The Techne Connect

We're excited to welcome, Murat Erdogan Senior Manager Safety Confirmation Measures at Magna Electronics Limited · Murat first entered the automotive industry after gaining invaluable experience at Fraunhofer IESE, where he worked on diverse projects within the sector, including early exposure to ADAS. His journey in the functional safety domain has been nothing short of triumphant, steering...

In the Behind the Wheel podcast, we welcome Sebastian Sheppard, Engineering Manager at Alpine F1.  Sebastian has built an extremely interesting and diverse career.  Beginning in the Royal Navy, he shifted from flying helicopters to building them. Advancing through the defence sector, he eventually made a bold move into the fast-paced world of Formula 1. Sebastian now leads a team of over 180 engin...

Today, we are joined by Steffen Irmscher, Customer Chief Engineer for Electrification and Fuel Cell at Bosch. With a career spanning almost 20 years, Steffen's expertise extends a broad spectrum, including electric powertrain components, fuel cells, as well as electronic control systems and connected software solutions.  Interestingly, Steffen's journey has taken him across three contine...

Today, we are excited to introduce Marin Vidas, the Embedded Hardware Development Manager at RIMAC. Marin's career is a testament to his remarkable achievements in a relatively short yet dynamic period.    Commencing his journey in the automotive sector in 2017, Marin initially joined RIMAC on a voluntary basis, demonstrating his commitment before being offered a full-time role.    Marin swif...

Welcome to our series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  Today, we're thrilled to introduce Imrtraut Meister, Cyber Security Manager at Magna Powertrain. Imrtraut's journey into the automotive world began with a degree in Mechatronics and a passion for cars. As her career evolved,  Imrtraut pivoted into project management, navigatin...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  Today, we're joined by Raghavendra Satyanarayan, the Senior Director of Systems Engineering at Nikola. With over two decades of experience in the automotive sector, Raghavendra’s journey has been nothing short of remarkable. What truly sets him apart is his diverse expertise, w...

Welcome to our podcast series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  We're delighted to introduce Boris Baskevitch, the Head of Electronics & Software Development at Audi Formula Racing GmbH. Boris boasts an exceptional career spanning over 27 years, featuring prominent leadership roles at renowned global companies such as Mercedes AMG H...

Today, we're delighted to introduce Dr. Hariharan Venkitachalam, the Head of Product Safety and Compliance at Iveco. With more than 15 years of experience in engineering, Hariharan has cultivated a diverse and fascinating career path, encompassing the management, and execution of complex multi-million dollar R&D projects and programs for both Passenger and Commercial Vehicles. His journey...

Welcome to our podcast series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  Today we are joined by Andy Williamson from Helix. Andy started his standout career at Helix – formally known as Integral Powertrain – after graduating from Cambridge University. When he joined the company, it was just a small business of 35 people, and he has successfully progr...

Welcome to our podcast series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  In this episode,  we have the pleasure of welcoming Hans-Leo Ross, Safety Advisor at Vay. Leo's career so far has been outstanding. With over 30 years of engineering experience, Leo originally began his journey in the oil and gas industry before seamlessly transitioning int...

Today, we're thrilled to introduce our guest, Wilfried Horn, who is the Director of Development Quality at GKN Automotive. Wilfried's journey into automotive tech began as an early adopter of camera-based driver assistance systems back in 2008, where he started at Hella as a senior systems engineer.   Throughout his career journey, he's worn various hats, from project leadership and...

Welcome to our podcast series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  Today I am delighted to introduce Jerome Dern, Cyber Security team manager.  Jerome has a fascinating career to date. He began his journey in the embedded systems device industry, where he assumed leadership roles early in his career, before seamlessly transitioning into the aut...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Chip, where we explore the fascinating world of the Semiconductor industry.  Today, we introduce Darren Galpin in our first-ever episode of our Behind the Chip series.  With a career spanning over 25 years, Darren currently holds the position of Director of Functional Safety and Quality at SiFive. Throughout his professional journey, he has also held positions...

Today, we welcome Martin Rosler, the Head of Functional Safety Engineering at Leoni. Martin has had an extremely interesting career to date. He started his journey as a mechanical apprentice. He then set up his own business, all while continuing to study. Martin credits transitioning roles every few years as instrumental in his successful corporate advancement. This approach has allowed him to acq...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  Today, it is our pleasure to introduce Shantanu Sarkar, currently the Vice President and Managing Director of Cockpit Software Solutions at APTIV. Shantanu boasts an extraordinary career that spans nearly thirty years, during which he has held executive positions at distinguished gl...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  Today we welcome Paul Newton, Engineering Consultant – EE at Tata Technologies.  Paul has a remarkable track record in the automotive industry which spans over two decades.  He started his career as a mechanical engineer apprentice at Delphi Technologies, before transitioning into t...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Selin Tur, the Vice President of Advanced Technologies and Innovation at CNH Industrial.  Selin's fascination with engineering ignited at a young age, and since then, she has forged an impressive path in her career. Her contributions have...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  Today we are joined by Roberto Silva, Head of EV Charging Solutions EMEA at Delta Electronics. Starting out in the industry over 16 years ago, Roberto’s career has been outstanding. He has worked for a variety of renowned global businesses including Continental, Porche Engineering,...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  In this episode, we are joined by Simon Duke from Saietta. Simon is a great example of how you can transition between multiple disciplines to achieve a very successful career. Starting out in the automotive industry slightly different to our other guests, Simon began his career as a...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  Today we have Ronnie Aquino, Systems Engineering Manager at APTIV.  Ronnie’s career so far has been impressive. He graduated in the Philippines with a degree in Electronics Engineering after successfully identifying what skills would be relevant to society in the future.  He has sin...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  In this episode, we are joined by Stephen Lambert from McLaren Applied who spearheads the business’ electrification product strategy and programme management. Stephen’s career to date has been remarkable. He got into the EV tech space early on and has played a pivotal role in world-...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  Today we’re joined by Dario Bignamini from REE Automotive who currently heads up the project management and engineering management division.  Dario has a great story that I’m really looking forward to hearing about. Originally from Italy, he has travelled around the world and now re...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  We are joined by Vishal Lalwani, Head of Department E/E Full Vehicle at INEOS who has and is still currently playing a key role in the business' automotive venture which includes designing the renowned Project Grenadier.  His career journey so far has been admirable. In additio...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  We are joined by Wolfgang Freese, Director of Functional Safety at APTIV. Wolfgang started to specialise in Functional Safety just before the ISO26262 standard was introduced in 2011 and was one of the first engineers to take up a career in Functional Safety in the industry, and has...

Welcome to our new series, Behind the Wheel, where we explore the fascinating world of the E/E automotive industry.  We are joined by Grant Smith, Chief Engineer EE Architecture and Software at Volta Trucks. Grant originally became interested in automotive after completing the Formula Student project in his final year at university, so I'm looking forward to receiving his view on this.  He ha...