Prachi J. Vakharia works in Washington DC, USA, on transportation innovation, standards and infrastructure advancing projects in autonomous vehicles, digital, electric, and shared mobility. Prachi recently joined Amazon to help Amazon’s foray into new and advanced transport solutions. This builds on her previous role with the Massachusetts Government (MBTA), testing and piloting new AI/ML based solutions to make transport networks easier, safer and more accessible. She also worked in clean transportation, and was brought in by AES Next, the venture arm of a $33B energy firm AES, to invest in electric mobility. Prior to that, she spent over three years at the World Bank, financing urban transport projects across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Given her curiosity and love for science and innovation, Prachi mentors and invests in tech, transport and energy startups. She had 3 successful exits with acquisitions by Daimler AG in 2014. Currently, she advises SafeAI, a Silicon Valley company that automates heavy equipment used in mines and construction sites in Australia, Japan, Canada etc. She is also an advisor to FedTech to help commercialize new advancements made in the US national labs. She contributes to academic research and standards development and chairs committees for the US National Academies of Sciences TRB and the Society of Automotive Engineers. She recently led the development of a new Electric Vehicles Workplace Charging certification which was released by Forth and adopted by companies and universities nationally.

To advance women in STEM+E, Prachi co-founded and funds WOMANIUM Foundation that has trained students in computational neuroscience, telescope and satellite development, atomic clocks, quantum computing, etc. and given hundreds of scholarships to students from over 42 countries. Additionally, she serves on the Board of the Business Schools at George Mason University and George Washington University.

Mr. Penman founded DPP in September 2000. He leads the firm’s delivery of investment banking and financial advisory services to manufacturing companies, with a focus on the automotive and transportation industries.

Prior to forming DPP, Mr. Penman was a Managing Director in the investment banking department of Raymond James & Associates, Inc. where he focused on the automotive industry. He joined Raymond James in 1999 with its acquisition of Roney & Co. Mr. Penman joined Roney in 1993, and was made General Partner in 1994. While at Roney, he held the positions of Managing Director of Corporate Finance, Co-Head of Corporate Finance, and head of the Manufacturing and Automotive group. Mr. Penman also served on the nine-member Executive Committee of Roney from 1997 to 1998. He also previously served as a Senior Vice President at the investment banking firm of First of Michigan Corporation for eight years, and was employed at Touche Ross & Co.

Mr. Penman graduated from Purdue University, holds a J.D. degree from the University of Detroit, and holds an Executive M.B.A. from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Mr. Penman also has Series 7, 24, 63, 79, and 99 licenses with FINRA.

Mark Gottfredson is a director of Bain & Company’s office in Dallas Texas, which he founded in 1990, Over the past 39 years, he has advised Chief Executives and top-level managers in a wide range of industries . Most recently he has served as the leader of Bain’s Americas Automotive and Mobility practice. He is also a leader in the firm’s energy and strategy practices, and has led the firm’s global performance improvement practice.

In 2005, Mr. Gottfredson was named to Consulting Magazine’s list of Top 25 Consultants globally. He has been published extensively in publications such as the Harvard Business Review, European Strategy and the World Business review. In addition, he is frequently sought out and quoted in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Business Week. One of his specialties is in complexity reduction, a topic that he has pioneered and refined for more than 20 years. His book for general managers, called “The Breakthrough Imperative,” published by Harper Collins debuted in Spring 2008.

Mark obtained his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1983, where he graduated with high distinction and was named a Baker Scholar. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brigham Young University in Japanese (magna cum laude, honors). Prior to joining Bain, he worked in the financial services and real estate industries.