HP Executive Christian Verstraete to Keynote at CPDA’s PLM Road Map™ 2010

Riverside, CT – Collaborative Product Development Associates (CPDA), a provider of critical analyses for PLM decisions, announces that Christian Verstraete, Hewlett-Packard’s Chief Technologist for the Manufacturing & Distribution Industries, will make a keynote presentation at PLM Road Map 2010 which will take place at The Inn at St. John's, outside of Detroit, on September 28 and 29. Other keynote speakers at this event include Ford Motor Company’s Christopher Davey, Targeted Convergence Corporation’s Michael Kennedy, and MathWorks’ Jim Tung.

In his keynote presentation “Is Cloud Useful in PD&E? If Yes, Where?” Christian Verstraete will focus on the ability of the cloud to meet the needs of product development and engineering. The differences between cloud, grid, and HPC alternatives will be highlighted, and the areas where the cloud can add value will be developed. The question of whether special clouds should be established for product development and the characteristics of these clouds will be defined. Finally, the criteria to consider in deciding whether or not to take a workload to the cloud will be established. Practical examples will be used to illustrate the presentation.

About Christian Verstraete, Chief Technologist – Manufacturing & Distribution Industries, Hewlett-Packard Company
Christian Verstraete has been a member of HP’s manufacturing team for more than 30 years. He holds responsibility for thought leadership and innovation - scanning industry and technology trends and assessing their mid/longer term effect on emerging MDI business opportunities and how to capitalize on them. He is the link to the CTO community both inside HP and with its customers and partners.

Prior to his current position, Christian was responsible for the development of solutions for the Manufacturing & Distribution Industry. He led HP’s global High-Tech Industry Group and the go-to-market strategy for the manufacturing industries Supply Chain where he was responsible for growing the company’s $300 million consulting and system integration business.

After having participated in the planning of the HP/Compaq merger, he headed HP’s manufacturing practice within the Consulting and Integration business unit from 2002 to 2004. The 1,200 consultants he led created and delivered solutions in the areas of supply chain, procurement and sourcing, product lifecycle collaboration, demand chain and collaborative business integration in all segments of the Manufacturing Industry.

Prior to that, Christian served as the Global Lead in the Extended Manufacturing Practice and the Supply Chain Infrastructure and EAI. From his first HP job as a systems engineer through project, regional, district, and global management, Christian has concentrated on developing, marketing, and advancing infrastructure services.

Frequently published in periodicals, Christian is also a featured speaker at global supply chain events and runs HP’s Manufacturing-Distribution blog. He is one of the authors of “Connected Manufacturing, Thought-provoking essays from industry leaders” and of “Collaborative Sourcing, Strategic Value Creation through Collaborative Supplier Relationship Management”. He is on the board of the Supply Chain Council.

Christian holds a mechanical engineering degree from the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and a degree in industrial management from Katholieke Universiteit van Leuven, also in Belgium. He is based in Brussels, Belgium.