CIMdata Blog

Steve Fennessey, Director of Business Innovation, Imaginatik

Steve Fennessey is Director of Business Innovation for Imaginatik. His focus is on helping organizations build a systemic and sustainable innovation capability to significantly improve their profitability and business operations. Through a mix of consulting and advisory, hands-on innovation projects, program management, and an award-winning enterprise software platform, he helps clients develop their innovation capability into a permanent competitive advantage. He has been providing innovation and technical consulting services to fortune 100 clients such as Eli Lilly, Dow, and Procter & Gamble for two decades.

A graduate of The...

Megan Pukala, Assistant Brand Manager, Fortune 500 company

Megan Pukala received a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and more recently completed her MBA from The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. Megan resides in Cincinnati, OH, and was recognized as one of the city’s 40 Great Leaders Under 40 by Venue Magazine. Professionally, Megan works in brand management for a Fortune 500 company.

Thomas A. Gill, Practice Manager, PLM Enterprise Value & Integration

Tom Gill has over 25 years of experience applying computer-based solutions to engineering and manufacturing. Before joining CIMdata he worked as an independent PLM consultant, after spending over 20 years at high-volume manufacturing companies.

Mr. Gill has worked on projects in numerous industries, including fabrication & assembly, food & beverage, defense, chemical, and medical devices. He has executed PLM strategy projects, solution evaluation-and-selection projects, deployment planning, and training development for industrial clients. He delivers solution providers competitive and technical product analyses, white papers, and case studies.

Mr. Gill led...

Ken Versprille, Ph.D., Executive Consultant and Practice Manager, Social Product Development & Collaboration

Dr. Ken Versprille has over 35 years of experience in the application of computer-based solutions for engineering and manufacturing. He joined CIMdata after 16 years heading the Design Creation and Validation service at CPDA. His research spans geometric design, design collaboration and automation, PLM standards and openness, and the integration of CAD across PLM applications.

During 15 years at Computervision, Dr. Versprille became the equivalent of CTO, and was R&D Vice President of core applications. He was a lead architect of the CADDS...

Suna Polat, Ph.D., Director, Collaborative Innovation & Social Product Development Consulting Practice

Dr. Suna Polat has over 23 years of experience in technology development, product development, innovation management, implementation of strategic innovation capabilities—including modeling and simulation (M&S), open innovation, knowledge management, and social technologies—and driving change and adoption, through her career at Procter & Gamble (P&G) and with her own consulting practice thereafter.

Prior to joining CIMdata, Dr. Polat developed expertise in transport phenomena (and CAE modeling) in academia, and spent over 21 years at P&G, where initially she developed process and material technologies for...

Rolf Hüsemann, Manager Engineering Systems & PLM, GETRAG FORD Transmissions

Rolf Hüsemann and his team help define and maintain the IT processes and tools for GETRAG’s global product development (PD) solution. He advocates a PLM implementation strategy that respects the local requirements as well as the quickly changing global environment. He has 26 years of experience in supporting PD with IT solutions at Ford of Europe, Visteon, and GETRAG.

Daniel E. Nicholson, P.E., Executive Director, Global Powertrain Embedded Controls, GM

Dan Nicholson is the Executive Director for Global Powertrain Embedded Controls at GM. He has held this role since April, 2011. Dan is responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the global engineering team responsible for all powertrain controllers and software as well as calibrating all powertrains, providing customer-pleasing drive quality, and ensuring compliance with tailpipe emissions standards and on-board diagnostics.

Prior to this appointment, Dan was the vice president of Global Quality from 2010-2011. He held this role after repatriating from Germany where he...

Lou Young, Jr., Director of New Business Development – Tooling & Manufacturing, Linear Mold & Engineering

As Linear Mold & Engineering’s Director of New Business Development – Tooling & Manufacturing, Lou Young is on the front-line educating both new and existing customers of the benefits of conformal cooling. Overall, he provides strategic direction for the Linear tooling and manufacturing sales force.

Lou spent the last 18 years in the automotive and plastics industries. He began his career working in various skilled trade positions including CNC operator, plastic injection mold maker, tool designer, and automotive part designer....

Greg Schroeder, Assistant Director, Manufacturing, Engineering & Technology, Center for Automotive Research (CAR)

Greg Schroeder is an assistant director at the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), where he works in the Manufacturing, Engineering and Technology (MET) Group. He joined CAR in 2008.

Greg’s primary focus within MET is opportunities for mass reduction of new automobiles through advanced materials. As part of his focus, he has conducted technology reviews of advanced light weighting technology, investigated the impact of advanced lightweight materials on the automotive workforce, and conducted case studies documenting new applications with advanced materials. In addition...

Dan Mekker, Manager, Gas Turbine Design Integrity, Siemens Energy

Dan Mekker has been working in the field of product design and development at SIEMENS Energy for over 30 years. Currently he is a manager in the Gas Turbine Design Integrity organization where he is responsible for design process and method integrity. His career has spanned development of product definition methods, standards and tools associated with the introduction of CAD, development of advanced analytical design methods and tools including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), development of Integrated Design Environments, and recently Collaborative Product Development environment...