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
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.
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.
Dr Casper Durandt was a founder member of numerous Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Companies, Chairman of the PET recycling company PETCO, founder member of the Glass Recycling Company and MetPac-SA. He has a PhD in Industrial Engineering focused on coupled manufacturing efficiency improvement. He has an MBA from the University of Stellenbosch, a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Pretoria University and is a qualified Professional Engineer with the International Engineering Council.
Casper is an accomplished international speaker, has a passion for the environment and is a technical expert in the field of beverage production, supply chain, environmental issues and equipment maintenance.
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).
Bio to follow shortly
