Meet the Analysts

Zoia is a veteran journalist and analyst with more than three decades’ experience covering the global auto industry. His work focuses on Autonomous Vehicles, Shared Mobility and Electrification, as well as the impacts of those industry megatrends in the automotive retail sector.

He has authored, contributed to and edited extensive reports on battery technology and the battery-electric vehicle market, autonomous vehicles, electric-vehicle charging, megatrends and the commercial-vehicle market and the transition to the digital economy and its effects on U.S. automobile dealers. Zoia also has written extensively about technology advances in sensors (cameras, radar, lidar), new-vehicle architectures and controllers and software. He serves as a juror for the Wards 10 Best Engines, Wards 10 Best Interiors and Wards 10 Best UX awards.

In more than 30 years with Wards and the Informa Tech Automotive Group, Zoia has held several top editorial positions, including Editor of Wards Automotive International, Wards Engine Update and Wards Automotive Reports. He currently oversees content for Wards Intelligence, WardsAuto and TU Automotive and various research projects.

Bell is an accomplished strategy and technology analyst with Informa Tech Automotive Group. His team are focused on the development of the automotive market, landscape, ecosystem and value chain. His coverage at Wards Intelligence and TU-Automotive focuses on connectivity-based technology transformation (4G, 5G, V2X, Satellite, Mobile Edge computing, AI, IoT, cybersecurity and blockchain) on vehicles, development and production and adjacent areas such as smart cities.

Previously, he was a Senior Analyst with Heavy Reading and focused on IoT in the mobile network domain specifically the growth of 4G and 5G in two verticals: Industrial IoT and connected and autonomous vehicles. For 2 years he also served as analyst in residence at TU-Auto.com providing insight on the future of this emerging industry.

Steve joined Heavy Reading in 2014 after an extensive executive career in industrial applications and then Telecoms with Motorola in Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. He is also an entrepreneur having founded two companies: one an analysis and advisory firm the other a digital city services platform focused on parking.

De Ambroggi is a veteran in the electronics and automotive industry with more than two decades of experience in various domains spanning along the entire supply chain.

His reporting and analysis focus on Electric and Electronic Architecture, Semiconductor Technology as well as on the impact that an expanded automotive ecosystem will have on future business models and profit pools.

De Ambroggi is recognized worldwide as one of the industry’s leading experts in electronics and semiconductor components for the automotive market.

Before joining Wards, Luca contributed to automotive electronics and semiconductor research at IHS Markit, leading the research on advanced Infotainment and ADAS/autonomous-vehicle systems.

He joined the Informa Tech Automotive Group with 16 years of semiconductor industry experience, including product and design management and technical marketing. Having served a broad range of functions throughout his tenure, he possesses deep technical knowledge as well as an ability to address strategic market and business scenarios.

Gritzinger is a veteran automotive journalist with more than two decades of experience evaluating thousands of new vehicles and investigating the latest propulsion systems and leading-edge automotive technologies. His reporting focuses on e-machine technology, 48V electrification, fuel-cell vehicles, mechanical and electrified all-wheel-drive systems and automaker and supplier efforts to assure that internal-combustion engines remain relevant, capable, low-emission and highly efficient amid the automotive industry’s rapid transition to electrified propulsion. In addition, Gritzinger is a juror for the Wards 10 Best Engines & Propulsion Systems, Wards 10 Best Interiors and Wards 10 Best UX awards.

Gritzinger joined Wards in 2015 after more than a decade at the Detroit, MI-based enthusiast publication AutoWeek and as an online contributor to consumer outlets including Forbes, AutoWeb and BeCarChic. In those roles, Gritzinger tested the latest vehicles on a daily basis and traveled worldwide to cover automotive news events, global auto shows and key vehicle-evaluation programs. Prior to automotive journalism, he enjoyed a long career in newspaper reporting in suburban Detroit. Gritzinger is a trained auto mechanic and still enjoys working on vehicles in his spare time. Gritzinger holds a B.A. in Journalism from Michigan State University.

Irwin is a veteran journalist with extensive exposure to all aspects of the automotive industry, from engineering to retailing to new technologies including connected cars and autonomous and electric vehicles. He writes on these topics and serves as a judge in Wards annual 10 Best Engines & Propulsion Systems, Wards 10 Best Interiors and Wards 10 Best UX awards.

Irwin joined Wards in 2011 after nearly three decades at the Detroit bureau of The Associated Press, where he backed up the automotive-beat writers by reporting on topics including sales, production and financials. He was a newspaper reporter prior to joining the AP. Irwin holds a B.A. in Journalism from The Ohio State University.

Sanders synthesizes information about automotive technologies, markets, and key players, including OEMs, suppliers, service providers, and platform providers. He brings more than 25 years of insight from his business and technology experience in Silicon Valley and Japan as a senior technologist and technology writer.

His first foray into technology writing was for Fujitsu in Tokyo Japan in 1996. He specializes in research related to the evolution of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and driver assistance technologies (ADAS). Prior to joining Informa, Sanders was a senior analyst for Intellectual Ventures, and for Ocean Tomo, where he led market analysis and technology valuation for investment funds worth over $20 million on a range of topics, including electric vehicles, power systems, microprocessors, near field communications, and semiconductors.

Schweinsberg is a Principal Analyst at Informa Tech Automotive Group, covering the burgeoning electrification sector. As an electrification analyst, she follows and analyzes all topics pertaining to electrification including batteries, charging infrastructure and electric vehicles for the Wards Intelligence website. She has written two reports on electrification in recent years: “Putting the Charge in Electric Vehicles” (published in 2018) and “Closing the Loop: Strategies Ahead for Reuse, Recycling of Li-ion BEV Batteries” (published in 2020). Her latest research project surrounds battery packs and their design and construction.

Schweinsberg also moderates and presents at many Informa Tech Automotive Group events, including January’s Automotive Tech Week: Megatrends 2021 conference, the fall 2020 FOCUS: Electrification conference and the Q4 2020 Wards Outlook conference. In addition, she is a judge for the Wards 10 Best Engines and Propulsion Systems, Wards 10 Best Interiors and Wards 10 Best UX awards, as well as a contributor to the WardsAuto website. Prior to her current position she was a senior editor for WardsAuto covering Asian automakers, including Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai.

Haig has followed the auto industry for over three decades, starting as a reporter and editor for Ward’s Automotive Reports and transitioning to automotive market analyst. Most of his career has been spent at Wards, with stints along the way forecasting North American vehicle production at IHS, and as a vehicle market analyst at both Dana and General Motors.

Since returning to Wards, he has served as the company’s lead vehicle-market analyst, focusing on tying together demand, vehicle production and powertrain trends. He also has created and co-created several of the company’s current analytical outputs related to forecasts, plant capacities, product cycle plans, market segmentation and future vehicle propulsion reports. Currently, he supports the Wards Intelligence database and produces regularly scheduled and custom subscription-based posts tied to North America production and sales analysis and forecasts, as well as general global market analysis. He also is working on projects to help expand the company’s coverage of future trends through creating vehicle-based forecasts related to factory-installed equipment, such as ADAS and mobility.

Winter is a Content & Community producer and Principal Analyst at Informa Tech Automotive Group. As a community manager, Winter creates new platforms to engage people around specific interests and technologies to create high-quality experiences and content. His latest project is the “Automotive Inspire” series featuring fascinating people working in the mobility space telling their stories.

As an analyst, he follows how vehicle cockpits are evolving in the era of electrification, connectivity, and autonomy. He turns his research into data-driven reports, webinars and special events.

Winter began his career as a journalist specializing in automotive technology and was editor-in-chief of Wards AutoWorld magazine, a major industry publication, for a decade. As the industry changed, he pivoted to developing events focused on new technologies, including one of the first conferences dedicated to automotive user experience topics.