Logistics Summit 2026

Mrs Julie Sun is the Managing Director of HWArobotics and is responsible for building up the team, business development and long-term growth. She is a strong communicator with all levels and groups of people, is self-driven, self-motivated and competitive. Courageous; she enthusiastically takes on challenges (and often self-challenges); she is also a motivated and fast learner, willing to share knowledge and mentor others; and maintains a pioneering and strong team spirit. She is internationally travelled for work and personal purposes, and has profound knowledge and experience of different cultures, bridging culture differences. In the past years she has successfully led several European companies into the Asia Pacific market, built up teams and structured for long term success.

Stef de Bont is founder of 12return, a software-as-a-service solution for returns management. Since December 2022, 12return is part of Shipcloud. He has worked in logistics since 1993, at amongst others Schenker, Rhenus Logistics and Solectron. Since 2004 he has been active in the field of reverse logistics and he was responsible at Solectron for developing and managing European reverse logistics operations for several blue chip manufacturers. Stef writes about return logistics on Logistiek.nl and teaches at Nyenrode Business University and various colleges. He is author of the book "Returns Management - Building a closed loop supply chain for a customer-centric and circular economy".

Michael is Manager Solutions Design at FORTNA, an end-to-end design-build firm, designing and delivering data-driven solutions to ensure process improvements, growth and, ultimately, profitability. After graduating as Industrial Engineer from the Technical University of Braunschweig, he started working at MAN continued his career first as Consultant, than as Senior Consultant, at Pierau Planung. In the last ten years of working for the Hamburg based intralogistics specialist, he has successfully completed numerous projects specialized with a special focus on solutions for complex omnichannel fulfillment demands. Now as part of FORTNA, he continues to pursue this path - as Manager Solutions Design he is responsible for the development of tailor-made, innovative intralogistics solutions, especially for international customers.

Lena is a Solutions Design Analyst for Logistics at FORTNA, an end-to-end design-build firm, designing and delivering data-driven solutions to ensure process improvements, growth and, ultimately, profitability. After graduating from the FOM University of Economics and Management as Master Logistics and Supply Chain Management, she first gained experience on the customer side in project management and logistics management, and then, with her move to FORTNA, started working intensely on material flow and systems design for demanding logistics requirements. As Solutions Design Analyst, Lena is not only part of international project teams, but also keeps a close eye on the industry with its constantly changing requirements and arising technologies.

Christian Holtmann has been Account Director Germany at Cradlepoint, a subsidiary of Ericsson, since the beginning of 2021. In this role, he is responsible for the sales part of the network specialist in Northern Germany. He took over the position with the aim of further strengthening and building up Cradlepoint's position in Germany. Christian Holtmann has many years of sales experience with large and strategic customers in the network technology market and in the telecommunications industry. After his apprenticeship at Exclusive Networks, he worked there for twelve years in various positions. He then moved to the Middle East based IT specialist Spectrami to build up the German market.

Erik Düwel (born 1979) is Director Product Management Automation at KION, Frankfurt. In his role, he and his team deal with the complex requirements of automated processes and manage a global product portfolio of automation solutions from the KION Group brands in the Industrial Trucks & Services segment. His responsibilities include identifying new trends and market needs, initiating new development projects and providing the required products and services at the right time and at market-driven costs. At present, he is working on the next generation of automation in the field of intralogistics. He is also involved in change management at KION in the exciting field of product vs. project sales.

Michael Schmitz (born 1968) is Vice President Logistics at Vetter Pharma-Fertigung GmbH & Co. KG. He is responsible for all global logistics activities as well as for a team of 250 employees of the pharmaceutical service provider headquartered in Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg. His field of responsibility covers the entire range of logistics, starting with external transport logistics and responsibility for all warehouse locations to the supply of all production sites in Germany, Austria and the USA. The mechanical engineer has been intensively involved in transformation projects for more than 20 years, with a focus on the automotive and pharmaceutical industries; among other things, he was in charge of strategic purchasing and global tyre logistics at Continental AG.

Lorenzo Fossati is a Head of Product at InstaFreight, a modern LogTech company. After holding several Product Management roles in FinTech, e-Commerce, and Mobility, Lorenzo entered the Logistics industry in 2020, managing projects such as technical integrations and SaaS launches with major players, and currently leads the Transport Management Product team at InstaFreight. Lorenzo holds a M.Sc. degree in Engineering, obtained at Politecnico di Milano in 2014.

Prior to his position as INLAI Managing Director, Mathias Thomas took on a key role at an early stage in the family business Dr. Thomas und Partner - now TUP - by carrying important documents from A to B. In 2008, he became managing director of the company and founded GAXSYS GmbH, a B2B marketplace that connects online and stationary retail. Since 2022, he has supported AIM - Agile IT Management GmbH as managing partner in the development of industrial AI solutions. In addition to his entrepreneurial activities, Mathias Thomas is active in the Senate of Economy Germany (Senat der Wirtschaft Deutschland), the Cyberforum e.V. in Karlsruhe, the think tank Ambidextrie as well as the Association of German Engineers (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure) and gives lectures at professional conferences and for students.

Thilo Jörgl (born 1973) is a journalist, presenter, communications consultant and managing partner of impact media projects GmbH in Ismaning near Munich. He blogs at www.bestoflogistics.de and works for the Logistics Hall of Fame and the IFOY Award. His main topics are logistics strategy, logistics real estate, logistics software, international trade fairs and industrial trucks.

Karl Knipfelberg is Vice President Product Management Counterbalance & Energy KION ITS EMEA. He has been with KION for more than 20 years and has helped shape the global development of the STILL brand. After 19 years in the development of STILL warehouse trucks and forklift trucks, the graduate engineer took over product management for forklift trucks and energy systems.

Anita Würmser (born 1961) is managing partner of the media and consulting company impact media projects GmbH in Ismaning near Munich, which includes the international brands Logistics Hall of Fame, IFOY Award and TEST CAMP INTRALOGISTICS. She is a journalist, publicist, and expert in transport, logistics, and SCM.

Christoph Küffner is a doctoral student and research assistant at the Chair of Supply Chain Management at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Previously, he worked in various supply chain functions in the industry. Important milestones here were working in logistics services as well as for a large food manufacturer. His research focuses on the SCM areas of sustainability, resilience and human capital.

Study and PhD at KIT (Karlsruhe) in Geoinformatics. Since 2008 at PTV in various job positions (technical consultant for PTV developer components and web-services; product manager; solution director and sales manager). Today, responsible for business development for our core markets in Central and East Europe especially in Transport and City Logistics.

Raphael Thießen, a graduate geographer and real estate specialist, has many years of experience in the real estate sector. He has worked for METRO AG, METRO PROPERTIES, BNP Paribas Real Estate and Hagedorn Revital GmbH, among others. In 2017, one year after founding the start-up, Raphael Thießen became part of the Brownfield24 team and has since been responsible for the development of the digital platform. This primarily included the expansion of the partner network, the further development of the business idea, the expansion into Switzerland and Austria, and the establishment of the first German Brownfield Association.

Ferry is serial-entrepreneur, Climate Activist and early stage Investor. In 2009 he and his brother Fabian founded DailyDeal - the first European couponing portal - sold it to Google in 2011 and subsequently worked for Google. In early 2013 Ferry and Fabian repurchased DailyDeal from Google, turned it profitable and sold it again in late 2015. In early 2016 Ferry co-founded Forto – the digital Freight Forwarder (>500 employees, >360m USD funding). Ferry also conducted 25+ Early Stage investments between 2011 and 2015 and has been Venture Partner with Earlybird Venture Capital since 2016. On a personal level, Ferry is passionate about finding the most impactful ways to fight the climate crisis and create a sustainable society – he is Co-Founder and Vice President of Leaders for Climate Action.