Thanks Smithers Asia team for organizing such a successful virtual conference on sustainability in packaging, a critical issue that will continue post-COVID for the years to come. The online platform was convenient for presentation collaboration, and even networking, but hope to meet everyone in person next year! - Sr. Manager/Director, Asia Pacific Market Development, Consumer Packaging, WestRock
Bio to follow shortly
Gary Calicdan is the Packaging and Print Ethical Buyer of Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics North America . Joining the company in February 2007, he has seen the business grow from 80 shops to over 250 shops. Along with growing the supply chain, Gary has led many initiatives to improve our ethics and sustainability in our packaging supply chain such as use of 100% recycled plastics and paper for all packaging and print materials . Gary has also focused on developing a local high quality recycled plastic materials supply base including Ocean plastics and created closed loop systems through retail and manufacturing operations wherever possible.
Gary is currently a council Director of The Packaging Consortium ( PAC) under Pacific Region Leadership Council based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Prior to migrating to Canada in 2006, Gary was the Purchasing Manager of ALCAN Packaging and Avon Cosmetics back in the Philippines from 2001 to early 2006.
PhD in Ecology, graduated from Beijing Normal University. She conducted researches agricultural ecology for 10 years including 7 years international working experience in universities, institute and international centers located in the Netherlands, Israel, Japan and Kenya, and was the associate professor of Beijing Normal University. She worked in International Network for Bamboo and Rattan as the senior programme manager in 2007, and worked in UNEP China Office as the national officer from 2008-2018, and is the expert on sustainable development.
She worked at China Plastics Reuse and Recycling Association (CPRRA) in Oct. 2018, and took CPRRA as the first China Sectoral Association to join Global Commitment raised by Ellen MacArthur Foundation and UNEP of “ New Plastics Economy” in late 2018. She also serves the external expert of EU-China Environmental Policy and Circular Economy Dialogue, ADB, World Bank, WWF International Consultant on Plastics projects. She was invited by China Delegation to WTO to attend first WTO event on plastic pollution, she was invited by EU to attend EU Circular Economy Conference and World Circular Economy Conference. She also the author of newspaper and magazine articles on Plastics, and was interviewed by media and CGTN. She is the leading figure in plastic recycling.
She joins Green Inclusive Internet Technology as a start-up company since 2020 as the president to setup individual low carbon behavior platform.
Possessing 13 years of professional experience in marketing and business development in the plastic manufacturing industry and waste management, Estelle has her footprint covering both Europe and Asia with a particular focus in plastic recycling and circular economy.
Since joining Veolia, Estelle has been involved in project development of various types of waste management in Asia, including hazardous waste, battery recycling, WEEE recycling.
In the last 2 years, she has focused on boosting the Group's plastic recycling initiatives, including the Greenfield rPET plant in Indonesia, Merchant & Acquisition projects in Japan, Korea and China.
In parallel, she has been actively involved in developing new projects in conjunction with different international brands/key accounts as well as local NGOs/start-ups in the domain of plastic recycling, to name a few, projects such as sustainable collection model pilot, collection pilot to increase traceability of plastic waste in which the brand owners most look upon, and etc.
With her expertise in the plastic recycling industry, she was seconded to the Alliance to End Plastic Waste Association (AEPW) for collection & sorting projects screening and development.
Edwin leads Food Industry Asia’s (FIA) Sustainability strategy and efforts to support FIA’s mission as the voice of the food industry in Asia.
His career includes roles with industry, government and the non-profit sector, covering policy development, corporate communications, public affairs and sustainability.
Before joining FIA, he was Executive Director of the Singapore Environment Council, where he promoted eco-labelling, recycling and consumer awareness on environmental issues.
He was the first Southeast Asian elected to the Board of the Global Eco-labelling Network, an international network of national eco-labelling organisations, and was nominated by the media for the inaugural Singaporean of the Year in 2016 for his role in leading the fight against the haze that engulfed Singapore and several Southeast Asian countries in 2015.
Grace Kim is a head of global packaging R&D at CJ CheilJedang, a number one food company in Korea, where she focus es most of her time developing packaging professionals, identifying new strategic initiatives and delivering packaging solutions through breakthrough packaging innovation . She has more than 20 years of packaging industry experiences from CPG, Pharmaceutical and Chemical Companies mostly in US She relocated to Korea, her native country, with her family in 2019 to pursue her career in people management and to gain global experiences. Most recently, she was a principle engineer at AbbVie, Inc., a pharmaceutical company located in North Chicago, IL , where she successfully led multiple medical device packaging programs . Previously, she worked
at Kraft Foods, Inc. located in Glenview, IL as a strategic packaging research engineer and at DuPont in Parkersburg, WV as a R&D Process Engineer . Grace received MS degree in mechanical engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and BS degree in chemical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.
Sylvain Rannou holds a PhD of Polymer Science & Engineering from The University of Manchester, UK.
With over 10 years’ experience in the polymer and food packaging industry in UK and Singapore, his expertise covers a range of functions, from packaging development, polymer processing & regulatory compliance, to training & coaching, issue management and networking to leverage expertise.
Having worked in R&D for Mars Drinks UK and A*STAR Singapore, his current responsibility within Nestlé is to ensure that Nestlé factories in zone Asia-Oceania-Africa (AOA) implement the Nestlé packaging safety & compliance (PS&C) program. His responsibility covers both food contact materials (i.e. mainly packaging) and non-food items (i.e. promotional items).
Ashwin Subramaniam is an environmental consultant with 11 years of business experience across Asia. He is the founder and CEO at GA Circular, a research and strategy advisory firm that is driving circular economy in Asia. He has led various materials-flow analysis, research, strategy and implementation projects on circular economy in this region. He specialises in packaging and food waste in Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and India and has worked with multinational clients from consumer goods, packaging and petrochemical industries as well as government agencies. He is passionate about unlocking business opportunities in Asia from the annual USD120 billion worth of packaging waste and USD 1 trillion worth of food waste globally.
Lynn is the Regional Head of Sustainability with HP, championing HP’s sustainability efforts in Asia Pacific with the bold goal of making life better for everyone, everywhere.
In her role, she provides access to HP’s portfolio of environmentally responsible products and services to enable customers to achieve their goals sustainably while providing the security and durability they expect and depend on.
She engages across a broad range of topics – climate, change, diversity, access to quality education and economic opportunity, and protecting workers.
To overcome these challenges, Lynn will partner to drive lasting improvements to the planet, people, and communities where we live, work, and do business.
Bio to follow shortly
Gary Calicdan is the Packaging and Print Ethical Buyer of Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics North America . Joining the company in February 2007, he has seen the business grow from 80 shops to over 250 shops. Along with growing the supply chain, Gary has led many initiatives to improve our ethics and sustainability in our packaging supply chain such as use of 100% recycled plastics and paper for all packaging and print materials . Gary has also focused on developing a local high quality recycled plastic materials supply base including Ocean plastics and created closed loop systems through retail and manufacturing operations wherever possible.
Gary is currently a council Director of The Packaging Consortium ( PAC) under Pacific Region Leadership Council based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Prior to migrating to Canada in 2006, Gary was the Purchasing Manager of ALCAN Packaging and Avon Cosmetics back in the Philippines from 2001 to early 2006.
Tim Grant is a specialist in life cycle assessment (LCA) with over twenty years of experience in developing and applying LCA with a wide range of companies and organisations.
He is the owner and product development manager for PIQET, a streamlined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool for optimising the environmental performance of packaging designs. Tim is also a founding member and current board member of the Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS) and is a pillar of the international Life Cycle community through his involvement in international fora such as the Life Cycle Initiative supported by UNEP.
He is an author of the book Life Cycle Assessment - Principles, Practice and Prospects (CSIRO, 2009) as well as a co-author of the book Design + Environment - a global guide to designing greener goods (Routledge).
Tim works across many different sectors in LCA including packaging, agriculture, energy, fuels, water products, buildings and waste management. In addition, he has worked on the development of LCA databases for Australia.
