2018 Annual Report

Dr. Mircea Gradu is Senior VP of Validation / Chief Quality Officer at Velodyne LiDAR, Inc. Mircea joined Velodyne September 2017 bringing over 25 years of experience in the automotive and commercial vehicle industry that includes deep technical knowledge of design, development, manufacturing, safety, and cybersecurity. Mircea is responsible for the development and manufacturing of world-class products compliant with the international quality standards and satisfying customer needs. He is building a strong validation organization, with continuous process improvements and an expansion of the quality team’s skill set for timely delivery of all quality objectives. Previously with Hyundai, Gradu, led the development and implementation of product strategy to improve both the initial quality of Hyundai models and vehicle durability. He was responsible for model line and systems engineering, vehicle safety, cybersecurity, dealer tools, technical support and training, warranty and field infrastructure for alternative energy vehicles. Since 2014, Hyundai has earned several industry quality awards. Dr. Gradu is a 25-year industry veteran, starting his career at Daimler-Benz AG in Stuttgart, Germany. Past experience includes key roles at The Timken Company and Chrysler Group LLC in the U.S, where he served as Vice President Powertrain Transmission and Driveline Engineering and Head of Virtual Analysis reporting to the CEO, and USCAR and U.S. Drive Council Member. Dr. Gradu has been awarded 56 patents on mechatronic automotive systems, published over 40 papers and held seminars or offered presentations at SAE, IEEE, TOPTEC, VDI and IFToMM events. A member of SAE International since 1994, Dr. Gradu’s distinguished career includes being the recipient of the 2008 Edward Cole Award for Automotive Innovation, the 2005 Forest McFarland Award and the SAE-Timken Howard Simpson Innovation Award. Dr. Gradu was appointed SAE Fellow in 2011 and served as Vice President of SAE International - Automotive Sector from 2010 to 2012. Dr. Gradu holds a master's in mechanical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Stuttgart. He has initiated and maintains industry-academia relationships with multiple universities, including most recently the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California Irvine.

Doug Patton is executive vice president of Engineering and chief technical officer of DENSO International America, Inc. (DIAM), and senior director of DENSO Corp. Located at DENSO’s North American headquarters in Southfield, Michigan, he oversees all North American product engineering and development, campus facilities and operations including all testing and technical services, and Engineering Administration. He is responsible for climate control, engine components, and systems and components, engine electrical, safety products, cluster, in-vehicle-infotainment (IVI) and body electronics and small motor engineering. Patton earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1977 and a Master of Business Administration degree in 1984, both from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. He serves as president of the DENSO Foundation Board, the Board of Directors for the Engineering Society of Detroit (currently president), and also is member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, where he participates on the Board of Directors and the Foundation Banquet Leadership Committee and will serve as the 2017 president. He is also an Engineering Society of Detroit Fellow. Patton is a member of the Detroit Economic Club, Lawrence Technological University’s College of Engineering Advisory Board, and the Executive Leadership Team of the North American International Powertrain Conference.

Paul Mascarenas is a member of the Board of Directors of ON Semiconductor (NASDAQ: ON) and the US Steel Corporation (NYSE: X); and a Special Venture Partner with Fontinalis Partners, a Detroit based strategic investment firm focusing on early stage companies in the rapidly emerging area of next-generation mobility solutions. He also is an investor and advisor to a Michigan based startup, Innovative Xercise Solutions. Previously, Mr. Mascarenas was Chief Technical Officer and Vice President, Ford Motor Company. In that role, he led Ford’s worldwide research organization, overseeing the development and implementation of the company’s technology strategy and plans. He also led the establishment of Ford’s Silicon Valley Research and Innovation Center, which supports the company’s vision to provide uncompromised personal mobility for people around the world. Serving in several senior executive positions during his 32-year career with Ford, Mr. Mascarenas has extensive experience in Product Development, Program Management and Business Leadership, with assignments in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States. He was a Director of Mentor Graphics Corporation (until acquisition by Siemens in 2017) and President and Chairman of the Executive Board of FISITA, the International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies. Mr. Mascarenas is a Fellow of SAE International and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He served as general chairperson for the 2010 SAE World Congress and Convergence, and has served on the FISITA board since 2012. He is also a member of the Institute of Directors. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from King’s College, University of London in England and in June 2013, received an honorary doctorate degree from Chongqing University in China. In December 2014 he was appointed an OBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of his services to the automotive industry.

Pierre Alégre Jr. serves as head of the Project Management Office, with Top Aces Inc. Alégre was previously with AAR/Air Canada and Bombardier Aerospace, and prior to that, was an Associate and Certified Trainer with Bates Project Management Inc. During that time, he development many courses in project management, both in the public and private sectors. He created academia courses for the master’s program at two universities in the Montreal area. He also held positions with Air Canada Technical Services, Bell Canada, and the Department of National Defence. Alégre is a member of the SAE Foundation Canada Board of Directors and services on the fund-raising committee. He was a member of the SAE International Board of Directors from 2000-03 and Treasurer 2016-20; the Finance Committee from 2006-10 and 2016-20. In addition to being a member of SAE International, Alégre is a member of the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec since 1985; PMI (Project Management Institute) since 1995; HEC Network from 1994 to 2002; and the MBA Association from 1994 to 2000. He is a winner of the SAE Distinguished Younger Member Award (1991); the SAE Outstanding Younger Member Award (1986 and 1990); the Canadian Decoration Medal for service rendered; and he has held Project Management Professional Certification since 1999. Alégre holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal and an MBA in International Business from École des hautes études commerciales

Gregory Bradley, Esquire, is the Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel and Secretary of SAE International. In this role, Greg is responsible for the organization’s legal, intellectual property, risk management and corporate governance affairs. Greg has over 30 years of experience in private and corporate practice and, prior to joining SAE International, was Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for a medical device company in Pittsburgh and General Counsel for one of its divisions. Greg was also in private practice with intellectual property and general practice law firms in Chicago and Pittsburgh.

Greg is a founding member of the Q. Todd Dickinson (Pittsburgh) Intellectual Property Chapter of the American Inns of Court and a Past President of the Pittsburgh Intellectual Property Law Association (PIPLA). He is also a member of the Association General Counsel Forum, the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), and the Advisory Committee for the Study of the Local Patent Rules for the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Greg holds Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) and Juris Doctor (JD) degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a registered patent attorney and is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, and the District of Columbia.

Pascal Joly is Senior Director, Flight Safety and Technical Affairs, with Airbus Americas. He has extensive experience in government relations, aviation safety policy, regulatory affairs, and ATM. He also represents company policy at various industry working groups (e.g. RTCA) and advocates for aviation progress in international standardization bodies or collaborative research institute. Joly began his career as an avionics engineer at Honeywell in Phoenix. Prior to joining Airbus Americas in 2006, he worked first at Airbus in Toulouse with different assignments. He served in engineering organization during about ten years providing support to airline customers for design change definition in the domains of Autopilot, Flight Management System and Fly by Wire System. He then moved to the Flight Test Center to hold the position of Head of Department for flight test Research and Technology. For around 12 years, he has been involved on a numerous aircraft programs, ATR (Regional aircraft) BELUGA (the Airbus Transport aircraft) the Long Range A340-600 and finally the A380. Joly serves as chairperson of the SAE International Technical Standard Board. He also serves as chair of the Executive Board of AVSI, a Research Institute hosted by Texas A&M University. Joly holds a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from SupAero in Toulouse and is a graduate of University of Aix-en-Provence (Air Transport Law). He also holds a private pilot certificate.

Carla Bailo is the President and CEO of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), and is a leader in engineering and vehicle program management with 35 years of experience in the automotive industry. Under Bailo’s leadership, CAR continues to be a preeminent resource of objective and unbiased research, analysis, and information regarding the North American automotive industry. Prior to joining CAR, Bailo was most recently the Assistant Vice President for Mobility Research and Business Development at The Ohio State University. Bailo also has 25 years of experience at Nissan North America Inc., where she served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development. She also spent 10 years at General Motors. In addition to her role at CAR, Bailo is the 2016-18 Vice President of Automotive for SAE International, and is a 17-year member of SAE International. She led the SAE 2013 World Congress, which was hosted by Nissan; presented the Nissan Altima at the SAE 2013 World Congress; presented the Nissan Frontier, Pathfinder and Xterra at the SAE 2005 World Congress; and has participated in several young professional panels. She has sponsored A World In Motion® projects conducted by Nissan and has been a key contributor to the SAE Foundation for several years. She has a MS degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and a BS degree in mechanical engineering from Kettering University.

Landon Sproull is Vice President PACCAR, Inc. In this position, he is responsible for powertrain strategic planning including global development, validation and compliance and the PACCAR Technical Center. He joined PACCAR in 1988 as a design engineer in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to this, he was Chief Engineer at Peterbilt for 10 years. Through the years, he held a wide variety of engineering positions within the company pertaining to various aspects of design, development and management. He initially joined the Nashville plant team in a design support function. In 1993, he became directly involved in design and product development management positions, and during Landon's tenure, Peterbilt developed and introduced more new products than at any other time in the company’s history. Throughout his long career in the heavy truck industry, Sproull has developed an outstanding reputation for integrity, innovation and leadership. He is very widely known and very well-respected within the sector. He is a long-time supporter of SAE International, and has held several responsible positions, including board member. Sproull earned his engineering degree from University of Evansville and earned a master of business administration degree from Middle Tennessee State University (Murfreesboro). He is a licensed Professional Engineer and has been a member of SAE International for 28 years. He served on the SAE Board of Directors from 2002-2004.

Weichai Power Co, Ltd., China, is a publicly traded, diversified industry equipment company with over 55,000 employees with headquarters located in Weifang, Shandong, and 10 R&D Centers in Germany, France, Italy, United States, and China. Prior to joining Weichai, Dr. Hu previously held engineering leadership positions at Eaton Corporation, Caterpillar Inc., Detroit Diesel Corporation, and Jacobs Vehicle Systems. He has more than 25 years of experience in technology leadership and in the research and development of engines and powertrain systems. Dr. Hu holds an MS degree in mechanical engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China; an MBA degree from the Ohio State University; and a Doctor of Science (ScD) degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Hu is a Fellow of SAE International (2012), a Fellow of ASME (2013), and a recipient of the SAE Arch T. Colwell Merit Award (1999) and Eaton Corporation “Engineer of the Year” Award (2005). He has 32 U.S. patents, and is a co-author of the SAE book titled as “Advanced Hybrid Powertrains for Commercial Vehicles.”

Don Nilson is a Corporate Business Strategist & Program Manager with Lockheed Martin. He has spent 30 years designing, developing, and testing military aircraft for Lockheed Martin and is currently a business strategist and program manager for Corporate Engineering, Technology and Operations. Nilson is responsible for providing executive leadership across the corporation’s business areas to develop and implement efficient business models to achieve customer and company objectives. His current focus is on developing next generation business models for the F-35 Product Support Integration (PSI) contract expected in 2019. Nilson has held a variety of positions in the military aeronautics business including; mission systems design on several aircraft development programs, advanced programs chief engineer, director of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Air System Design and Systems Engineering team. He also has led multiple functional organizations with a focus on performance and affordability enhancements and served as a member of several design teams and led multiple advanced design/development programs. He routinely leads action teams to assess program/business performance and define necessary improvement actions. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, post graduate certificates from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and George Mason University, and is a graduate of the Defense Acquisition University for Program Managers.

Eric Tech President of Global & Specialty Businesses and Senior Vice President of Strategy Planning for Navistar, Inc. With Navistar, Mr. Tech concurrently holds strategy and leadership roles, manages $1.5 billion in P&L, oversees more than 3,000 employees across four countries, and manages a business development team. Mr. Tech has held several other positions with Navistar before being promoted, including Senior Vice President, Strategy, Planning and Business Development; President, Global and Specialty Business; President, Global Truck and Engine; Vice President; and Vice President and General Manager. Prior to joining Navistar, Mr. Tech was employed by Ford Motor Company and Jaguar Cars Limited, UD and UK. During that time, he served as Chief Engineer, Superduty; and Manager, North American Warranty. While there, he received Ford’s Chairman’s Quality Award. Mr. Tech is a member of SAE International and the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation. He served as Chair of SAE International’s 2014 North American International Powertrain Conference. Mr. Tech earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Jeff Varick the  Founder and CEO of Brandmotion LLC based in Southfield, MI. Varick created Brandmotion with a belief that Tier One suppliers would benefit from adjacent channel revenue and quick new product feedback through aftermarket distribution services. Brandmotion serves professional installation customers in every US state, Canada and Mexico. The 26-person company is involved in all phases of design, manufacturing and distribution, growing at a 40% annual rate since 2010. Prior to founding Brandmotion, Varick served as Director, New Business Development at Johnson Controls Automotive Group, Inc. In that role, he articulated a strategy to create a new business unit to develop consumer-branded content for a major product innovation: the JCI RailPort Overhead Rail System. He also developed a business plan, secured internal funding, and formed and led a team of eight functional managers to win three major business awards for the system, worth $25M in the first year, in four months. While at Johnson Controls, Varick also served as Director, New Product Opportunity Assessment; Director, New Product Strategy; and Director of Marketing and Product Strategy, Specialty Products Group. Earlier in his career, Varick worked as Manager, Automotive Innovation Strategy Consulting for Integral, Inc.; and as Manager, International New Business Development at General Motors International Headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. Varick a 24-year member of SAE International, was President of the student branch of the University of Wisconsin while obtaining his BSME. There he initiated and formed Wisconsin’s first entry in the SAE Mini-Baja, in which Wisonconsin won second place overall in the first year of competition. Varick recieved an SAE International WISE Intern, to study engineering and public policy in Washington DC. Varick served on the SAE Public Affairs Committee after college, including two years as Chair. He also served on the Engineering Society of Detroit Public Affairs committee. Varick earned an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.

Todd Zarfos retired from Boeing Commercial Airplanes in December of 2020 after a career spanning over 35 years as an engineer and aviation industry leader.  His last position prior to retiring was as the Vice President of Engineering Functions & Washington State Design Center and Senior Chief Engineer for Systems for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. He was responsible for engineering functional organizations at the Washington State design centers for all commercial airplanes, as well as the continuous improvement and utilization of the technical workforce for supply chain management for technical services. In his role as Senior Chief of Airplane Systems, Zarfos was responsible for driving technical excellence within the airplane systems community, while ensuring the technical integrity and success of Commercial Airplanes’ development and production programs. Zarfos joined Boeing Commercial Airplanes as an Avionics Systems Engineer for the 707/373/727 programs in 1985. He served in many key leadership position over the years including Vice President of Engineering for Commercial Aviation Services, Vice President of Engineering for the 747-8 Program, and Vice President of Airplane Product Development.

Mr. Zarfos is a current member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering and previously served in a similar capacity at the University of Washington College of Engineering.  Zarfos holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, and a Master of Leadership from the Columbia University School of Business.  Todd and his wife Tammie have funded several endowed scholarships at both the University of Minnesota and University of Washington focused on first generation college students and improving the undergraduate experience for prospective engineers.

His honors include being named a Royal Aeronautical Society Fellow in 2008, an American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics Associate Fellow in 2012 and was also granted an Honorary Doctor of The Kiev Polytechnic University in 2020.

Mr. Zarfos has been a member of SAE International for over ten years and has served on the Board of Directors since 2015.  He previously served as President and Chairman of the Board for SAE International in 2020 and is serving in that same role again in 2023.