Frank LEVERING is Senior Manager of New Technologies & IT at Geico Taikisha.
Throughout his career, Frank has developed his knowledge and expertise at major tech players in Europe and Asia Pacific, including Microsoft, O2 (British Telecom) and IDC. By taking on serious responsibilities over the end-to-end customer experience across various products and services worldwide in his previous roles and industries, he now applies his vision and skillset to the automotive industry. His main focus for external customers is Industry 4.0, which encompasses all the products and services of a Smart Paintshop.
Daniel RASPONE is Digital Transformation and Product Manager at Geico Taikisha.
He joined Geico Taikisha in 2001 and worked as an Advanced Engineer in the Proposal Office of the Sales Department until 2013, when he became IT Innovation Manager. He then began working on the implementation of some of the most important corporate software—from estimation to simulation, from PLM to the implementation of Google G-Suites. In 2015, he joined the R&D department as Digital Transformation Manager with the main responsibilities of applying digital innovation to paint shops and, as project manager, coordinating the implementation of DELMIA in the company.
Juan Sebastian Avila CORTÉS is Junior Automation Integrator at Geico Taikisha.
He joined Geico in 2017 as R&D Engineer to follow the Smart Paintshop project for the implementation of industry 4.0 within Geico’s R&D Center— Pardis Innovation Center—. As part of the project, he also took part in re-designing and updating the entire PLC network and software for all of Geico’s prototypes. He became a Junior Automation Integrator in 2019 and has since been working on the implementation of the IOT cloud platform for Geico’s R&D center and on the integration of DELMIA products within Geico prototypes.
Daryush ARABNIA is the Chairman, President and CEO of Geico Taikisha Group, the global leader in the planning and construction of turnkey automated coating plants for the vehicle industry.
Daryush joined his family-owned company in 2009 and spent two years in the city of Suzhou, China, where he was the President of Geico Painting Manufacture—the company he founded himself. From 2014 to 2016, he was the Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Industrial Marketing and was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2017. In the US, he has been the President of J-Co America since 2016.
Daryush is technologically minded and he has defined the company’s new strategy for Innovation by forming the Innovation Committees that run all the main topics around Innovation. He is also in charge of Geico Taikisha’s R&D center, the Pardis Innovation Center. He launched and implemented the new strategic project called “Smart Paintshop”, which aims to integrate industry 4.0 solutions into a paint shop. He re-designed the function of IT within the company, enhancing its performance and bringing the company up to speed with the most up-to-date IT infrastructure.