Archives: Speakers

Samantha “Sam” Welch works as an additive manufacturing design engineer at Joby Aviation, developing additive components planned for eVTOL aircraft production. She has previously worked at the Additive Design and Manufacturing Center at Lockheed Martin Space, supporting designs for aerospace applications, process development, and teaching a design for additive course. She has worked with 3D printing since 2011, starting with building a Makerbot Cupcake while interning at Gulfstream Aerospace. She has worked on countless printers since. She has designed popular items such as Plantygon, a modular stacking 3D-printed planter. After graduating from Purdue University in 2012 with a computer graphics technology degree, she moved to California to work with rapid prototyping and CAD design at Tesla Motors and Apple. Recently, she completed a master of engineering in additive design and manufacturing at Penn State. Through her whole career Sam has been a 3D-printing evangelist who has worked to find and optimize useful applications for 3D printing within her work.

Brigitte de Vet-Veithen is CEO Elect at Materialise and a member of the Executive Committee. Effective on January 1, 2024, she will succeed Fried Vancraen as the company’s CEO, and will also become President of the Materialise Executive Committee. Brigitte joined Materialise in 2016 and is an accomplished business leader with over 20 years of experience across multiple industries.

Previously, she led the company’s Medical business and strategic projects running across all businesses as Executive Vice President of Materialise Medical, which develops software and 3D printing solutions that help improve patient outcomes. Under her leadership, the medical segment grew to become the company’s fastest-growing and most profitable business segment.

Prior to joining Materialise Brigitte held various management, sales, R&D and marketing positions at Johnson & Johnson, ultimately serving as General Manager for Cordis in Germany and VP EMEA for Cordis Neurovascular. She led several companies through growth and transformation, including in her role as CEO of Acertys Group, where she drove a significant effort to improve operational efficiencies, strengthen the technology portfolio, and create growth.

Brigitte holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BA with a major in Engineering from HEC Liege.

Jeff Lints is CEO and Founder of Fortius Metals. He has served as an executive at several early-stage companies with 30 years of experience. Positions have included executive leadership, business development and strategy at high technology companies in a range of industries, primarily commercializing new products.

Mr. Lints was Vice President Sales and Marketing at SunTech Drive from 2017 through 2019, where he grew the company’s solar microgrid sales from $0 to a $20M multi-year contract with a strategic partner. Mr. Lints was part of the initial team that launched Elementum 3D. Prior to that, Mr. Lints was Managing Director for Technology Reserve, where he coordinated technology transfer from Fortune 500 companies to medium sized enterprises.

Mr. Lints has experience in global business development, strategy, innovation management, product management and product launch. He has worked across Asia, Europe and the Americas. Mr. Lints received an MBA from Cornell University, a MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University.

Jan de Pauw serves as the CTO at ValCUN. His expertise and leadership has been key to the development of ValCUN’s groundbreaking technology. ValCUN developed a deployable and easy to use metal AM technology named Molten Metal Deposition (MMD). It’s a single step technology very similar to the polymer FFF process. The initial focus is on aluminum parts for heat exchange, structural and combined feature applications.

As of October 2021, Mr. Matthew Sermon is the Executive Director of Program Executive Office, Strategic Submarines. Previously, Mr. Sermon served as the Executive Director for Program Executive Office Columbia Class Submarine and as the Executive Director, Amphibious, Auxiliary and Sealift Office, Program Executive Office, Ships. In his current role, he provides executive leadership to the Columbia Class Submarine acquisition program and the In Service SSBN/SSGN program, while also being assigned responsibility for revitalization of the Submarine Industrial Base. In this portfolio, he provides enterprise leadership for more than 250 acquisition personnel and approximately $130 Billion in acquisition and sustainment programs.

Mr. Sermon entered the Senior Executive Service in February 2019, and has been in federal service for more than 20 years. He has served in a variety of key leadership positions throughout his career, including Deputy Program Manager for the Columbia Class Submarine program (2016-2019), a $100 billion DoD Major Defense Acquisition Program. During his tenure, he led the program through detail design, construction readiness, and significant sustainment planning activities. Before leading the Columbia Class, he was the Deputy Program Manager for the Zumwalt Class Destroyer (2014-2016) during test, trials, and delivery of the lead ship (DDG 1000). Prior to DDG 1000, he was the Deputy Program Manager for International Fleet Support in the Naval Sea Systems Command’s Surface Warfare Directorate (2010-2014), where was responsible for the management of more than $5 billion in Foreign Military Sales cases for more than 40 partner nations.

Other previous assignments include Principal Assistant Program Manager in the Support Ships, Boats, and Craft Program Office (PMS 325) in PEO Ships (2007-2010), where he led the $1.1 billion Egyptian Navy Missile Craft project while providing program management expertise for numerous other boat building projects.

Prior to starting in Navy civilian service, Mr. Sermon was a U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Officer (Nuclear). He received his Surface Warfare Officer qualification aboard USS Ramage (DDG 61). Additionally, Mr. Sermon served as nuclear engineering officer aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) before leaving the uniformed Navy in 2004. He is a veteran of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

Ulli Klenk is the Lead Principal for Additive Manufacturing at Siemens Energy. Additionally, Ulli is Chairman of the European Turbine Network (ETN) Additive Manufacturing Groupe and a Member of the Rapid.Tech advisory board.

Relevant Experience:

Christopher is an accomplished inventor and entrepreneur, with industry recognized expertise in chemical engineering and metallurgy.

Christopher is MolyWorks Corporate Official and Principal Investigator for over 50 United States Government contracts with the Navy, Army, Air Force, NASA, and Department of Energy.

Christopher led MolyWorks to achieve ISO 9001 and AS: 9100D certifications through an 12 month effort. The certifications are a testament to MolyWorks commitment to provide the highest trusted products and services to its customers. Certifications occurred in January 2022.

As the founder of MolyWorks, Christopher has grown the business steadily since 2015. MolyWorks is a reliable source for the Department of Defense. MolyWorks services are also recognized by several United States commercial entities as well as key customers in Germany, France, United Kingdom, and in Asia primarily Japan and Singapore.

Christopher is recognized for his innovation by winning formnext 2020 start-up award, AM Ventures Impact award, SXSW Innovative World Start-up award, and Rice Alliance Clean Energy Start-up award; and Christopher has spoken at several globally recognized additive manufacturing and start-up events. Christopher has a proven track record and experience in commercializing products, international sales, and earning Angel, Venture Capital, and Strategic investments.

Christian Fischer started his career in the automotive industry as a process engineer. Together with his co-founder Christian Staudigel he developed the CMF Technology at the SKZ research lab. Headmade Materials was founded from this idea. Today, he is managing director at Headmade and supports customers in finding the perfect business case by using CMF.