Keynotes

Blake Moret
Chairman & CEO
Rockwell Automation

Blake Moret is Chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation, the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation. As CEO, Blake is dedicated to delivering the company’s strategy to bring the Connected Enterprise to life. Under his leadership, Rockwell Automation integrates control and information to help make industrial companies and their people more productive and the world more sustainable. Blake is accelerating the Rockwell Automation strategy by focusing on understanding customer needs and their best opportunities for productivity, combining our technology and domain expertise to deliver positive business outcomes, and simplifying our customers’ experience. Key to this strategy is Rockwell’s culture, the foundation for the company’s accelerated profitable growth.

Joining Rockwell Automation in 1985 as a sales trainee, Blake has built his career with the company and has held leadership positions in many areas of the business, including international assignments in Europe and Canada. In his previous role, Blake served as senior vice president of Control Products and Solutions, one of the company’s two business segments. Blake became CEO on July 1, 2016, and was elected Chairman of the Board, effective January 1, 2018. He is passionate about workforce development and creating a diverse worldwide team of employees that can and want to do their best work.

Blake is vice chair for the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) Board of Directors and Executive Committee and is a member of the Wisconsin Governor's Council on Workforce Investment. He is the co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Advanced Manufacturing Community of CEOs and is a member of the Business Roundtable. He also serves on the board of the Advanced Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and the Georgia Tech Advisory Board.

Blake is Chairman of the Rockwell Automation Charitable Corporation and is on the boards of FIRST, the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha, and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee.

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Blake graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He and his wife Cheryl have four children.

Cyril Perducat
Chief Technology Officer
Rockwell Automation

Cyril Perducat is senior vice president and Chief Technology Officer. Cyril and his team of technologists are focused on growing Rockwell’s already broad technology offering and expanding what is possible in the industrial automation space. He is responsible for charting the company’s technology roadmap, our reusable intellectual property library, and research related to core technology.

Throughout his career, Cyril has focused on developing innovative solutions to enhance manufacturing technologies. He has an extensive background as a technology strategist, particularly in systems, software, networks, and solutions businesses.

Cyril joined Rockwell following a 25-year career with Schneider Electric, where he most recently served as executive vice president, Internet of Things and Digital Offers. He has a passion for innovating and building teams, and a drive for implementing successful outcomes based in effective change management.

Cyril holds a master’s degree in Engineering from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers (ENSAM Paritech) and a Masters Degree in International Project Management from ESCP Europe Business School.

Tessa Myers
Sr. Vice President Intelligent Devices
Rockwell Automation

Tessa Myers is senior vice president, Intelligent Devices at Rockwell Automation. In this role, she leads strategy, people and talent development and the worldwide growth of the operating segment, which includes drives, motion, safety, sensing, industrial components and configured-to-order products that are the foundation of smart production systems.

Previously, Tessa was vice president and general manager for the Production Operations Management Software business unit within our Software & Control operating segment. In that role, she oversaw product strategy, product management and business operations.

Since joining Rockwell in 1999, she has built broad global industry expertise with significant leadership roles in sales, channel and partner management and business unit and product development across hardware and software, working in the U.S., Canada and Singapore. With a passion for developing talent and culture, she is also the executive sponsor for the ADVANCE Young Professionals employee resource group.

Externally, Tessa serves on the Board of Directors for Badger Meter, Inc. Discovery World, Industry Data Exchange Association (IDEA) and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Research Foundation and on the Board of Governors of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). Previously, she served on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Organization and was Chair of the Women in Manufacturing Initiative.

Tessa holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Matheus Bulho
Sr. Vice President Software & Control
Rockwell Automation

Matheus Bulho is senior vice president, Software & Control. Matheus leads strategy, people and talent development, and the worldwide growth of the operating segment which includes control and visualization software and hardware, information software, and network and security infrastructure.

Matheus’ background includes a broad set of experiences. He served in various business management, technical and sales functions across multiple businesses and regions. He brings a proven track record of developing strong leaders, driving operational excellence, and delivering differentiated offerings and profitable growth for the company. He is an expert on our technology and knows our culture and our customers.

Matheus holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UNESP Brazil.

Matt Fordenwalt
Sr. Vice President Lifecycle services
Rockwell Automation

Matt Fordenwalt is senior vice president, Lifecycle Services at Rockwell Automation. Matt drives the strategy and growth for this business segment, which delivers domain expertise at all touchpoints of a customer's experience and ensures the positive business outcomes that give our customers a faster return on their automation investment. 

Previously, Matt serviced as vice president and general manager for the Systems and Solutions Business (SSB) within Lifecycle Services. In that role, he was responsible for providing strategic vision, operational excellence and overseeing all operations of the global business, with a focus on profitable growth across Process industries and applications.

Matt joined Rockwell in 2005 and held a leadership role for the Global Process Transformation (GPT) project in our Information Technology organization. That role was followed by a business manager role, where he started up the Customer Support & Maintenance (CSM) consulting services capabilities in networks, safety, and security. Additionally, Matt was senior director, Global Service Delivery in the CSM business after holding multiple leadership roles of increasing scope and responsibility in Connected Services and CSM.

Matt holds a bachelor’s degree in learning and organizational change from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Lake Forest, Illinois.

David Robertson
Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan
Author of The Power of Little Ideas and of Brick by Brick

David Robertson has devoted his life to innovation, having studied, taught, and practiced the art of organizational change throughout his career. In his book The Power of Little Ideas, Robertson argues for a ‘third way’ of innovation: something between slow, incremental change and radical disruption. Instead, he champions a low-risk, high-reward strategy that calls for complementary innovations around a core product or service.

In his previous book Brick by Brick, Robertson gave the definitive account of one of the most profound business transformations in recent memory: Lego. In 2003, the company began sliding into irrelevance and needed entirely new processes, tools, roles, and policies that governed creative thinking. Robertson presents the strategies Lego used to become a customer-driven, full-spectrum, open, and adventurous brand. 

Today, Robertson is a Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, where he teaches Product Development and Digital Product Management. Previously, he was a Professor of Practice at the Wharton School, where he also hosted the podcast Innovation Navigation. He was also a LEGO Professor of Innovation and Technology Management at Switzerland’s Institute for Management Development (IMD). Currently, Robertson consults with companies on innovation and technology management issues. He holds a PhD from the MIT Sloan School.

Anat Baron
Futurist, Serial Entrepreneur, Brand Builder

Anat Baron is a sought-after futurist and strategic advisor. After three+ decades leading organizations through internal upheaval, intense competition, and market disruption, she has perfected the art of identifying, staying ahead of, and shaping trends. Currently the Founder and CEO of StashWall, Anat was the chief executive behind Mike’s Hard Lemonade. She grew Mike’s into a $200+ million juggernaut, establishing a new product category in the ultra-competitive beer industry—despite her allergy to alcohol. 

Anat has intentionally tested new industries, chasing her passion for creative innovation, meaningful stories, and the bleeding edge of technological innovations. This led her from her early work with Four Seasons, Holiday Inn and Radisson, to her years as a Hollywood executive and producer, through to her beverage industry career. She created Beer Wars, an award-winning documentary that examines the changing face of the beer industry. 

From her childhood obsession with the Jetsons and Star Trek to her forays into AI and automation, she’s forever determining what’s real and what’s next, which enables her to guide businesses on improving systems and the customer experience. Anat’s insights have been featured in CNN, Fox News, CBS, Entrepreneur, New York Post, and more.

Rev Lebaredian
Vice President, Omniverse and Simulation Technology
NVIDIA

Rev Lebaredian is vice president of Omniverse and simulation technology at NVIDIA. Lebaredian has over 30 years of experience in the computer graphics industry, working in roles at Warner Brothers Digital and Disney Dream Quest Images before launching his own venture, Steamboat Software. He joined NVIDIA in 2002 and led the development of several real-time, multi-GPU scalable rendering, physics simulation, and AI platforms and technologies. Today, he leads the product, engineering, and research teams of NVIDIA Omniverse, a software platform and operating system enabling developers to build physical AI and robotic system simulation applications.