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.
Emily holds an B.Eng in Food Engineering and M. Eng. Studies in Packaging Technology from Massey University in New Zealand, and has 20 years’ experience working in technical, quality and operations roles in the New Zealand food industry. In her role at Fonterra she is responsible for leading strategy development and technical initiatives in the space of sustainable packaging across Fonterra’s global footprint. Her areas of focus include metrics and reporting, global portfolio review, market insight, life cycle assessment and use of recycled content.
Eileen leads the regional projects team, overseeing various projects in Asia for the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. She is a consistent high performer with 19 years of international professional experience in the oil and gas, petrochemicals industry, based out of various geographies (USA, Netherlands, Singapore). Her expertise spans leadership, business development, commercial negotiation, deal integration, project management, strategy development, technical sales, manufacturing, operational excellence and process design. She has held regional and global positions, leading multi-functional teams, to execute high impact initiatives which have added significant business value.
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.
Sze is the Regional Business Director responsible for sales in Greater SEA/South Asia/Australasia for Global Paperboard and Business Development in APAC within the Consumer Packaging Group focusing on innovation with integrated packaging solution working closely with major food & beverage and FMCG brand owners in the region, which include home/health and beauty (HHB) segments.
Sze has worked at WestRock for 36 years, across various business units and responsibilities.
Current responsibilities include the following –
• Innovation in the food and beverage packaging segment and more recently in business development offering enterprise wide solutions to brand owners in the region.
• WESTROCK aspires to achieve the vision to become the world’s best paper and packaging company
• Global Paperboard offer a fully integrated range of fiber based specialty materials across consumer and container mills to meet the growing demand of sustainability in packaging for brand owners
• WestRock in Singapore achieved consecutive wins toward sustainability in packaging – SINGAPORE STAR PACKAGING AWARDS in 2019, 2020 and most recently in 2022.
Sealed Air Sustainability Director for the APAC region based in Melbourne Australia. Alan is leading customer and packaging industry engagement with sustainable packaging and retail trends and regular public speaking engagements.
Busy in Industry being currently active with the Australian Institute of Packaging contributing to development of Sustainable Packaging Guidelines for reducing food waste. A founding member and former president of the Australasian Bioplastics Association. Currently on the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) Design for recovery working group.
Ciaran is responsible for delivering Smithers global growth initiatives and supporting Smithers Asian client base.
Ciaran has been working for Smithers for nearly twenty years supporting the packaging, print and paper value chains with key market and technical information in the form of conferences, reports and consulting. Ciaran has worked on winning and delivering a wide range of market consultancy projects to major industry players, recent projects include a global assessment of printing and packaging growth trends and market assessment for a major new product launch for one of the world’s largest packaging converters.
Ciaran has launched and managed many international conferences in this sector including Digital Print for Packaging, SustPack, Specialty Papers and Print Futures.
Richard Smith is the Sustainability Director for Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific.
Richard is a Chemical Engineer and has worked in the packaging industry for over 30 years focused heavily on innovation and enabling brand owners to become more circular through responsible packaging solutions.
In 2013 Richard was made a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Packaging for significant contribution to the development of innovative plastics packaging.
More recently in 2020, Richard was appointed as a non-executive Director of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO).
Chris specialises in creating value and positive impact for large, complex businesses and organisations by improving the sustainability of their operations, products, packaging, and supply chain.
His experience includes driving system changes to deliver sustainability, product stewardship and corporate reputation outcomes in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and the US.
Prior to joining APCO in August 2022, Chris led strategic and transformational change in environmental sustainability across leading retailers Kmart and Target where his remit included climate change, product stewardship, circular economy, packaging, plastic, and waste. He has also spent time in the packaging and utilities industries and government.
As APCO’s CEO, Chris leads the development and execution of strategies that bring business, governments, and industry together to design, use, recover, reuse and recycle packaging to improve waste, climate, water, material, chemical and social impacts.
