In this candid and inspiring keynote, Jay will reveal how turning over the reins to Local Motors – which he poured everything into – became the essential experience that fueled his latest, most ambitious endeavor. Join this opportunity to learn how to extract insights from challenging experiences, embrace unexpected transitions, and find the courage to Transform Your Future.

Bio

John “Jay” B. Rogers, Jr., CEO & Co-Founder, grew up a lover of woodworking, machines, and a student of industry; his grandfather owned the legendary Indian Motorcycle Company, founded concrete and steel giant Texas Industries, and was the first Cummins Engine Distributor in the United States. Jay’s grandfather is also credited with saving the Public Broadcasting System during the Nixon Administration and co-founding the Children’s Television Workshop, which is best known for Sesame Street. In embracing his family legacy of manufacturing and innovation, Jay has added his military leadership, entrepreneurship, and education, in order to hand-select a team of co-founders and set forth on a most ambitious plan: Creating Haddy – manufacturer of heroic, beautiful, durable furniture for retailers, to their design, built locally in the most resilient and sustainable manner.

He graduated from Princeton University, then joined a startup in China, and later joined Ewing & Partners, where he became a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). After that, he went on to the US Marine Corps, where he served for 8 years in the infantry in the western Pacific and Iraq, to Harvard Business School, and to become a consultant for McKinsey & Co. Most recently, he founded and led Local Motors, a next-generation vehicle OEM. It was there that Jay first employed the basic technology of Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM), and in 2021 he handed over the reins of Local Motors to a new investor group and left to start Haddy full-time. Haddy is the world’s first microfactory to manufacture large scale products across many verticals from boats to furniture at scale, achieving full recyclability digitally.  The team is focused on changing how businesses support the people and communities they reside in.

 

He has spoken at BIF, PopTech, TedX, Picnic in Amsterdam, Do Conference in Wales, St Gallen Symposium, the White House Maker Faire, CES, CeBIT, IMTS, Singularity University, and many more conclaves. Additionally, the story of American innovation, co-creation and digital manufacturing has been shared on Discovery, PBS, Fox, CNBC, and Speed Channel. In 2020, he was awarded the honor of leading Local Motors to one of the top 10 global innovative transportation companies by Popular Science.

 

Jay is a director of the RBR Foundation, which gives annually to the cause of childhood education and development. He is the father of 4 boys who are growing up in a connected age and whom, he hopes, will take advantage of the incredible opportunity that the internet has given the world. He loves to learn languages, read widely, and to design and build projects of all kinds from leather to wood, and of course, 3D Printing.