2. Who We Are . . . We are a team of connectivity experts with over 100 years of combined
experience in connecting products from jet engines, vehicles,
buildings, appliances, to industrial and construction equipment.
Our work experience with OEM’s, Tier1’s and Tier2’s includes
technology and innovation planning, product development, validation, and
launch activities. Our telematics expertise extends beyond the technical
elements and includes corporate organizational restructuring to fully
operationalize the value streams enabled with connected products.
Our portfolio of customers have moved beyond the “feature mindset” of
connectivity to connectivity as a different way of business, driving bottom line
benefits over the lifecycle of the product for the entire ecosystem.
Our team of specialists contributes in the identification, formulation, and
implementation phases of our customer’s multigenerational connected
vehicle strategies.
Our team has collectively helped our customers save millions annually
(warranty mitigation, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, sales, service)
while improving the overall customer experience with connected products.
3. What We Do . . . CSA experts can support your business in a variety of ways:
Demonstrate the value proposition by sharing our knowledge of success
in similar industries and verticals and applying them to your unique situation,
CSA can the demonstrate the power of connectivity for your business.
Develop high level strategies, architectures, and plans to help you get the
most from connected products.
Rationalize business processes to exploit connectivity and associated
analytics every minute of every day.
Introduce potential technologies and partners focused on various slices of
the connectivity value chain: embedded hardware and software,
vehicle/device systems and architecture, back office tools (e.g., service
provisioning and analytics), network providers, etc.
Manage and advise on ongoing operational activities, helping to fine-tune
processes and identifying any new technological, process, or business
opportunities.
Although we have deep expertise in the feature/function customer facing
infotainment aspect of telematics, most of our clients engage us to help
re-engineer internal and external business processes to exploit the value
that a connected product can bring to the entire ecosystem.
4. Gregg Johnson
CEO & Managing Director
Gregg Johnson has over 30 years of diverse industry experience and is a recognized
expert in driving lifecycle bottom line benefits from connected products and connected
customers. Through his experience and thought leadership, he has assembled a portfolio of
customers that have moved beyond the ‘feature mindset’ of connectivity to connectivity as a
different way of business driving bottom line benefits over the lifecycle of the product.
Previously, Gregg led GM’s global telematics connected vehicle efforts that still serve as the
foundation for most of GM’s connected vehicle efforts today. His team developed a portfolio
of use cases and associated services that reach far beyond the customer facing features to
enable benefits across the entire connected product ecosystem.
“Connected vehicles and connected customers have helped GM save hundreds of millions
in annual warranty while improving the overall customer experience” (Forbes).
Gregg is an Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate from the University of Michigan.
In his 21 years at General Motors, he moved quickly through the organization with
assignments in the platform, powertrain and component groups. Gregg was awarded
17 patents for vehicle systems, drive by wire and wireless controls. His efforts with OnStar
on data centric services were recognized with two President’s Council Awards.
He also started three successful companies. After running Bosch’s telematics business for
two years, he and a partner acquired and repurposed Bosch’s telematics business for the
industrial and construction equipment industry.
5. John Correia
Technical Director
John Correia has over 25 years of experience leading technical development across a
number of cutting edge automotive technologies – most notably infotainment, telematics,
and other forms of connectivity. John recently joined Connected Strategy Advisors as
Managing Technical Director. He is focused on helping a variety of companies more fully
exploit the rich data and analytics that connected devices and machines of all varieties
can provide.
Previously, John held a number of technical leadership positions within GM and OnStar
- most recently as an executive leading their advanced development and lab activities in
addition to all of their mobile and associated embedded applications. During his time at
OnStar, John also led the technical efforts for several generations of OnStar systems
and managed the team of experts focused on strategic technologies such as Wireless/RF,
Positioning, Voice Recognition, Security, Consumer Device Connectivity (BT, WiFi, NFC),
Satellite Radio, and Vehicle Interface.
He was also instrumental in leading GM’s early efforts to exploit vehicle data to provide
more engaging customer relationships, improve product quality, and enhance overall
customer satisfaction. His achievements include over 17 patents, 2 Boss Kettering
Innovation awards, and several chairman’s and CEO level recognition awards.
Prior to GM, John worked for Ford and Visteon designing and packaging audio and cellular
systems. In addition to managing some of the Ford/Lincoln RESCU activities he helped
establish many of the early cellular and satellite systems. John is an Electrical and
Computer Engineering graduate from the University of Michigan and also has an MBA from
the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
6. Tim Nixon
Managing Director
Tim Nixon has been leading automotive electrical, software and connectivity innovation
for over 30 years. He is the former CTO of OnStar and General Motors’ Global Connected
Customer business unit. Tim recently joined Connected Strategy Advisors to help bring his
knowledge and experience in the connected vehicle space to other companies.
In his roles at GM, Tim led the incubation and development of new technologies, platforms,
and services supporting connected products for GM vehicles globally, including the 4G LTE
OnStar platform that is now launched in North America, Europe, and China. He also led the
development of vehicle-connected apps, whether onboard the vehicle, in mobile phone and
tablet devices, or remotely enabled, including the development and maintenance of their
associated ecosystems, and management of 3rd party developers.
Additionally during his 11 years at GM, he was the Global Functional Leader of Infotainment
Electrical Engineering within GM’s Global Product Development team, responsible for
vehicle cockpit electrical products, including connected infotainment, instrument clusters,
and all upper body electrical products across GM’s six regional engineering centers.
Prior to GM, Tim worked at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan for a total of 19
years, where he led the advanced development and launch support of various products
including in-vehicle navigation and the 1st Generation Ford Sync connectivity platform.
Tim also was the manufacturing manager of airbag electronics manufacturing at a Ford
Electronics manufacturing facility in Markham, Ontario. He has been awarded 5 patents and
has several pending.
7. Walt Dorfstatter
Managing Director
Walt Dorfstatter was President of OnStar and led GM’s Vehicle CyberSecurity efforts.
He also led OnStar’s engineering team through nine iterations of hardware. Walt’s efforts on
Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) helped GM not only lower warranty
costs, but more importantly drive greatly improved customer loyalty. IVHM and prognostics
have allowed GM to eliminate some of the typical “walk home” failures associated with the
starting, charging and fuel systems by letting customers know about potential issues well
in advance of a failure.
Walt was CTO of Movimento where he supported their reinvention from a hardware based
(Dealer diagnostic tool manufacturer) to a service based, reflash OTA automotive supplier.
He developed processes and cloud based tools to support real time software updates for
global OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.
Walt Dorfstatter is currently CEO, HouseSetter LLC. HouseSetter is a technology startup
in the IOT space. Its primary mission is to keep an eye on your home while you are away.
HouseSetter's simple, low cost and reliable approach to home monitoring allows
homeowners to maintain contact with their vacant property, periodically receive status
updates when things are fine, and immediately be notified when they're not - allowing
them to take action to prevent small problems from becoming big ones.
Walt recently joined Connected Strategy Advisors to help bring his knowledge
and experience in the connected vehicle space to other companies.