Catena-X Appoints First Members to Global Activation & Market Steering Board
The GAMS takes on a strategic role complementary to the Management Board, focusing on international activation and market-driven implementation.
Berlin, May 15th 2025 – Catena-X, the first open and collaborative data ecosystem for the automotive industry, proudly announces the appointment of the first members to its newly formed Global Activation & Market Steering Board (GAMS). The GAMS takes on a strategic role complementary to the Management Board, focusing on international activation and market-driven implementation. While the Management Board defines the overarching governance of the association, the GAMS Board acts as a dedicated body to steer activation, market alignment, and international rollout and translate regional insights into strategic action. Together, both bodies ensure that Catena-X combines strong strategic leadership with market relevance and global reach.
The newly appointed members will serve as Catena-X’s regional experts and bring outstanding leadership, deep industry expertise, and proven commitment to digital transformation in the automotive sector. They each play a central role in fostering data-driven innovation within their organizations and will now do the same for the broader Catena-X community.
- Kevin Piotrowski, Chief Transformation Officer at AIAG, is a driving force behind digital enablement in the North American automotive industry. With decades of experience supporting standards and industry-wide initiatives, he brings the voice of U.S. manufacturers and suppliers directly into Catena-X strategy.
- Eric Lambert, Managing Director of GALIA and Chairman of ODETTE, represents one of the most influential organizations in European supply chain standardization. His dual role ensures strong alignment with France’s automotive ecosystem and Europe’s key logistics and data exchange frameworks.
- Dr. Oscar Lazaro, Director at Innovalia, is a respected leader in Spain’s digital innovation landscape and a key contributor to European industrial data initiatives. His insights help ensure that Catena-X continues to bridge policy, research, and market-driven adoption.
- Nicole Stevenson, Vice President Strategy & Marketing at Flex, brings a global perspective from one of the world’s largest and most diversified manufacturing and supply chain solutions providers. She represents the Tier 1 community and adds critical insight into real-world scalability and implementation.
- Frank Göller, Head of Strategy & Portfolio for Production & Logistics Strategy at AUDI, brings visionary leadership from one of the world’s most advanced OEMs. With deep involvement in Catena-X from the start, he will help ensure tight integration between operational excellence and strategic governance.
These distinguished individuals will serve as Catena-X’s regional experts, translating local insights into strategic action and accelerating market acceptance. They will also foster collaboration across the global ecosystem.
“With this first group of GAMS Board members, we gain an incredible amount of additional expertise and international perspective,” said Oliver Ganser, Chairman of the Board of Catena-X. “They are thought leaders in their organizations and trusted partners in our shared mission to activate the global data ecosystem and drive measurable value for every participant.”
The GAMS Board will play a central role in supporting the association’s growth strategy, which is aimed at activating the ecosystem on a large scale. The Board will provide guidance to Expert Groups, align with regional hubs, coordinate activation strategies, and swiftly help overcome market-specific challenges.
About Catena-X
Catena-X is the first end-to-end, collaborative and open data ecosystem for the automotive industry, connecting all players along the value chain. The Catena-X association acts as a neutral governance to enable standardized, interoperable and data-sovereign collaboration and drive innovation, increase efficiency and compliance across the entire data ecosystem. Catena-X is Gaia-X compliant and also serves as a model for all Manufacturing-X initiatives and is shaping the development of standardized data ecosystems in other industries. Founded in 2021, the association has hubs in the USA, China, Spain, Sweden and France and more than 300 individuals from various players in the automotive industry working in more than 40 expert groups to develop future standards.