thought-leading research changed the way investors understood many aspects of the auto industry. He authored Car Wars, which remains a benchmark for measuring automaker competitiveness, and Who Makes the Car, which presented a new framework for understanding the supply chain. In 2005, his Energy Security & Climate Change foretold the clean car revolution that is playing out today.
He was ranked as an All-Star eleven times by Institutional Investor magazine and helped write the New York Stock Exchange’s qualifying exam for securities analysts (Series 86).
Prior to Wall Street, he was a member of GM’s Marketing and Product Planning Staff.
Casesa holds a BS from St. John’s University and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Rahul Kapoor, Professor of Management, The Wharton School
Rahul Kapoor is a Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In his research, Rahul focuses on the management of industry disruption and ecosystems related to new technologies and business models. He has published numerous articles on these topics in leading peer-reviewed and practitioner journals from a perspective of both established firms and start-ups. He is currently the Chair of the Technology and Innovation Management Division of the Academy of Management. He also serves as an Associate Editor of the Strategic Management Journal, and is on the Editorial Boards of the Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, and Strategy Science. At Wharton, Rahul teaches undergraduate, MBA, Executive MBA, and PhD courses on technology and innovation strategy. He is also an active contributor to Wharton’s Executive Education, teaching in both the customized and open enrollment programs.
Rahul has received several awards for his research and teaching including the inaugural Academy of Management (Technology and Innovation Management Division) Emerging Scholar Award, the Strategic Management Journal Best Paper Prize, and Wharton Teaching Excellence Award. He has also advised and consulted for several firms with respect to launching new innovation initiatives. Prior to joining academia, he spent over 7 years in the high-tech industry where he worked for Texas Instruments and was involved with two startups, one of which he co-founded.
John Paul MacDuffie, Professor of Management, The Wharton School; Director, Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation (PVMI)
John Paul MacDuffie is Professor of Management at the Wharton School and Director of the Program on Vehicle and Mobility Innovation (PVMI) at Wharton’s Mack Institute for Innovation Management. PVMI carries on the work of the International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP), the research network founded at M.I.T. to study the challenges facing the global automotive industry, which Professor MacDuffie co-directed from 2001-2012. He received his B.A. degree from Harvard University and his PhD degree from the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. His global research on the determinants of high-performance manufacturing is featured centrally in the books The Machine That Changed the World and After Lean Production: Evolving Employment Practices in the World Auto Industry. He is a founding board member of the Industry Studies Association and a member of the Automotive Experts Group at the Federal Reserve Bank.
Michael Mandel, Senior Fellow, Mack Institute for Innovation Management; Chief Economic Strategist, Progressive Policy Institute
Dr. Michael Mandel is chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington, where he supervises PPI’s research and policy work. PPI is a well-respected centrist think tank that tackles a wide range of global issues, including the data-driven economy in the United States and Europe, the impact of regulation on innovation, and policies to improve production, investment and job growth.
Jessica Nigro, General Manager, Technology & Innovation Policy, External Affairs – Americas, Daimler North America Corp.
Jessica F. Nigro is General Manager and head of Technology and Innovation Policy in Daimler’s Washington, DC office. In this capacity she drives the company’s policy and political efforts on innovation and future technology, as well as developing strategic partnerships with NGOs and business partners throughout the US. Current hot topics she spends her time on include data and privacy, climate and electric vehicles, automated vehicle policy and future mobility strategy. She is a frequent public speaker on the policy implications on these technologies and business models.
Prior to her current role, Nigro spent three years at Daimler’s headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany working with sales colleagues on projects in politically-risky markets. While there, she also created a company-wide human rights program currently implemented in all countries in which Daimler has production. Nigro served as both the Director of Programs and the Director of Travel and Tourism at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She began her career in the Strategic Communications and Public Affairs office at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and served as Field Manager of that office, directing the nationwide strategic and crisis communications efforts as the Department stood up after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Nigro received a BA in International Affairs and Conflict Resolution from The George Washington University in Washington, DC, and has studied at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland. Originally from New York, Nigro moved to the DC area in 2000.
Harbir Singh, Co-director, Mack Institute; Mack Professor of Management, The Wharton School; Faculty Director, Huntsman Program
Harbir Singh is committed to global business research and education, and he has served as vice dean for Global Initiatives at the Wharton School. He focuses on the development of world-class capabilities and of sustainable competitive advantage. His main interests in research and teaching lie in three areas: strategic leadership, growth and innovation via alliances and acquisitions, and the evolution of competitive strategy.
Harbir has won multiple awards for outstanding research in strategic management at the Academy of Management in addition to awards for teaching. He received the Academy of International Business Decade Award for his co-authored work on determinants of modes of entry by multinational firms into new country markets. He was chair of the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management and is the former dean of the fellows of the Strategic Management Society. He is the author of several books on strategy and leadership in a global setting.
Harbir received his PhD at the University of Michigan. He is the academic director for several of Wharton’s open enrollment executive programs, including Creating and Implementing Strategy for Competitive Advantage and Driving Growth through Strategic Partnerships, and is a lead faculty member in the Mergers and Acquisitions program. Additionally, he teaches and directs numerous customized programs for companies and associations around the world.
Harbir has been a visiting faculty member at London Business School; Bocconi University in Milan; and the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, as well as a founding faculty member of the Indian School of Business. He has also conducted executive seminars on competitive advantage, globalization, acquisitions, and alliances for many companies including IBM Corporation, Pfizer, Verizon, AT&T, and Daimler.
Scott Snyder, Senior Fellow, Mack Institute for Innovation Management; Adjunct Faculty, Penn Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Snyder is a recognized thought leader in technology and innovation. He has more than 30 years of experience in emerging technologies, business strategy and innovation, and digital transformation for Global 1000 companies and startup ventures. He is the co-author of Goliath’s Revenge: How Established Companies Turn the Tables on Digital Disruptors and the author of The New World of Wireless: How to Compete in the 4G Revolution and numerous other articles on emerging technologies and innovation.
Dr. Snyder is a Senior Fellow in the Management Department at the Wharton School, an Adjunct Faculty Member in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, and has lectured at MIT, Babson, Duke, Georgia Tech and INSEAD on Digital Innovation, Decision-making, Business and IT Strategy, Emerging Technologies, Product Design and Development, and Big Data/Analytics. Dr. Snyder is a Digital Economy Project Fellow for the World Economic Forum and sits on the Penn Health Tech Advisory Board. He also holds three patents for personalization engines and has been quoted as a thought leader in numerous publications including CIO Magazine, WIRED, Forbes, Knowledge@Wharton, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and the Financial Times.
Dr. Snyder is currently the Chief Digital Officer of EVERSANA focused on accelerating the life sciences commercialization model. Dr. Snyder was recently the Global Head of Digital and Innovation at Heidrick Consulting where he is still a Senior Advisor. Before Heidrick, he was the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Safeguard Scientifics which provides capital and relevant expertise to fuel the growth of technology-driven businesses in healthcare, financial services and digital media. Prior to Safeguard, Dr. Snyder was the Co-Founder, President and Chief Strategy Officer at Mobiquity (recently acquired by Hexaware), a leader in delivering innovative mobile and digital solutions for enterprises, where he continues to be Chairman of Mobiquity’s Advisory Board.
Dr. Snyder has held executive positions with several Fortune 500 companies including GE, Martin Marietta, and Lockheed Martin, has been the CEO of a leading strategic planning firm, Decision Strategies International (now part of Heidrick & Struggles), and has also started business ventures in software including OmniChoice, a CRM/Analytics applications provider. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Fulton Financial Corporation (FFC).
Dr. Snyder earned his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from University of Pennsylvania.
Deborah Wahl, Global Chief Marketing Officer, General Motors
Deborah Wahl was appointed General Motors Global Chief Marketing Officer on Sept. 1, 2019. She previously served as the Global CMO of Cadillac.
Prior to joining General Motors, Deborah served as the Senior Vice President and CMO for McDonald’s from 2014 to 2017, where she played a key role in the brand’s turnaround, proudly bringing All Day Breakfast to McD consumers. In addition to McDonald’s, Deborah has held a number of CMO and marketing leadership positions, including at PulteGroup, Chrysler and Lexus.
Deborah has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Wellesley College and an MBA from The Wharton School. She also has a master’s degree from The Lauder Institute, University of Pennsylvania.
Deborah is an active business leader who serves on the board of Groupon as well as on the Board of Trustees of Cranbrook Educational Community and is the Chair of The MMA Board.
Stephen Zoepf, Head of Policy, Lacuna Technologies; Lecturer, Stanford University; Mobility Fellow, MIT
Dr. Stephen Zoepf holds a Ph.D., M.Sc. and B.Sc. from MIT and has two decades of experience in transportation and mobility. Stephen currently serves as the Head of Policy for E&A, a subsidiary of Lacuna Technologies, where he helps guide the development of open-source software products for cities to manage modern transportation systems. Previously, he led the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford as Executive Director, helped the U.S. Department of Transportation efforts to integrate confidential data into national vehicle energy policy modeling, and worked as an engineer and product manager at BMW and Ford. He was an ENI Energy Initiative Fellow, a Martin Energy Fellow, and a recipient of the Barry McNutt award from the Transportation Research Board and the Infinite Mile award from MIT.