Speakers 2025

Michael Wolf (Munich, Germany) is currently pursuing his PhD in chemistry at the BMW Group in collaboration with the University of Münster (under Prof. Simon Lux). His work centers on the dry coating of sulfidic all-solid-state batteries, covering the essential processing steps from mixing to cell assembly and analytics. He holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Notable career milestones include his master’s thesis on dry coating of electrodes for lithium-ion batteries at the BMW Group (under Prof. Rüdiger Daub), and earlier, his research on solid-state batteries as visiting student at the UC San [...]

Philippe Varin started his career in 1978. He held various R&D, Plant and Business Unit Management roles at M in France and the USA and he was the Group Executive Vice President for the Aluminum sector when he left Pechiney to become the CEO of the Anglo Dutch steel company, Corus in 2003. The Corus turnaround ended with its acquisition by the Indian Group Tata in 2007. Philippe Varin remained two years with Tata, in Mumbai and in London, and he then moved to the French car making group PSA Peugeot Citroen where he was Chairman of the Managing Board between [...]

Founder & CEO of Battri, launched 3.5 years ago with the mission to reindustrialize France through impactful, human-scale projects. Over 14 years of international experience, including 6 years in China, 3 years in the United States, and 3 years in Brazil. Strong background in the automotive and industrial sectors, with a deep passion for manufacturing and technology. Built Battri from the ground up: assembled a solid team, secured private funding over 20m euros without state aid, and successfully started production following the company’s inauguration in June. Committed to driving sustainable industrial growth and innovation in France.

Pierre Tran-Van is a chemistry engineer (Chimie Paristech school, 1996) and PhD in materials science (Versailles University, 2000, funded by Corning). He was assistant professor at Versailles university and witnessed the new spark in electric vehicle interest whilst creating and coordinating a Master course on photovoltaics, fuel cells and batteries. He joined Renault in 2011 in the research division and was involved in academic collaborations and responsible for start-up screening. In 2016 he was team leader for battery research. Since 2020 he is senior electrochemistry expert and kept this position at Ampere since 2023.

Anna Sosnowik joined Ascend Elements in July 2022 to lead the company’s European and UK business development activities, bringing over 10 years of experience in the lithium-ion battery industry. Prior to joining Ascend Elements, Anna spent 9 years at Johnson Matthey as Head of Business Development, Sales/Marketing and Strategy in the Lithium-Ion Battery Division. She held responsibilities for product development and both the technical and commercial strategies to extend Johnson Matthey Battery’s leadership position into different lithium-ion battery industry segments. Before joining Johnson Matthey, she spent 8 years in the automotive industry in several commercial, project development and purchasing positions for [...]

Christophe has built up considerable expertise in the area of battery market. He joined AVICENNE 30 years ago and spent 3 years in Japan making analysis on the Electronic, Mobile Japanese battery market. Christophe gained large experience in marketing, strategy analysis, technology and financial studies for the battery and power management fields. He developed the Battery market analysis for AVICENNE which counts more than 300 customers worldwide. Christophe publishes annual study "The rechargeable battery market trend”. Christophe is now Director of AVICENNE ENERGY. He has also been founder chairman of Batteries Event in France since 1999.

Patrick PÉLATA, after 5 years of research, joined the Renault group in 1984 in manufacturing and, later, in engineering. He left for Japan in 1999 as Nissan Board member and global EVP in charge of Design, Products, and Programs. He returned to Renault in 2005 and became Deputy CEO in 2008. Since 2002, he has been involved in the study of the decarbonization of road mobility, first in Nissan, then in Renault where he drove Renault's electric vehicle program announced in 2009. In 2012, he became Chief Automobile Officer of Salesforce in San Francisco. From 2018, he has been operating Meta [...]

After spending 8 years in the Semiconductor industry, Christophe moved to Lithium Ion battery business in 2009. He first started by setting up then managed the battery cell pilot line at the CEA. In 2011, Tesla hired him to build a small cell manufacturing line and then produced the first prototype cells in-house with his team. He also actively contributed to ramping up Module production lines for the Model S and Model X vehicles and paving the path for Model 3. Christophe also worked on a range of mechanical cell designs, developed innovative manufacturing processes, and led the phase 1 layout [...]