Keynote speaker Dr. Dieter Zetsche was a member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG since December 16, 1998, and Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG since January 1, 2006. He is also Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars Division, which includes passenger cars of the brands Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and Smart as well as Mercedes-Benz AMG and Mercedes-Benz McLaren.

Dr. Zetsche was born in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 5, 1953. After attending school in Frankfurt and obtaining the Abitur (university entrance examination), he studied electrical engineering from 1971 to 1976 at the University of Karlsruhe and graduated as an engineer. He joined the research department of the then Daimler-Benz AG in 1976 and became assistant to the Development Manager in the Commercial Vehicles business unit in 1981.

Dr. Zetsche completed a doctorate in engineering in 1982 at the University of Paderborn. From 1984, as part of the Daimler-Benz Commercial Vehicles Management Development Team, he was responsible for the coordination of international development activities.