Tuesday Keynote Presenter

Jill K Sanchez

Director, Sustainability, Deere & Company

Jill Sanchez is Director, Sustainability for Deere & Company, a position she has held since March 2022. She is responsible for leading the company's sustainability strategy and execution, communicating the company's ESG strategy and outcomes, and overseeing Deere's sustainability reporting.

Sanchez joined Deere & Company in 2011 as Senior Tax Attorney in the Tax Department. Starting in 2016 she served as Senior Tax Counsel, International Tax Planning, where she was responsible for delivering tax optimization through global restructuring and supply chain initiatives. Her most recent previous role was as Manager, Sustainability & Investor Relations, where she was responsible for developing Deere's sustainabilityreporting strategy and developing the sustainability aspects of the Leap Ambitions.

Prior to joining Deere, Jill worked in private practice at Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C. adn Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis, MN, where she spent her time on tax matters related to private equity fund structuring and corporate M&A, as well as tax controversy matters at both Federal and State levels.

A native of Farmersburg, Iowa, Jill graduated in 2004 from the Ubiversity of Iowa College of Business with a B.B.A. in Accounting. She attended law school at University of Iowa, earning her J.D. in 2007. Jill is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Wednesday Buckendale Lecture Keynote Presenter

Robert Wagner Ph.D.

Division Director, Buildings and Transportation Science, Energy Science and Technology Directorate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Dr. Robert Wagner has been a champion of SAE since the late 1990s. He has founded, organized, or chaired more than 20 SAE International symposiums, panels, and conferences. His belief in the power of collaboration evolved into a passion for developing forums that provide a unique and timely way to connect international transportation thought leaders from diverse disciplines across industry, academia, research laboratories and governments. These programs have addressed current and anticipated challenges and opportunities in the industry.

Within the transportation community, Dr. Wagner is known as a futurist for his ability to anticipate and predict emerging trends. This ability has enabled him to identify topics of increasing importance and develop symposiums at critical times and strategic locations to drive the discussion. He has consistently been at the forefront of emerging trends and worked to ensure that SAE International is leading the global conversation and information exchange on critical mobility challenges and opportunities

Dr. Wagner has led the development and organization of symposiums across six technology areas. In 2011, during a time of significant and rapid breakthroughs in engine technologies, he co-founded the High Efficiency Internal Combustion Engine Symposium and helped develop it into a premier global transportation event. The symposium continued to grow even after he stepped away in 2017. Building on that success, in 2016 he co-founded a symposium which focused on range extenders and brought together leaders from the U.S. government and across the profession to share insights into the challenges and opportunities of integrating high-efficiency engines into electrified drivetrains. This was one of the first SAE events focused on electric vehicles and hybridization, helping the organization continue to remain at the forefront of new technology innovations on the global stage.

More recently, as transportation research focus has shifted to net-zero carbon fuels, Dr. Wagner recognized the need to create an opportunity for a diverse group of global stakeholders to have a neutral forum setting in which to convene and exchange ideas. This led to the development of a series of symposiums dedicated to net-zero initiatives and the interface with engines and fuel. Today, his approach to symposium organization serves as a model for how to build impactful forums that add to SAE’s ability to further its mission. Dr. Wagner has focused on passing down the legacy of planning and organizing to other researchers, inspiring and mentoring a new generation of engineers to understand the importance that symposiums can have on securing SAE International’s reputation as a world authority on automotive engineering.

A native of Missouri and first-generation college graduate, he earned his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the Missouri University of Science & Technology, where he delivered the commencement address to Ph.D. graduates in December 2022.