Dr. Alex Lidow, CEO and Co-founder at Efficient Power Conversion (EPC), joined International Rectifier as an R&D engineer and is the co-inventor of the HEXFET power MOSFET, a power transistor that displaced the bipolar transistor and launched modern power conversion. Over the 30 years Dr. Lidow was at IRF, his responsibilities grew from engineer to head of R&D, head of manufacturing, head of sales and marketing, and finally CEO for 12 years. In addition to holding many power MOSFET and GaN FET patents, Alex has authored numerous publications; most recently he co-authored the first textbook on GaN transistors, GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion. In 2004 he was elected to the Engineering Hall of Fame, and in 2005 IRF, under his leadership, International Rectifier was named one of the best managed companies in America by Forbes magazine. Dr. Lidow earned a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology and a doctorate in Applied Physics from Stanford University. Since 1998 Alex has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology.
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Dr. Jens Baringhaus holds the role of Chief Expert for “Wide-Bandgap Technology” at the business unit Mobility Electronics at Robert Bosch GmbH in Reutlingen. He is responsible for Bosch’s wide-bandgap product roadmap. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc degrees in physics from the University of Hannover, Germany, in 2009 and 2011, respectively, followed by a Ph.D. in semiconductor physics from the same institution in 2015. He joined the Corporate Research division of Robert Bosch GmbH in Renningen, Germany in 2016 as Research Engineer focusing on wide-bandgap power devices. He became Senior Expert for “Process Development for Power Semiconductors” in 2021 and led the research and development activities on novel wide-bandgap power transistor architectures.
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Thomas Heinzel is General Manager of the Semiconductor Technical Division at Fuji Electric Europe. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from DHBW Mannheim in 1988 and began his professional career at ABB in Mannheim, where he worked in the Traction Division from 1988 to 1998. During this time, he was involved in the development of a control unit for a three-level, three-phase inverter, including its control pattern and PLD algorithm. He also developed and commissioned a 60 kVA three-level transistor inverter for light rail vehicles and conceived and developed a new auxiliary inverter system for railway applications. In addition, he was responsible for project management of the auxiliary inverters at Adtranz in Mannheim. In 1998, Heinzel joined Fuji Electric Europe GmbH, where he established application support for power semiconductor customers throughout the EMEA sales area. He subsequently built a technical support team, including a quality analysis function, and implemented an R&D team supporting European customers. Since 2014, Heinzel has headed the Technical Department of Fuji Electric's Semiconductor Division. The department covers application engineering, quality assurance, development, and TIM pre-pasting. Since 2021, he has been Head of the Semiconductor Technical Division, which is divided into three departments: Application Engineering, Industrial Design, including TIM production, and Quality Assurance. In this role, he is currently responsible for a team of 20 employees.
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Dr. Christian Felgemacher is Director Application Engineering at ROHM Semiconductor GmbH since 2025. His team supports ROHM’s European customers with component and system level expertise in a wide field of applications – ranging from industrial and automotive power electronic converters using Si and WBG power devices to various solutions around the wide portfolio of analogue IC components. Since joining the company in 2017 as an application engineer, he has supported industrial and automotive customers using Si and SiC power devices. Before joining ROHM, Christian was a research assistant at University of Kassel with a focus on reliability of WBG power semiconductors and use of these devices in power converters for renewable energy. He received a doctorate in engineering (Dr.-Ing.) from University Kassel in 2018 and a MEng (Hons.) in Electronics and Electrical Engineering with Management from the University of Edinburgh in 2011.
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Benoît Rousseau is Vice President of GaN Automotive at Infineon Technologies, based at the company's headquarters in Munich, Germany. He leads Infineon's global automotive GaN business, driving strategy, innovation, and the adoption of next-generation power semiconductors across the automotive market. He recently returned to Germany after leading Infineon Technologies' operations in Canada and supporting the successful integration of GaN Systems into Infineon. Throughout his nearly 20-year career at Infineon, he has held leadership positions spanning R&D, product marketing, corporate strategy, and business leadership, primarily in automotive power semiconductors and IoT security. Benoît holds master’s degrees in physics, electrical and computer engineering from CPE Lyon, France, and the University of Waterloo, Canada.
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Dr. Maike Müller is a semiconductor executive with more than 15 years of international leadership experience across automotive electronics, power semiconductors, quality, procurement, and operations. As Head of Semiconductor Strategy and Power Module Development at Volkswagen Group Components, she leads the Group’s proprietary power module program and aligns semiconductor requirements across brands to accelerate innovation, strengthen technological sovereignty, and improve supply-chain resilience. Her career includes senior roles at Infineon Technologies spanning quality management, global procurement, and power-module commercialization, as well as experience in international manufacturing scale-up and technology transfer. She also serves on the advisory board of an international semiconductor industry group and holds a PhD in Chemistry.
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