Speakers

“The highlight of the conference is the engaging keynote presentations. Alex Sun delivered a thought provoking trends presentation.”

General Session Speakers

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Robert Safian

Robert Safian is one of the most sought after speakers, moderators and interviewers in modern business. From leadership positions at Fast Company, Time, Fortune and Money, to incisive analysis across multiple TV networks, podcasts and digital platforms, Safian has been lauded as an unparalleled source of insight on the future of global enterprise. He is not only among the most acclaimed publishing executives in history but has deep relationships across the C-suite in multiple industries, accessing the cutting-edge developments that are reshaping our world. Read More From Robert—The Risk and Opportunity of Flux

For decades, Safian has chronicled thousands of odds-defying organizations and leaders, uncovering their secrets of success. He synthesizes their lessons into eye-opening and thoroughly entertaining presentations filled with compelling storytelling.

Safian has been propelled by a reputation for near-clairvoyant prediction. He was the first editor to put Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg on a magazine cover and covered Airbnb, Netflix and Uber long before they were household names. For nearly twelve years he led the influential, award-winning business magazine Fast Company, turning it into the world’s leading progressive business media brand. His latest projects include The Flux Group, an advisory firm that is driving awareness of new business practices to both individual companies and mass-market audiences.

Alex Sun

Each year, Mitchell President and CEO, Alex Sun, brings his insightful and entertaining speaking style to the mPower main stage. This year, Alex will explore how technology is affecting our world at large and the Property and Casualty and collision repair industries specifically. Look for lessons learned from other industries, trends, and insights to inform decision making in this new age. As always, the keynote promises to be a thought-provoking and visually dynamic exploration of today’s top-of-mind issues.

Alex Sun joined Mitchell in 2001 and currently serves as the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, guiding the company’s strategy and day-to-day operations. Prior to this appointment, Alex served as President and Chief Financial Officer until 2008. With a vision for serving the broader claims technology needs for the Property and Casualty claims and collision repair industries, Alex has led the company’s expansion to achieve unparalleled breadth of technology, connectivity, and information service offerings.

Read Alex Sun’s latest blog post.

TUESDAY’S FEATURED SPEAKERS

Luke Harris

AVP Innovation, USAA

As AVP, Innovation at USAA, Luke is responsible for leading auto claims innovation in the P&C organization. Luke and team are focused on continuously leveraging the latest industry and member insights to deliver a world-class experience for USAA members and employees while driving significant market differentiation for USAA. Luke started his insurance career as a Claim Representative Trainee with Progressive in 2004. He held a variety of leadership positions during his 10+ years at Progressive prior to joining innovative startup pay-per-mile insurer, Metromile in 2014. At Metromile, Luke led the strategy, development, implementation, and oversight of Metromile’s claims program.

Luke received a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Baker University where he played basketball for the Wildcats. His most notable accomplishment to date was meeting his wife, Brittany (who also played basketball at Baker). Brittany and Luke are blessed with 4 beautiful children: Maverick (2008), twins Hawk and Noelle (2010), and Boomer (2017). The Harris Family loves sports, the great outdoors, and living life to its fullest.

Ramon Lopez

VP Innovation, USAA

Ramon Lopez has the honor and privilege to lead a team of innovators looking to reinvent the insurance claims product. In this role, he and the team are focusing on making insurance simple, easy and more importantly relevant to the USAA membership. This can better be defined as humanizing and scaling our own digital capabilities, modernizing our technology, personalizing interactions and ultimately delivering the world’s best insurance claims experience through service and accuracy.

Ramon has over 14 years of insurance industry experience that spans across property and auto claims and is a graduate of Texas State University. He is currently attending The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) working towards his Executive MBA. Ramon is a current board member of Arbitration Forums and a board member of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Ramon is passionate about building diverse teams and sees this as the most significant competitive advantage in the innovation ecosystem. Team Lopez (at home) consists of 2 wonderful children (Patience ’00 and Sawyer ’13) who help him evolve, learn and grow every day. He is married to Danielle, a very talented elementary education teacher with a focus on green living.

WEDNESDAY’S FEATURED SPEAKERS

John Eck

Collision Manager, Wholesale Dealer Channel
General Motors Customer Care & Aftersales

John Eck has 29 years of automotive aftermarket experience with General Motors and has held numerous field, marketing and management positions in several business segments in the USA, Canada and South Africa. He joined the Wholesale Business Channel in May 2014 and serves as the Collision Manager for the Wholesale Dealer Channel for General Motors Customer Care and Aftersales. John is responsible for managing the collision business including GM Dealer Wholesale parts strategies, programs and industry relationships. Additionally, John serves on the I-CAR Board of Director’s Strategic Policy Committee, is the current President and Chairman of the Board for the OEM Roundtable, an active participant on the CIC Governance Committee and the Collision Industry Quality System (CIQS) committee.

Kris A. Mayer

General Director, Wholesale Dealer Channel
General Motors Customer Care & Aftersales

Kris Mayer is the General Director, responsible for the Wholesale Dealer Channel at Customer Care and Aftersales based in Grand Blanc, Michigan a position he assumed in May 2014. Kris is responsible for top line and bottom line revenue for Collision, Powertrain, Performance Parts, and Marine and Industrial portfolios. Kris began his GM career in 1984 serving GM Truck & Bus, servicing Light, Medium, and Heavy duty truck customers. Over the years, Kris has held a wide range of key multi brand leadership roles related dealer and field operations. He has held several diverse positions including Director Sales, Marketing and Aftersales for GM Indonesia. In 2011, he moved to Moscow to combine the separate Chevrolet, Opel, and Cadillac parts and service operations into one aftersales organization. As Aftersales Director, GM Russia and CIS, he succeeded in growing the organization into the fastest growing enterprise in Europe.

Kris currently leads the Wholesale Dealer Channel as General Director and has the responsibility for sales and revenue of more than $3 billion combined for the Collision, Powertrain, Performance Parts, and Marine/Industrial teams. In the US, Kris continues to challenge the OEM and Independent Aftermarket norms in improving how we serve our customers and dealers. Kris is an advocate for building the GM culture as a key strategy to grow results.

Look forward to an agenda packed full of insightful keynotes, informative expert sessions and engaging networking experiences over the course of this three-day conference.

Agenda & Sessions