An automotive growth expert with a proven track record in the commercial vehicle aftermarket. Leading the marketing, product marketing, business development, and sales organizations in EMEA. Having worked in over 35 countries around the world he generated over 1 billion euro of additional revenue for aftermarket organizations. Currently, Roberto Dal Corso is a member of the board of directors for NBC Global AG based in Zug, Switzerland.

If you think “global”, it is the China that springs to mind. After all, it is the biggest emerging automotive market in the world. The Aftermarket Forum’s guests will be able to see it through eyes of Mike Yu, a manager with experience of working for both local and international companies operating in China and Asia, such as Continental, Borg Warner and ZF.

And what about the Middle East? Is it really a business opportunity and how to navigate the vast differences in business culture? Ralf Zimmermann will answer those questions and many more basing on his more than 6 years of experience in the region. Before that Mr. Zimmermann spent nearly quarter of century with Toyota in Germany and other European countries.

From Iceland to Russia and Turkey. From Norway to Portugal and Malta. This is Europe - home for world's leading single market, parts producers, parts distributors, international trading groups and of course, vehicle manufacturers.
Mr. Nikolic will cover both interesting devopments and future trends on the "old continent". 

There's more to Asia than China, Korea and Japan - Mr. Ramanathan got you covered here with 30 years experience in the Automotive industry in Malaysia,UK and ASEAN region. During that time Mr. Ramanathan worked with global brands, distributors, franchises and aftermarket service providers; specializing in aftersales operations across the value-chain including import, distribution and the retail.

How many Independent Aftermarket Operators in Europe think about South America? It’s a big and diverse continent with unique solutions like flexible-fuel vehicles. Marcelo Gabriel will be our guide for this region. Previously Mr. Gabriel was the South America Aftermarket Director for Meritor and Federal-Mogul, with full P&L responsibility.

India is on its best way to become the most populous country in the world, replacing China at the top spot and yet the automotive industry is focused mainly on Chinese market and not Indian. What are the local opportunities worth seizing and the challenges needing to be overcomed? Aftermarket Forum's guide for this region will be Dirk Schlage, based in New Dehli, India. With 27 years of automotive experience Mr. Schlage choose India as his next career opportunity in 2014. Let's tap into his knowledge of local specificity. 

Since 2006 Autostat is the leading analytical agency in the automotive business in Russia.Mr. Udalov has been managing director and co-owner of the company since its inception. He is a trained mechanical engineer, has worked in the AvtoVAZ research and development center, has been responsible for the automotive publishing business for several years, and is the spokesman for specialist conferences in Russia.

Almost whole Mr. Zander's professional career is related to Africa. Back in 2001 he was already head of Abuja (Nigeria) office of MAN Ferrostaal. As Sales Manager of Wincor Nixdorf he held P&L responsibility for whole Sub-Saharan Africa. Today Mr. Zander leads africon, focusing on bridging the gap between African business opportunities and global companies wanting to tap into possibilities available in Sub-Saharan Africa.

With 30 years in the North American aftermarket, Bill Burns has extensive experience in both the automotive and commercial vehicle areas of the industry. As CEO of the Independent Warehouse Distributors, LLC program group, Mr. Burns was responsible for the Auto Pride automotive and Truck Pride commercial vehicle divisions, comprised of 180 members and 800-plus distributions points in the US and Canada. With the merger of Truck Pride and Heavy Duty America in 2011 to form HDA Truck Pride, Inc., Mr. Burns became Chief Operating Officer and served in that position until his retirement in May 2018. 

Thank you for the invitation to the Forum in Essen.

My congratulations on such great event, with really great idea to visit the mine of Zollverein the day before...

The success of the Forum is an incentive to take part in it in the next year

Thank you for the very interesting event.

I would like to thank you for this opportunity today. It is a very valuable event and it was greatly organized.

I would like to congratulate you all with the forum past week.
It was very interesting and we enjoyed our time. 

First of all, let me congratulate you for the fantastic Aftermarket Forum.

Congratulations for the well organised Forum Aftermarket of last Tuesday.

The Forum was an exciting and enlightening event that confirmed our experience. The conversations during the breaks raised some very interesting topics.