What do you see as one of the industry's biggest challenges that continues in that space of workforce development? And what gives you optimism about this next generation of talent?

Workforce is at the heart, right? Our people are at the heart of this digital, of this technology disruption, this digital transformation.

Workforce training and workforce challenges, right? This is a topic that we have faced for decades.

And as we've seen up until very recently, unfortunately, a real decline in people that are interested in the trades, the skilled trades in manufacturing.

That's changing.

And it's a really exciting moment to be here, to be talking about these types of changes that are actually happening right now in the United States.

We see massive investment coming in to this country.

And how do we ensure and inform our workforce around technology enhancing our human capacity and ability rather than replacing it? This is the headline,

Yes.

And you have a really interesting leadership journey.

Your rise to leadership has been very quick.

And we're so fortunate to have you.

Thank you.

Can you share a little bit more about your story and your journey to where you are today?

That reveals a lot.

How do you talk to people who are new to manufacturing, right? And how do you convince them that, you know, manufacturing is a totally different career than what they might have thought of or what historically it used to be? And I'm thinking about ergonomics and safety and the things we talked about.

I'd love to hear a little more about your perspective as you lead Siemens.

It's a topic that, that we're passionate about.

Um, we are one of the largest industrial manufacturers operating in the United States with over 50,000 employees, 25 manufacturing sites, uh, and we've invested $1 billion in US manufacturing since 2021, and more to come.

Uh, when we talk about industrial AI, we're really talking about something that we're deploying at our own facilities and for our customers.

And, and we've talked about industrial AI.

Defining that is, is very important for this conversation.

Industrial AI really operates, uh, in a different environment than consumer AI, and, and, and we like to talk about that very openly, how to distinguish what, you know, the AI that people may encounter every day versus what's happening in industrial environments.

It-- And you've, you've asked a lot of questions about workforce in North Carolina, but at Siemens, how do you make sure that workers are at the center of the transformation and that they get the training and the upskilling that they need?

We can look through that as a system and we can use that to make our customers more competitive, more resilient, and more sustainable.

We're seeing increasing urgency around the entire topic.

Even the language you're using, you can really sense, right? I mean, water bankruptcy.

These things are so urgent these days.

Businesses and communities are managing climate and geopolitical risks unlike any time before.

But to your point, there's also an overall business case, the opportunity to be more cost-efficient and resilient.

And competitiveness is driving a lot of this behavior, to be honest, especially in our world of industry and infrastructure.

That is what leaders talk about, and that is very much sustainability.