Thijs Jasink, Alec GmbH

Thijs has about 15 years’ experience working in the remanufacturing industry. In that time he has been responsible for starting up several companies within the ACT-Group. With the knowledge he has, including that gained by keeping up with the latest developments in the industry, Thijs advises in the streamlining of Alec’s and the ACT-Group remanufacturing processes.
Due to his experience and knowledge Thijs has often been requested as a speaker at trade fairs and events. This includes well known events such as Circular Economy, ReMaTec and Automechanika.
As of recent, Thijs is part of the advisory committee for ReMaTec and member of the board at the APRA. His role lies in the electronics sector and his aim is to “drive” the electronics Reman into the future.
With great enthusiasm, knowledge and determination he is not only elevating Alec and the ACT-Group to the next level but the entire remanufacturing industry. Due to his position in the remanufacturing industry, and his commercial background, he is the perfect person to actively pursue new strategic partnerships.

Sebastian Groß, Trier University of Applied Sciences, Environmental Campus Birkenfeld

Sebastian Groß graduated in 2017 in mechanical engineering at Trier University of Applied Sciences, Environmental-Campus Birkenfeld. Since 2015, he is a part-time research assistant and since 2017, a full-time research assistant specialised in human robot collaboration, AGVs, industry 4.0, cyber physical systems, scheduling optimisation and production planning and control. Besides that, since 2017 he is also a PhD candidate at the University of Luxemburg in the robotics group led by Prof. Peter Papper.

Mike Hague-Morgen, Autocraft Solutions Group Ltd

Michael Hague-Morgan is a co-owner of Autocraft Solutions Group Ltd which is a group of UK based manufacturing companies with sites in Grantham, Wellingborough and Birmingham. Autocraft Drivetrain Solutions in Grantham is Europe’s largest independent engine remanufacturer and supports leading automotive brands such as Jaguar Land Rover, Ford, Volvo, Aston Martin and JCB on a global basis by providing them with new and remanufactured engine assemblies and related powertrain engineering services. The sites at Wellingborough (Autocraft Machining Solutions) and Birmingham (Vertex Engineering Solutions) offer complex machined components, tooling and prototypes to a wide range of industries.

A keen “petrol head”, Mike followed his hobby of rebuilding old Land Rovers into a BEng Mechanical Engineering degree at Cardiff University. Having initially started his career at Ford, Mike moved into the automotive tier 1 supply base working in the casting, forging and machining sector where he had roles in operations, engineering and sales at sites across the UK.

Mike was appointed Commercial Director of Autocraft in 2008, with a brief to turn the loss-making company around. This led to the MBO of the company from the US parent and Mike becoming a 45% shareholder. Since then Autocraft has grown from £8m to £30m turnover. In doing so, the company workforce has grown from 98 to over 200 people.

He is a keen supporter of developing engineering talent and champions the use of new technology in manufacturing businesses. Autocraft has been early adopters of Industry 4.0 technology which has radically improved the quality of products produced and the efficiency of processes to make them. This is despite Autocraft being an SME and having low volume and traditional “hand built” engine assembly processes. He is Regional Vice Chair of Make UK for the East Midlands, a Non-Exec Manufacturing Board Member of the Greater Lincolnshire LEP, Board Member of the SMMT and Chair of their Automotive Components Section. Mike also regularly supports Innovate UK, APC and KTN Workshops to promote Engineering, Manufacturing, Remanufacturing and the Circular Economy in the UK.

Daniel Köhler,  APRA Europe

Daniel Köhler is the former Vice President of TruckServices Technical Solutions at Knorr-Bremse Systeme für Nutzfahrzeuge GmbH where he was responsible for the remanufaturing business of Knorr-Bremse EMEA. He is also the former Vice President of Mingjie Group in Foshan. Currently he is the Chairman of the Automotive Parts Remanufacturers Association Europe.

With his PhD thesis in the topic "Regenerative Supply Chains" Daniel Köhler earned his PhD in engineering at Bayreuth University. In his thesis he cooperated with BMW and Bosch to resolve the riddle of reman CO₂-savings. During his researcher career at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Daniel Köhler took part as project and team leader in many consultancy projects in the reman industry.