Lit Thinking Team

Rafael Lopez-Arce

Director, Engineering

Rafael Lopez-Arce has over 10 years of cutting-edge experience in the highly competitive automotive technology industry. His global background, credentials and multinational experience enable his strong network in the global supply chain manufacturing environment.

Rafael possesses hands-on expertise on lighting, prototyping, production engineering, cost optimization, photometrics lab, warranty and manufacturing specification. Upstream and downstream value chain optimization are also part of his core abilities. Rafael’s passion into new technologies for virus, bacteria and other pathogens inactivation rates and experimentation was heightened during the on-start of the pandemic days where he spent majority of his time finding new ways to optimize the use of existing and available technologies.

Mr. Lopez-Arce experience includes Methode Electronics, an automotive technology supplier, where he was the Advanced Engineering Mechanical Expert, managing overall mechanical design and tooling quote for the company and main liaison with key customers. Prior to this, Rafael was the Team Lead Engineering & Optical Expert at Eypex Corp, another automotive technology supplier, where he was the main face of the customer, he oversaw design and development, he also managed the photometrics lab, optical design, manufacturing engineer and overall testing and validation. He co-developed and oversaw product development and testing in Far UVC devices within automotive and commercial environments.

He has been part of global teams and projects in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. While he was at Calsonic Kansei, he was the Team leader of MTCR Total Cost Reduction and warranty in Japan and North America. At Preh Inc he was the engineering leader of a global program between Germany and The United States. During his time at Methode, he helped foster communication between key customer, the leader in EV vehicle market, and the executive team in Mexico.

He completed his MBA studies at the University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business. He holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from Monterrey Institute of Technology, Mexico, and Karlsruhe University, Germany.