Automotive Engineering - March 2021 - 30

HEMPHILL'S

2021 SAE PRESIDENT | MANAGEMENT FEATURE

MISSION:
Support the
innovation
ecosystem

2021 SAE International
president Jeff Hemphill
is CTO at Schaeffler
America.

Schaeffler America CTO Jeff Hemphill brings impressive technical chops and wellhoned communication skills to his new role as 2021 SAE International president.
by Patrick Ponticel

30 March 2021

The power of an organization
" comes from everyone pushing
the flywheel in one direction. "
he told Update. " I've attended trainings. I've worked
on standards committees - even going all the way
back to manual clutch development. Then I moved on
to speaking at conferences. SAE has been a constant
presence throughout my career. "
Regarding innovation, Hemphill said: " It's not just
hearing about a problem at a conference. It's not just
reading about what's been researched in the past in a
technical paper or taking a class on that topic. It's not
just publishing a standard for some new technology.
It's all of those things in one. "
He aims to reinforce that idea to the " classical industry " as well as " some of the newer players that are
maybe thinking only about disrupting the industry and
maybe not so much thinking they might need a standard to help standardize those disruptions.
" In other words, " he continued, " to keep the flywheel spinning. They say that the power of an organization comes from everyone pushing the flywheel in
one direction. I hope to give it an extra push because
SAE already has done a great job positioning itself to
support this mission in all the mobility industries. "
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING

SCHAEFFLER

eff Hemphill, chief technical officer of Schaeffler America, has
been seated as SAE International president for 2021 with a determination: to maintain and advance the organization's relevancy in fostering innovation among mobility industry players.
" This is really a transformative time in the industry, " he told
Update, SAE's member publication. " SAE has an important role to
play in supporting the innovation ecosystem. It's one of those organizations that really supports an industrywide ecosystem through everything from getting people together to network over the challenges we're facing, to providing a massive technical library of papers and
training courses that really prepare people to come up with new
ideas. And then turning those ideas into standards so they can be
proliferated throughout an industry seamlessly.
" That's a pretty huge mission and of critical importance, as we go
into things such as electrification, autonomous vehicles and cybersecurity, " he explained.
The 23-year SAE member holds more than 70 patents (filed or issued) and heads the research function at Schaeffler Americas. " I
keep track of the trends that are affecting our business and our different divisions and make sure we have a coordinated R&D reaction
from the trends we see in our different sectors.
" I'm fortunate that my day job is with a company that's active in all
of our sectors, so I have a familiarity with both state-of-the-art technologies that are being developed and what the trends are, " he said.
Communicating those issues or telling those stories is a strength
Hemphill has worked to develop over the years - and one he hopes
will help him be " a good ambassador " for SAE.
" SAE has been important to me since the beginning of my career, "

Automotive Engineering - March 2021

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