Dave King, Executive Director, HIRI

Michael LotfyGiergesis Executive Vice President for the Home & Distribution division and has held the position since June 2023. In this role, he has full responsibility for all aspects of Schneider Electric’s residential & small buildings offerand solution development, including strategy, R&D, market development, production and go-to-market, utilizing his extensive industrialization experience. Michael leads a global staff spanning all four major Schneider Electric regions. His team is focused on leveraging Schneider’s legacy and leading technology in the home space to deliver innovative Home Energy Management Solutions to bring about a sustainable future for homes & small buildings. Michael is the youngest executive to lead a global business division in Schneider Electric. He is a passionate advocate for sustainability and has spearheaded DE&I initiatives throughout his career. Michael has more than 20 years of professional experience. He was previously SVP of Power Products for the NAM Hub where he oversaw the division portfolio’s double-digit growth in sales and launched five innovative products for the electrical industry.

Sujata Neidig has 25 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and has served in a variety of roles ranging from product engineering to marketing and business development. She is currently Director of Marketing i.MX Processors Software and Customer Programs. She also represents NXP as the Vice President of Marketing of the Thread Group, an industry alliance that provides an IP-based wireless mesh networking protocol designed for homes and buildings. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Will West is the CEO of Oliver IQ. Will has been involved in the world of Home Automation for decades. He and his partner Eric Smith have created 5 industry leading and award winning companies together. A nice capstone to those awards was their receipt of the CEDIA Lifetime Achievement designation; an honor given to only a select few that have helped shape the industry. Will and Eric created Control4 and along with Mark Morgan, Glen Mella and many others, grew the Company to become the global leader in home automation. They successfully took the Company public in 2013. In 1998, he co-founded iBAHN with Eric Smith. Under Will’s leadership the company became the worldwide leader in broadband services for business travelers serving millions of customers in thousands of hotels. Prior to founding iBAHN, Will was CEO, and co-founder of PHAST Corporation, a manufacturer of high-end home automation equipment. Like his subsequent companies, PHAST became the leader in its field under his direction. Will's other professional experience includes Proctor and Gamble, the FSLIC, and Wasatch Advisors. He holds a degree in Finance from the University of Utah, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds the CFA designation. Will served as the chairman of the board of the Utah Capital Investment Corporation (the State of Utah's "Fund of Funds") where he served for close to 10 years. He served two terms as the Chairman of the Board for the Utah Technology Council (UTC) helping to create one of the most respected state technology associations in the Country. Along with his other commitments to the local community, Will sat on the Governor’s Economic Council and served multiple terms as Chairman of the Leonardo, Utah’s premier Science, Art, and Technology Museum. Will was also appointed to the Governing Board of the Utah Science Technology and Research initiative (USTAR). Will has been repeatedly named to Utah Business Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the State. He was twice named Utah Valley Entrepreneur of the Year, and was named the Ernst and Young Master Entrepreneur Of The Year® in the intermountain region. He was also honored as the CEO of the Year by the Utah Technology Council.

Horacio Morales, VP of Sales, Nice North America

Paul Williams serves as the Global Managing Director of the Home Management Solutions Business Unit for Nice and leads the worldwide strategy and business for the connected home in this role. Paul has over 20 years of executive leadership in the connected home space and his career spans start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Paul previously served as Nice North America’s Chief Product Officer where he led the product management teams and developed the product strategy and product roadmaps of all products / solutions for Nice in North America. Prior to joining Nice, he was at GE Lighting in the role of GM of Product Management and Growth where he was charged with reimagining lighting solutions. In three years, Paul’s team created a DIY smart home ecosystem with innovative products and scaled the consumer mobile app, taking it from just 30,000 users to more than 2 million. During his 14+ years of executive leadership at Control4, a manufacturer of smart home solutions, he was instrumental in building the company from a startup to IPO with double-digit, year-over-year growth.