Dr. Bernd Lauterbach is chief solution architect for transportation management at Westernacher Consulting in Heidelberg. Until 2019, Bernd worked for SAP SE for 25 years. He gained 13 years of experience, both as a development manager for SAP TM and as a development architect for SAP Event Management, the Auto-ID infrastructure, and SAP ERP Logistics Execution (LE-TRA). Subsequently, Bernd was responsible worldwide as chief solution architect for the logistics industry at SAP IBU Travel & Transportation – Cargo & Logistics. An additional focus of Bernd’s work is supporting many projects for Westernacher customers (logistics service providers [LSPs] and shippers), where he brings together LSP or shipper needs and SAP solution competence in terms of customer requirements, business processes, target architectures, and software capabilities.

Bernd studied and received a PhD in electrical engineering from University of Bremen, Germany. Before working with SAP, he spent several years in the areas of satellite electronics, parallel programming for image processing, assembler programming, geographic information systems (GIS), and auto-routing systems.

Dr. Jens Gottlieb has worked in supply chain software development at SAP SE in Walldorf, Germany, since 2000. He is chief product expert in the TM standard development unit. As the product owner responsible for transportation planning and the transportation network, Jens leads a development team. He has worked as a developer, development architect, and development manager, and led internal development projects as well as a standard-related custom development project for a TM customer in the beverage industry.

Jens received a PhD in computer science, has written six books and more than 25 scientific publications in the areas of transportation management and heuristic optimization algorithms, and edited six books.

Meike Helwig leads the Center of Expertise for transportation management (TM) at SAP SE in St. Leon-Rot. She is responsible for managing and delivering services for the premium customers of SAP SE in the EMEA region. Together with her team, she proactively supports customers during the whole lifecycle of a TM system with technical and advisory services. Furthermore, her team is responsible for solving critical situations and escalations in customer projects in the area of TM.

More than 10 years ago, Meike Helwig started her dual studies of business information systems at SAP and gained experience in consulting projects, managing critical engagements, and as a trainer for TM for functional and technical training courses. In the last few years, her focus has been on the enablement of new TM colleagues and building an expert team.

Dr. Christopher Sürie has worked for more than 18 years as a chief consultant in supply chain optimization and transportation management at SAP Deutschland SE & Co KG in Walldorf, Germany. In this position, he has been involved in numerous international customer projects, implementing both SAP APO and SAP TM and focusing on their planning capabilities and optimization engines in production and transportation. He worked as a solution architect in several SAP TM projects and taught numerous SAP TM customer trainings.

Before joining SAP, he worked in the department of production and supply chain management at Darmstadt University of Technology and completed his prize-winning PhD thesis in the area of production planning for process industries.

Ulrich Benz is an SAP supply chain management specialist with a focus on transportation management. As a consultant, he has managed and supported multinational IT transformation projects covering different industries over the past 11 years.

In his current role, Ulrich advises customers on a holistic IT architecture and roadmap for SAP S/4HANA logistics projects to achieve their vision of an intelligent enterprise.