Hakan Kostepen is an “Executive” Director at Panasonic Silicon Valley Center in Cupertino, CA and
responsible for  Product Planning Strategy & Innovation for Panasonic Automotive & Industrial Systems 
Company of America. Panasonic Automotive “Global” Product Planning Strategy & Innovation group leads in car integration and development of all Panasonic Company domain company technologies and products to optimize the “in car user experience” for automotive OEM customers and end consumers. 

Mr. Kostepen has broad Systems Engineering and Advanced Product Development experience with 
Panasonic, Automotive Systems, Ford Motor Company, Visteon, EDS, and US Air Force. Along with various Automotive “Real Time”  Embedded Systems Applications  and Advanced Automotive Infotainment Systems Software Development, he was also responsible for “industry first” Jaguar S-Type Voice Recognition Infotainment System, European Ford Focus Telematics application with Vodafone.  Mr. Kostepen was also part of Ford Motor Company and Qualcomm Joint Venture Wingcast and took various responsibilities within Ford Motor Company related to Advanced Technologies Integration, Concept and Product Design & Development.

Mr. Kostepen has been very active with various automotive industry conferences and events such as Society of Automotive Engineers – Convergence, Connected Car Forum and has published various technical papers. Mr. Kostepen received his BSEE from Istanbul Technical University, MSEE from University of North Dakota, and MSBA from US Air Force/Central Michigan University.

Mr. Kostepen is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi, Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE US), 
Session Member of SAE Convergence 2008, ITS NY 2008, IEEE, and several other professional societies 
and holds several patents in Advanced Automotive applications and technologies.