Agenda

Joo-Hyung Maing is Lead Product Manager, Innovations & Partnerships at the BMW of North America's Technology Office.

Mélanie leads Product Partnerships at Waymo, focusing on the next frontier of mobility: the autonomous in-car experience. By bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and passenger-centric design, Mélanie orchestrates strategic collaborations that transform Waymo vehicles into seamless third spaces. With a background spanning Google’s custom silicon (Pixel) and Ads business development, she brings a unique perspective on integrating complex hardware and software ecosystems. Mélanie holds an MA from the London School of Economics and a BA from McGill University.

Laurence leads Radioplayer’s global partnerships with the automotive industry and technology companies, with a focus on how radio is implemented in connected vehicles at scale.

He works closely with leading car manufacturers and system suppliers on integration, user interface design and metadata, helping ensure radio is delivered as a core, fully integrated part of the in-car experience. Radioplayer today powers radio across millions of vehicles and multiple major car brands.

Alongside his role at Radioplayer, Laurence has played a central role in shaping industry standards for in-car radio. As a Board member of RadioDNS and WorldDAB, and as Chairman of the WorldDAB Automotive Group, he has led the development of widely adopted guidelines for radio user experience in connected cars.

Earlier in his career, he led automotive partnerships at Digital Radio UK, contributing to the successful rollout of DAB digital radio as standard in new vehicles. He has also held roles at techUK and Digital UK, working across technology, policy and large-scale digital transition programmes.

Mattijs de Valk is the Head of Partnerships at Appning by Forvia.

David Bloom is a Santa Monica, Calif.-based writer, podcaster, speaker and consultant focused on the transformative collision of technology, media and entertainment. 

Bloom is co-founder of newsletter Next TMT, co-host of podcast Next TMT Talks, CEO of Words & Deeds Media, and a Forbes senior contributor. He consults on content and communications strategy, has taught digital media at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, is a former Associate Dean at the USC Marshall School of Business, and guest lectures regularly at schools including UCLA, USC, Boston University, Syracuse, Nebraska, California State University-Northridge, Pepperdine, and Chapman. 

Bloom previously was an award-winning staff writer and editor for Variety, Deadline, Red Herring, and the Los Angeles Daily News, and was VP of corporate communications at MGM and head of communications with the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. Bloom graduated with honors from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Vince Chan is the Principal Product Manager of Product Experience at 42dot, a Hyundai Motor Group company. He has over 20 years of successful product design-to-deployment, leadership, product/program management and team building, with a strong emphasis in Connected Vehicles, Services and Infotainment.

Nicole Johnson is User Experience Manager at Scout Motors

Gabriel Bridger is an award-winning design, product, and strategy executive with over 20 years shaping experiences that bridge physical and digital systems. As SVP and Global Head of Product, Design, and Strategy at Rightpoint (a Genpact company), he leads a large multidisciplinary, global organization spanning product management, UX, design, research, strategy, and analytics.

Gabriel has led the design and launch of experiences ranging from in-vehicle and connected systems to commerce and financial services, and most recently agentic design architectures, with a focus on turning highly complex environments into intuitive experiences that feel inevitable to end users.

Guided by a simple mantra to be curious, critical, and creative, Gabriel balances innovation with real-world impact. Beyond his day-to-day work, he writes and speaks on the future of experience, mentors emerging design leaders, and advocates for diversity of thought as a catalyst for better ideas and better outcomes.

Stephen Goldstein is LG’s Head of Content Business Development & Partnerships for Automotive, Hospitality, Shopping, Art, v/MVPDs & NEXTGEN TV. He’s based in the LG’s North American headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

Before joining LG, Stephen led BD at Cirrent, a connected product, and data analytics provider, now an Infineon company, advised geolocation, last-mile logistics, retail tech, IoT, and property tech founders and startups. He also spent fourteen years at Samsung Electronics, running Smart Home Business Development & Partnerships and the Pay TV / broadband devices business. At Samsung, he collaborated with retailers, Pay TV operators, and ISPs to synthesize evolving product and technology standards, use cases, and policies to help deploy millions of Set-tops and gateways. 

Stephen holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania. He and his wife live in New Jersey with their two sons.

The Pop in Your Job: (why do you love what you do?): Bringing content and services to millions of screens globally.

Pam Allison is a partnerships, product and business strategy executive who leverages a deep understanding of consumer behavior, technology trends, and artificial intelligence to drive innovative products, partnerships, and services for leading Fortune 500s and startups. She is skilled at cultivating the needed key cross-industry relationships that inspire disruptive tech-rooted projects and set the stage for lucrative new business opportunities. 

Pam is currently a Venue Technology Subject Matter Expert at Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).  Her role is business development, partnerships, and technology evaluation for fan experience technology in the US and Europe. 

Prior to her role at AEG, Pam managed an innovation and strategy team at Verizon that developed solutions and products with commercial opportunities within sports and venues that leverage 5G and Edge Compute.  Her responsibilities included defining opportunities, building strategy, developing product requirements, creating business models, developing proofs of concept to validate hypothesis.

Prior to her role at Verizon, Pam was the Executive Director of Innovation Strategy and Development at Warner Bros.  She developed partnerships with leading technology companies to build proofs of concepts that explored how Warner Bros. can commercialize technologies in the future for content consumption and production.  This included building out long-term strategies on how to future-proof the company.  Her focus was on content and mobility including autonomous and connected cars, and 5G.  

Prior to her role at Warner Bros., Pam served as the Director of Digital Products at the National Hot Rod Association, where she led the strategy and development of the new NHRA.com and managed the NHRA All Access SVOD streaming service and mobile strategy for all mobile games, virtual reality experiences and events. Prior to the NHRA, she managed digital media and mobile business strategy and development at the Disney New Technology Strategy Group, DIRECTV, and Movielink. Her consulting clients have included Disney, University of Southern California, Esri, a GIS software platform and others. 

Pam holds bachelor’s degrees in Management Engineering from Claremont McKenna College and Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University, as well as a masters degree in Computer Science and an MBA from UCLA.

Keefe Leung is the Director of Software Defined Systems Architecture at Karma Automotive.

Matthew Valbuena is a Project Manager at Mazda North American Operations' R&D division and is responsible for the development of Mazda's in-vehicle technologies and the human-machine interfaces that interact with those technologies. His scope of work includes software and hardware research and development, product planning, consumer and industry research, forecasting, and finalizing Mazda’s in-vehicle technology user experience for North America.

John Vermeer leads Product Partnerships for YouTube Music, focusing on the integration of YouTube Music experiences across automotive, consumer electronics and software ecosystems, as well as accompanying YouTube Music & Premium subscription offerings.

Prior to Google, he held positions at iHeart, Samsung Electronics (Korea HQ), News Corporation and with the Broadway production team of Wicked. John received an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BA from the University of Southern California.

Nicholas Grabowski is the Chief Product Officer at Digital.ai. He brings 30 years of experience in building Technology. In his role as CPO at Digital.ai, Nick drives product strategy and delivery, and supports branding and marketing efforts.

Nick has extensive experience designing and building technology, as well as operating startups and public companies. Before joining Digital.ai Nick was CEO of Flow, Inc., CTO at ForgeGlobal and CTO/CPO at Sharespost.

Nick also ran the R&D and Centralized Architecture functions for Charles Schwab. Nick helped ForgeGlobal to a $2B IPO in 2022 and built the technology stack that helped Ebates.com sell for $1B in 2010.

Ross Buckley leads Content Partnerships for Samsung/Harman’s in-vehicle app ecosystem, working with digital media partners across video, audio, gaming, productivity, and navigation to expand infotainment experiences for major automotive brands.

Prior to Harman, Ross held business development and strategy roles at Prime Video and Peacock, where he drove streaming distribution partnerships and cross-platform initiatives. Ross received his MBA from Columbia Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Duke University.

A Principal Consultant at AutoMobility Advisors, Kap Shah's passion for the automotive industry is evident through his diverse experience with companies like Audi of America, Edmunds, TrueCar, J.D. Power and various startups in FinTech and data analytics.

Peter Mortensen is Associate VP of Infotainment at Indigo Technologies with 20+ years of experience across automotive, smart TVs and inflight entertainment at companies including Lucid, Fisker, VIZIO and Panasonic Avionics. His background spans infotainment architecture, voice AI, gesture interaction and connected user experiences. He believes the future cockpit is “context-first,” adapting interaction models intelligently based on driver state, environment and autonomy level.

Joo-Hyung Maing is Lead Product Manager, Innovations & Partnerships at the BMW of North America's Technology Office.

Ryan May is a seasoned technology leader with over 20 years of experience delivering cutting-edge embedded and cloud products for automotive and enterprise platforms. He has delivered a diverse portfolio of automotive solutions, successfully scaling everything from customer-facing mobile applications to complex embedded infotainment and data-driven vehicle diagnostic systems. Most recently, as the Head of Infotainment Applications at Lucid Motors, he led the development of QNX and Android Automotive OS applications and the creation of the newly announced, next-generation in-vehicle AI assistant.

Denise Umubyeyi is the Head of Partnerships for AGI, Inc., a research lab building the world's best computer and mobile use AI agents. As the Head of Partnerships, she leads commercialization efforts for AI systems capable of operating across apps and executing tasks on behalf of the user, while keeping data safe and private. AGI partners with leading OEMs and industry partners to bring intelligent, action-taking agents directly onto devices, shifting AI from reactive chat interfaces to proactive, trusted systems that can take meaningful action on a user's behalf.

Before joining AGI, Denise co-founded and scaled a venture-backed enterprise software company, raising capital from institutional investors and working with Fortune 500 clients. After her time in traditional SaaS, she moved to SF and transitioned fully into AI to focus on what she believes will define the next decade.

Her work sits at the intersection of AI capability and user trust, determining whether agentic systems become infrastructure or remain a novelty.

Frank Weith recently retired from Volkswagen Group of America after more than 18 years, most recently serving as Director of Engineering for Connected and Mobility Services. He is the Founder and Principal of Hawthorne Automotive Advisors, where he advises OEMs and suppliers on advanced connectivity strategies and partnerships integration into complex non-automotive ecosystems.

During his career at VW, he served in multiple executive leadership roles in Product Strategy and Planning, IT and Engineering.  Frank played a key role in developing and implementing Volkswagen’s Connected and Mobility Services Strategy for in-car technology and digital services.  He led initiatives to enhance customer experience through data analysis and partnerships, leveraging connectivity as a core differentiator for vehicles.

In his 35 years of experience, Frank has held various engineering and management roles in companies such as American Axle, BMW, Ford Motor Company and Siemens AG.  He has spent over a decade working internationally in Munich, Germany and has gained international experience in product and manufacturing engineering, product strategy and business development.  He’s known for his insights into the evolution of automotive technology and leveraging partnerships outside of the traditional automotive industry. 

Frank is a graduate from Michigan State University in Mechanical Engineering and serves on the MSU Advisory Board for Mobility and New Technology.