Blake Moret is Chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation, the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation. As CEO, Blake is dedicated to delivering the company’s strategy to bring the Connected Enterprise to life. Under his leadership, Rockwell Automation integrates control and information to help make industrial companies and their people more productive and the world more sustainable. Blake is accelerating the Rockwell Automation strategy by focusing on understanding customer needs and their best opportunities for productivity, combining our technology and domain expertise to deliver positive business outcomes, and simplifying our customers’ experience. Key to this strategy is Rockwell’s culture, the foundation for the company’s accelerated profitable growth.

Joining Rockwell Automation in 1985 as a sales trainee, Blake has built his career with the company and has held leadership positions in many areas of the business, including international assignments in Europe and Canada. In his previous role, Blake served as Senior Vice President of Control Products and Solutions, one of the company’s two business segments. Blake became CEO on July 1, 2016 and was elected Chairman of the Board effective January 1, 2018. He is passionate about workforce development and creating a diverse worldwide team of employees that can and want to do their best work.

Blake serves on the PTC, Inc. Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). He is the co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Advanced Manufacturing Community of CEOs and is a member of the Business Roundtable. He also serves on the board of the Advanced Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and the Georgia Tech Advisory Board.

Blake is Chairman of the Rockwell Automation Charitable Corporation and is on the boards of FIRST Robotics, the United Way of Greater Milwaukee and Waukesha, and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee.

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Blake graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He and his wife Cheryl have four children.

Nicholas “Nick” Gangestad is senior vice president and Chief Financial Officer at Rockwell Automation. In this global leadership role, Nick is responsible for all aspects of financial management for the company. In addition to acting as trusted advisors to business partners, Nick and his team are responsible for accurate financial statements and effective internal controls, efficient transaction processing, compliance with global tax laws, ensuring proper financial liquidity and insurance coverage, financial planning and analysis, and relationships with banks, rating agencies, and our shareowners.

Prior to joining Rockwell, Nick served as the Chief Financial Officer for 3M Company, where he oversaw all financial aspects of the company. Nick spent three decades at 3M, previously serving as the company’s chief accounting officer, corporate controller, and in global financial management roles overseeing teams and developing talent in Canada, Latin America, and Asia Pacific.

Nick holds a bachelor’s degree in business and accounting from Augsburg University in Minneapolis and an MBA from the University of Minnesota.

Rebecca (Becky) House is senior vice president, Chief People and Legal Officer and corporate secretary. Becky is responsible for accelerating the evolution of our culture in addition to leading our talent, legal, ethics and compliance, public affairs, security, and Environmental, Health and Safety teams.

Previously, Becky was Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Secretary at Harley-Davidson, Inc. During her more than six years at Harley-Davidson, she increased her scope of responsibilities in legal and global business management, including leadership of a cross-functional team that provided counsel for global compliance, ethics, product liability, product integrity, and corporate governance. Prior to Harley-Davidson, Becky was a partner at Foley & Lardner, LLP, a prominent law firm headquartered in Milwaukee, where she spent 12 years.

Becky serves on the boards of directors for Marvell Technology, Inc., FMI Funds, Inc., and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). She is also a director and former Board President of Sojourner Family Peace Center, the largest provider of domestic violence services in the state of Wisconsin.

Becky graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She earned her law degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Veena Lakkundi is Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy & Development. In this role, she works with the senior leadership team to define Rockwell’s future strategic vision and growth plans. Veena leads the Corporate Strategy and Development teams, and oversees all strategic planning and inorganic development activities across the company, including our business strategy review process, and our mergers and acquisitions and venture investment processes.

Veena has a track record of building world-class global teams and businesses while delivering great outcomes for customers. She joined Rockwell following a 28-year career with 3M, where she most recently was Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer and Interim Leader of Technology, Transformation and Services. During her time with 3M, she also held various roles in strategy, research and development, and sales and marketing.

Veena received bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.

Chris Nardecchia is senior vice president, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at Rockwell Automation. He is responsible for strategic vision, operational excellence and change leadership for the development and implementation of information technology initiatives and architecture across our company. Chris drives our corporate information technology strategy and internal transformation, creating digital solutions that enhance our Rockwell Automation capabilities internally and externally.

Previously, Chris was vice president and CIO, Global Operations and Supply Chain, at Amgen, Inc. With over 30 years of professional experience, he also held leadership roles at Pfizer and Warner Lambert, which was acquired by Pfizer. At these companies he led IT-enabled business and digital strategy and accelerated growth through technology and data analytics. He drove business innovations that improved profitability, globalization, restructuring and mergers. He has an extensive background with portfolio management, engineering, operations, mergers and acquisitions, IT risk management, analytics and using technology to drive business insights. He was also the Rockwell Automation executive sponsor at Amgen. Earlier in his career, Chris also held process, and production engineering roles in the pharmaceutical, chemical and nuclear industries.

Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from State University of New York at Buffalo, and an MBA from Michigan State.

Brian Shepherd is senior vice president, Software & Control. In this role, Brian leads strategy, product management, and product development for our portfolio of control and visualization software and hardware, information software, and network and security infrastructure.

Our strategy is to bring the Connected Enterprise to life for our customers, and Brian’s work is core to this success by helping us to accelerate profitable growth through software.

Brian has extensive experience in the industrial software space. Most recently, he was president of production software and Smart Factory solutions for Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. Before that, he was a long-time senior executive at PTC, our strategic alliance partner. Together with PTC, we offer FactoryTalk Innovation Suite, powered by PTC, the industry’s first comprehensive digital transformation software suite.

Brian’s strong technical expertise in design, simulation, manufacturing planning and execution, process and quality data analytics will support our goal to be the best in the world at adding value for customers right at that convergence of information technology and operational technology, or plant floor knowledge.

Brian earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

Susana Gonzalez is President, Europe, Middle East and Africa region at Rockwell Automation. Her mission is to drive results for our customers, helping them to connect, transform and grow in a pivotal era where the worlds of industry and digital technology converge.

Susana joined Rockwell in 2017 as sub-regional vice president of sales and assumed her current role in 2019. For the past 20 years, she has helped industrial organizations transform their manufacturing operations and realize their ambitions for a connected and productive future. Working in large, global businesses across a range of regions, sectors, and roles, she has gained the broadest perspective possible on where today’s manufacturers want to be and what’s holding them back.

Susana holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Asturias Business School and San Francisco University and a M. Sc. in business administration from San Francisco State University.