Erica Klampfl is the Director of Greenfield Labs, a human-centered design organization within Ford Global Markets, building new products and services that address the real and pressing needs of cities and the people in them. Dr. Klampfl’s role includes integrating lab generated knowledge and Ford’s automotive capabilities to shape new business models and emerging mobility opportunities. This builds on her prior role as the Global Mobility Solutions Manager at Ford Motor Company, defining Ford’s near, mid, and long-term mobility strategy to make mobility affordable economically, environmentally and socially that laid the groundwork for the Ford Smart Mobility initiative. This included assessment of products, technologies, partners, and business models required to deliver new Mobility Solutions and delivery of the experiment and university research portfolio. She was recognized as a recipient of the 2015 Women in M2M award for her efforts in helping push connected technologies forward to help Ford become a better corporate citizen and technology leader. She was also a finalist for the 2015 TU-Automotive Influencer of the year award.
Previously, Dr. Klampfl led the Strategy and Sustainability Analytics group at Ford Research and Advanced Engineering. She received a Ph.D. in Computational and Applied Mathematics from Rice University and has over a decade of experience in developing and applying operations research and other analytics techniques to inform business strategy, strengthen environmental sustainability, and improve manufacturing efficiency. Her contributions were among those that supported Ford winning the 2013 INFORMS Prize, and she was the second place winner of the 2014 INFORMS Innovative Applications in Analytics Award.
Dr. Klampfl is on the Industrial and Operations Engineering Department advisory board at the University of Michigan, served on the Board of Governors for the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, and is a former mentor of Techstars Mobility Detroit, a start-up accelerator program. She is a 2015 and 2008 INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize finalist, and has dozens of external publications. Internal recognition includes the 2010 Henry Ford Technology Award, 2014, 2013, 2010, 2009, and 2008 Ford Technical Achievement Awards, the 2010 and 2017 Ford Global Diversity & Inclusion Summit Awards, the 2014 Operational Excellence Award, several Trade Secrets, and over a dozen filed patents.