Real Talk -
The metaverse at work

Jerry Gootee, Global Advanced Manufacturing Leader, EY

Over 30 years serving global organizations with their auditing, tax, transactions and consulting needs. Jerry currently serves as EY’s Global Leader of its Advanced Manufacturing sector and EY-Nottingham Spirk Innovation Hub.

Previously, Jerry served in many Americas and Global leadership roles for EY including Advanced Manufacturing and Mobility Advisory Leader, Office Managing Partner, Regional Markets Leader, Global Innovation and Global Markets Leader and was a key contributor to EY’s Vision 2020 and Strategy Development.

Jerry’s client experience includes leading and coordinating projects across many functions and business domains including: innovation and product development, business model innovation, robotics and process automation and other emerging digital technologies; finance and back-office transformation (shared services, FP&A, reporting, org design, systems); site selection (plants and back-office facilities); external and internal audit co-sourcing and controls support; supply chain transformation (planning, logistics, order management); tax planning and incentives; M&A due diligence and post-merger integrations services and global mobility services.

Jerry is a Certified Public Accountant and serves on several boards and committees including the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Jerry lives in Northeast Ohio with his wife and has four adult children.

Tom Richter, Global Head of Manufacturing Verticals, Nokia

In his role he is responsible for the design and specification of vertical specific solutions based on customers’ requirements. He promotes the comprehensive portfolio of products and solutions of Nokia which enable the digitalization of asset-intensive industries with mission and business critical needs, providing high performance networks and digital automation solutions. During more than 25 years in the telecommunications industry he held various management positions in sales, marketing and commercial management for Siemens and Nokia in Germany and abroad.

He studied Electrical Engineering at the Technische Universität Dresden.

Host: Stefan Kindt, Technology Evangelist, Nokia

Stefan Kindt is a Technology Evangelist in Nokia’s global marketing organization, driving the latest technology topics of Nokia’s thought leadership program. In his role Stefan is leading the metaverse marketing content including market research activities for the consumer, the enterprise and the industrial. Keeping the balance between technology and business, Stefan is not just looking at the latest technology advances, but he has a great focus on customer use cases and viable business models that drive the real adoption of new technologies.

Prior to his current role Stefan has served in various marketing and sales functions within Nokia and Siemens, including Head of Cloud Market Development, Head of Technology Marketing, and Head of Technical Sales for product areas like mobile networks and OSS/BSS as well as for the APJ sales region.

Kevin Custis, Global Transportation Sector Lead, EY

Kevin Custis is a Principal in the Central region of Ernst & Young LLP. He serves as Global Transportation Industry Leader. He also serves as Global Coordinating Service Partner and Account Leader on several strategic accounts. In these roles he helps to match the Firm’s capabilities to the business needs and challenges of his clients. He also works with our engagement teams to make sure EY is delivering on our commitments across all services we provide. 

Kevin has over 25 years of experience serving clients across multiple industries in the US, Europe and Asia. He has focused on integrating broad capabilities to enable step change improvements and strategic transformation. He has significant experience in business strategy, emerging technology/digital business, customer experience design, and business process management. His industry experience has been broad with a focus in high-tech, electronics, industrial products and distribution, consumer products, retail, and banking.

Jochen Apel, Vice President Digital Industries, Nokia

With more than two decades of experience in the industry, Jochen has established himself as a passionate leader, focused on generating growth by leveraging new technologies and market disruptions. In his current role, he’s responsible for Nokia’s engagement with Digital Industries – a pivotal component of the company’s Enterprise Business.

A key achievement of this period is Nokia’s outstanding business success in these segments with annual high-end double-digit growth rates.

Previously, while leading the Alcatel-Lucent’s CTO team for Central Europe, he played a key role in several new business incubations like Cloud Computing, IoT and Network Virtualization, growing Nokia’s global product portfolio footprint within the large customer base in central Europe. Since Jochen joined Nokia (fAlcatel-Lucent) he has held various management and senior management positions in delivery, sales, business and product development and strategy.

He has been an official Nokia executive spokesperson since 2012 and executive sponsor for Nokia’s engagement various important industry associations in Rail, Aviation, Maritime and Industrial Manufacturing.

Stefan Kindt, Technology Evangelist, Nokia

Stefan Kindt is a Technology Evangelist in Nokia’s global marketing organization, driving the latest technology topics of Nokia’s thought leadership program. In his role Stefan is leading the metaverse marketing content including market research activities for the consumer, the enterprise and the industrial. Keeping the balance between technology and business, Stefan is not just looking at the latest technology advances, but he has a great focus on customer use cases and viable business models that drive the real adoption of new technologies.

Prior to his current role Stefan has served in various marketing and sales functions within Nokia and Siemens, including Head of Cloud Market Development, Head of Technology Marketing, and Head of Technical Sales for product areas like mobile networks and OSS/BSS as well as for the APJ sales region.

Thierry Mortier, Digital Innovation lead for Power & Utilities, EY

Thierry is the EY Global Digital & Innovation Lead for Energy. He helps energy companies develop new business models, growth strategies and ecosystems, supporting them through the energy transition and beyond. Thierry champions emerging technologies, such as robotics, blockchain, AI, augmented and virtual reality, and IoT, as the digital foundations for innovation.

As energy innovation goes hand in hand with the electrification of transport, Thierry also leads the EY cross-sector, go-to-market solution for eMobility.

Thierry brings his extensive experience of the power and utilities sector to clients across a wide range of industries, including oil and gas. He applies his insights and know-how across innovation management, venturing, emerging technologies, digital strategy and transformation to position them at the forefront of the energy transition.

Thierry earned master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering and Management Consultancy from Ghent University and Erasmus University, respectively, as well as a postgraduate degree in Corporate Finance from KU Leuven.

Dominique Verhulst, Global Head of Utilities vertical, Nokia

Dominique Verhulst currently heads the Utilities vertical at Nokia.

Leveraging Nokia’s full portfolio of Fixed, Mobile, IP&Optical, Applications & Analytics and professional services products including Bell-Labs consultancy, Dominique drives the business and solutions development  for Utilities globally.

He is the author of the “Teleprotection over Packet Networks” e-book available on the iTunes bookstore, and co-author of several publications from the University of Strathclyde on the matter of Differential Protection over IP/MPLS.

He has over 30 years of experience in the telecommunications networking industry, holding senior sales and marketing positions at Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, Newbridge Networks, Ungermann-Bass and Motorola.

Host: Stefan Kindt, Technology Evangelist, Nokia

Stefan Kindt is a Technology Evangelist in Nokia’s global marketing organization, driving the latest technology topics of Nokia’s thought leadership program. In his role Stefan is leading the metaverse marketing content including market research activities for the consumer, the enterprise and the industrial. Keeping the balance between technology and business, Stefan is not just looking at the latest technology advances, but he has a great focus on customer use cases and viable business models that drive the real adoption of new technologies.

Prior to his current role Stefan has served in various marketing and sales functions within Nokia and Siemens, including Head of Cloud Market Development, Head of Technology Marketing, and Head of Technical Sales for product areas like mobile networks and OSS/BSS as well as for the APJ sales region.

Randy Miller, Global Advanced Manufacturing & Mobility Industry Leader, EY

Randy Miller is EY’s Global Advanced Manufacturing & Mobility Leader. Based in Chicago, Randy is responsible for leading the Automotive, Transportation, Chemicals, Aerospace & Defense and Industrial Products subsectors, as well as developing each sector’s strategy and initiatives, globally. This includes oversight of our solutions, subject matter resources, marketing and knowledge functions aligned to address the business issues facing companies.

Randy has over 30 years of consulting and client service experience. In addition to his Global Industry Market Leader role, Randy is also a lead Global Client Service Partner and Champion for Diversity and Inclusiveness. As a Global Client Service Partner, Randy has had worldwide accountability for planning and executing our client service strategy and the overall quality of our services to multiple of EY’s largest global priority accounts. As a Champion for Diversity and Inclusiveness Randy works to promote a diverse and inclusive work culture.

Randy serves as the Global Automotive Leader as well previously serving as the Global Automotive Advisory Leader where he was responsible for developing the Center’s automotive advisory strategy and go-to market plans, establishing automotive communities around the world and sponsoring the Center’s automotive solution innovation and development.

Randy has sponsored, authored and spoken on numerous thought leadership pieces on gender parity, the future of mobility, global risk, and other automotive and aerospace topics. Prior to joining EY in 2002, Randy was the Detroit Office Managing partner for Andersen Business Consulting and its global automotive sector leader. Randy is married and has three daughters.

Stephan Miller, Global Head of Automotive & Roads vertical, Nokia

Stephan Miller is leading the Global Automotive & Roads segment at Nokia since 2020. He has a broad automotive industry expertise, having served in several leadership roles in SI/Consulting, Tier1 and in the Automotive Industry in the last 20 years+.

Host: Stefan Kindt, Technology Evangelist, Nokia

Stefan Kindt is a Technology Evangelist in Nokia’s global marketing organization, driving the latest technology topics of Nokia’s thought leadership program. In his role Stefan is leading the metaverse marketing content including market research activities for the consumer, the enterprise and the industrial. Keeping the balance between technology and business, Stefan is not just looking at the latest technology advances, but he has a great focus on customer use cases and viable business models that drive the real adoption of new technologies.

Prior to his current role Stefan has served in various marketing and sales functions within Nokia and Siemens, including Head of Cloud Market Development, Head of Technology Marketing, and Head of Technical Sales for product areas like mobile networks and OSS/BSS as well as for the APJ sales region.