Diesel Progress Summit Awards judges announced

Sam Freesmeyer

The fifth annual Diesel Progress Summit is taking place Sept. 24-25, in Louisville, Ky, prior to the opening of the Utility Expo. It is a unique one-day conference and awards program for the engine, powertrain and emerging power technology industries explores powertrain technologies used in construction, agriculture, mining, forestry and marine, as well as on-highway commercial vehicles.

With a theme of “Technologies of Transition”, this year’s event will feature such topics as mobile electric motors, an update on battery technology, fuel cells’ use in power generation, balancing the energy transition and more. In addition, there will be roundtable discussions on advances in low- and zero-carbon fuels and the developments in hydrogen combustion engine technology.

A highlight of the event is the annual Diesel Progress Summit Awards, which celebrate excellence and innovation in the industry. Award categories celebrate excellence in engine technology, digital technology, powertrains, new power solutions, engine distributors and more.

Tim Hess

To judge this year’s awards, the Diesel Progress Summit has brought together a diverse panel of experts in their respective fields:

• Sam Freesmeyer has led development teams in the off-road mobile industry for over 40 years, having worked at AGCO, Caterpillar, Chrysler and International Harvester companies, among others. He most recently held vice president positions at AGCO Corp., where he led diesel engine and electronic teams through the transitions to comply with Tier 4/Stage V diesel emission requirements. He currently leads Freesmeyer Consulting, LLC, where he provides product and organizational guidance to ag equipment manufacturers and tech startups. He serves on executive advisory boards to several tech startup companies.
• Tim Hess is a longtime participate in the distribution business, having spent 11 years as the marketing manager for John Deere Construction & Forestry Division and 14 years as both the vice president of Sales & Rentals and vice president of Product Support for a John Deere equipment dealer in Tacoma, Wash. Hess is a co-owner of Cascade Engine Center, the John Deere engine distributor in the Pacific Northwest representing John Deere, Yanmar Industrial, Scania Marine, Mitsubishi Large Bore Marine and Suzuki Outboards. He served as president and COO for 26 years and is now the company’s director of Planning & Strategy.
  Oliver Lythgoe
• Oliver Lythgoe has over 25 years of technical and commercial experience in gas turbine and reciprocating engines, many with Perkins Engines in the UK, leading the electronic applications team, and later in the product concept marketing of low-emissions industrial diesel engines. More recently, Lythgoe has served as senior marketing manager at Arm for the automotive segment, and marketing vice president of Israeli startup Visionary.ai. He is currently chief marketing officer for Fétis group, which integrates engines, batteries or hydrogen fuel cells into OEM machines along with software, hydraulics and telemetry.
• Steve Zumbusch
  Steve Zumbusch joined Eaton as a product development engineer and throughout his career has worked on a number of product lines and applications in a variety of capacities. His duties have included engineering manager for Eaton’s Power Division, and director for Eaton’s applications teams. Through his work at the company, he has received a number of patents related to customer solutions. Zumbusch recently retired as director of Technology Development for Eaton’s Hydraulics Business. He is currently president of Starting Block LLC, an environmental design firm based in the U.S.

The 2023 Summit follows four highly successful events and is intended for machine and vehicle OEMs, equipment owners, engine manufacturers and distributors, and component and powertrain suppliers. If your work involves engines, powertrains or new power technologies, this is an event you don’t want to miss.