Preston Moore

Manager, Power Solutions - Electric Powertrain & Charging Systems, John Deere

Preston Moore, Manager, Power Solutions - Electric Powertrain & Charging Systems, works with more than 20 electrification vehicle teams around the John Deere enterprise. He also works with KREISEL Electric (KREISEL) and its customers to determine what batteries John Deere and KREISEL should produce and use. Additionally, crafting the charging portfolio to enable these electric vehicles is a key focus of his work. Moore’s 16 years of experience at the company have offered him valuable knowledge not only in vehicle application integration but more importantly in how the customers use Deere equipment and what matters to them. He has worked on more than 60 vehicle programs during his time with John Deere.

Rich Byczek

Global Chief Engineer - Batteries, Intertek

Rich Byczek is the Global Chief Engineer, Batteries at Intertek. He has 30+ years of experience in automotive product development and validation testing, over 20 of which have been spent at Intertek. Rich is experienced in the areas of energy storage, audio/infotainment equipment and EMC testing. Rich sits on several SAE, IEC, UL and ANSI standards panels, focusing on electric vehicle, battery, and emerging vehicle technologies. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan, and is based at the Intertek facility located in Plymouth, Michigan.

Azita Soleymani, Ph.D.

Chief Technology Officer, HeatSync

Dr. Azita Soleymani is the Chief Technology Officer of HeatSync, a Silicon Valley–based thermal consulting firm specializing in advanced thermal solutions for electronics and battery systems. With nearly two decades of experience in thermal architecture, simulation, and reliability, she leads multidisciplinary teams delivering high-impact solutions across diverse industries. She previously served as a Member of Technical Staff at Meta and has co-authored more than 40 technical publications. Her work combines industry-ready design with advanced simulation and testing to optimize performance, safety, longevity, and energy efficiency. Azita has led the end-to-end design and production of thermal management systems for two EV battery packs and one battery energy storage system (BESS) for Tier-one companies. She is passionate about advancing electrification and enabling next-generation battery and thermal technologies.

Isaac Squires, Ph.D.

Co-founder and CEO, Polaron

Dr. Isaac Squires is the CEO and Co-founder of Polaron, building the intelligence layer for materials science. Driven by a passion to accelerate the development of sustainable materials, Isaac blends expertise across AI, materials science, and engineering. His research at Imperial College London applied cutting-edge AI to lithium-ion battery design. Now, Isaac leads Polaron in translating cutting-edge AI into tangible, scalable, industrial solutions to power a sustainable future.