Patrice Reilhac is Innovation & Collaborative Research Director for the Comfort & Driving Assistance Business Group at Valeo, a leading worldwide Tier 1 supplier of components and systems for the automotive industry. Patrice is currently leading an international innovation team in charge of both the development of advanced systems and the investigation of their market potential. Besides OEM concept phases, end user focus group, customer clinics and Internet surveys are used to explore and validate future market needs. Patrice has been with Valeo for 20 years with responsibilities in customer projects, generic R&D projects and worldwide advanced development tasks. He obtained his engineering degree from Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France and from the Darmstadt Technical University in Germany. He also has an MSc in Management Sciences from the University of Manchester, School of management. Patrice holds a series of patents in the area of human machine interface, connectivity, driving assistance, lighting automation & cleaning systems. He has been speaker in various conferences in the US, France & Germany (FISITA, OECD, Convergence, SAE..).

Valeo is an automotive supplier, partner to all automakers worldwide. As a technology company, Valeo proposes innovative products and systems that contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions and to the development of intuitive driving. In 2019, the Group generated sales of 19.2 billion euros and invested 13% of its original equipment sales in Research and Development. At December 31, 2019, Valeo had 191 plants, 20 research centers, 39 development centers and 15 distribution platforms, and employed 114,700 people in 33 countries worldwide.