George Hines serves as the chief technology and innovation officer for Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD), a Fortune 500 publicly traded company in Oregon. He joined the organization in 2018. He is passionate about customer facing innovation and transforming the way people gain access to and experience personal transportation. He believes that the automotive retail industry segment is poised for major disruption and that artificial intelligence and machine learning will contribute to this disruption. His work includes management of a strategic investment in a Silicon Valley auto retail company as well as consumer research studies, digital retail innovation and the application of Design Thinking to the automotive purchase and ownership experience. He previously led a customer experience transformation for a 1,200 store retail business in the wellness industry. George has lived and worked in Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Spain, UK, Canada and the USA. He received a B.Sc. in management information systems from Millikin University in Illinois, and studied design thinking and innovation at Stanford University.