*Over 20 years experience in packaging industry & 15 years in sustainability
*Provides expertise in LCA, training and support for Ecodex internationally
*Conduct LCA studies for clients (consulting projects)
*Member of Australian LCA Society (ALCAS)
*Bachelor of Engineering (Honours, Chemical Engineering)
*Bachelor of Science (Chemistry)
Gilad started his career in produce as the Sales and Marketing Manager, and later the CEO, of plastic packaging manufacturer, Raptis Pax where he built an extensive network of industry connections in packaging, machinery, equipment and design.
Regularly travelling to conferences, trade shows and speaking engagements across Europe, Asia and the USA, Gilad's specialist network extends internationally. Gilad uses his global contacts to identify up-and-coming produce trends and concepts from around the world.
Starting at a zoomed out, macro level, Gilad tunes into global trends, industry insights and developments in consumer behaviour to give his projects mass appeal. Consumer behaviour is Gilad’s speciality, from those choosing what goes on the shelves to those buying it from them.
Kate Stewart is the owner and founder of Stay tray, a reusable drink tray.
Kate is Melbourne born and bred and now resides on the Mornington Peninsula with husband Wade and her young family.
Kate has a Bachelor of Business Management degree. Kate , and spent most of her career in FMCG working with major retailers.
Kate witnessed first-hand the copious amounts of waste and lack of sustainable practices, and made the bold decision in 2018 to leave a lucrative FMCG role in the pursuit of something more fulfilling. Something that would literally make a difference to people and the planet and thus Stay tray was born.
Stay tray is all about reducing single use, all through the humble beverage tray. Stay tray is the very first, and only, reusable drink tray available in Australia, made from 100% recycled material.
It was important to Kate that Stay tray had a small carbon footprint and was sustainable in more ways than one, thus everything was kept local. All design, manufacture and engineering, in fact, everything was completed within a 50km radius. Stay tray also has zero waste in manufacture.
Stay tray was designed to be practical and versatile fitting hundreds of different vessels, coffee cups; reusable and disposable, reusable drink bottles, fast food drinks, smoothies, juices, beers at the football, really, the possibilities are endless.
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Education: Ph.D. Packaging from Michigan State University. Activities: Asia-Pacific Division Chair, ISTA. Vice-president of Korea Packaging Professionals. Convenor of ISO TC122 (Packaging) WG16 (Temperature controlled product packaging).
.Yun-xuan Weng's research is mainly focused on durability, degradation and sustainable development of polymeric materials. He acts as secretary-general of the Degradable Plastic Committee of CPPIA of China, and also as secretary-general of the Technology Committee of Standardization of Biobased and Degradable Materials.
He organized to formulate a number of national standards for food direct contact packaging materials, such as plastic wrap, plastic shopping bags, continuous roll bags, disposable tableware and other national standards. He promoted the establishment of the standard of bio-based materials and biodegradable plastics industry standard system and promoted the production and application of industrial scale.
More than 60 periodicals, such as SCI and EI, are published, and 20 national standards and 2 books are made. The project includes the national natural fund project, the national quality inspection public welfare project and the support plan of the Ministry of science and technology. 2 awards were awarded for the standard innovation contribution of General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine, and 3 of the scientific and technological innovation awards of China National Light Industry Council.
Michel is a passionate Innovation Manager and creative problem solver. In his role, Michel is shaping the overall innovation agenda at DHL through developing industry trend reports and identifying, piloting and commercializing state-of-the art technology solutions for the logistics industry and its customers. Within the Trend Research team, Michel’s work focuses on future application areas of drone technologies within logistics operations and the introduction of upcoming packaging innovations to the business. Michel joined Deutsche Post DHL Group in 2017 and worked for the global innovation team at the Innovation Centers in Germany and Singapore. Michel studied in France and Germany and holds a Masters degree with a focus on Technology & Innovation Management.
Philip Wirsen is a Global Strategy & Channel Leader at Tetra Pak. He helps food & beverage manufacturers and retailers identify opportunities to differentiate, optimize their supply chain and improve their sustainability by producing data-driven analysis and cost benchmarking. He also leads the global Ecommerce & Foodservice strategy.
Before his time at Tetra Pak, Philip spent three years at the Copenhagen Business School and has a degree in International Business & Politics.
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.
Jim Caudill is vice president of Product and Technology Innovation at WestRock. Jim leads the company’s innovation and growth efforts in the packaging businesses and works with many of our major CPG customers to achieve their goals. Sustainable packaging and plastic replacements are areas of focus.
With more than 25 years of industry experience, he has focused on building winning growth strategies, developing new markets, and delivering innovative new products. Jim has led growth efforts for CPGs including Georgia Pacific’s consumer tissue and towel business and also packaging businesses including Graphic Packaging and Neenah Paper.
Jim earned bachelor of science degrees in chemical engineering and pulp and paper science from North Carolina State University and a master’s in business administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Kate Bezar is the co-founder of The Better Packaging Co., a New Zealand-based company which has become, in just two years of operation, the world’s largest supplier of home compostable packaging for eCommerce. As a result they have revolutionised the market with their innovative, sustainable packaging solutions founded on Circular Economy principles and the premise that ‘waste is a design flaw’.
Wouter Sieben, originally from the Netherlands, graduated from University in Australia with a Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Software Engineering, with a Graphics and Imaging major.
After nine years working in and managing production, Wouter moved to a solutions reseller to specialise in large format inkjet devices, training in all aspects of colour management from litho press profiling through to digital inkjet colour matching.
During the mid 2000’s, Wouter moved into branding and packaging, joining an international design agency to work on print technology and colour strategy to realise designs into production. This eventually led Wouter to become Lead Print Production Manager for Procter and Gamble, being based in Singapore, managing technical requirements between design and print production across four categories throughout Asia, Pacific, Japan and Korea.
In 2012, Wouter joined HP in Singapore taking care of the applications and colour management team, engineer and customer training.
From 2016, within HP, Wouter turned his focus back to packaging, as the Business Development and Category Manager for Industrial Packaging Solutions, as well as various special integration and workflow projects for Packaging and digital press customers.
Most recently, Wouter’s career took an exciting shift again by joining EFI late in 2019 as the Nozomi Sales Development Manager for Asia Pacific.
Sophia is leading the BOBST Marketing & Communication activities across the APJ region. Located in Shanghai she supports printers and converters as well as brand owners to create a more agile and more sustainable packaging production across the entire supply chain. She strongly believes that digitalization, automation and connectivity are the main drivers to shape the future of packaging production. Before joining BOBST, Sophia was the regional Marketing Manager in Large Format and Industry Printing at HP. She worked as well for cloud computing industry in Australia and owns a Master’s degree in Management of Business Administration
Han Zhang, is the Sustainability Director for Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics Asia Pacific. Han is responsible for driving Dow’s 2025 Sustainability Goals and developing strategies to grow business value. Han leads key programs addressing critical business sustainability issues such as marine debris, recycling and driving a circular economy, together with various value chain partners and industry associations throughout Asia. Prior to joining Dow, Zhang held various positions at ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil as life cycle assessment analyst and engineer.
Zhang earned his doctorate degree in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment from the University of Michigan in 2009. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Thermal Engineering from Tsinghua University.
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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.
Jiang Nanqing, PhD in ecology, graduated from Beijing Normal University. In her professional field, she’s got an academic background in ecology and environment, and worked extensively with research institutions to achieve significant results in promoting the effects of policy on the transformation of scientific results. She worked in universities and international research institutions in Netherlands, Japan, Israel, and Kenya for more than 7 years and was engaged in post-doctoral and research in agroecology.
She joined 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, WWF International Consultant on Platics. 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 magzine articles on Plastics, and was interviewed by media and CGTN. She is the leading figure in plastic recycling sector in China.
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.
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.
Jun Wang currently works in the Packaging Innovation group, Global Design and Packaging at Colgate Palmolive Company. As the packaging material subject matter expert of the company, Wang has a Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry and has been working in the field of polymers for about 30 years. In the last five years, he led the development of Colgate’s recyclable tube, Samson Tube. The tube received the APR (Association of Plastic Recyclers in US) recognition in April 2019, which is the first of its kind in the world. It also received the Technical Approval from PRE (Plastic Recyclers Europe) in January 2020. In addition, Dr. Wang holds the role of Secretary General in the China Sustainable Plastics Association (CSPA), sits in four committees of APR, three technical committees of PRE/RecyClass, and works closely with the whole plastic value chain on the new plastic circular economy.
Bio to follow shortly
With 17 years experience at Avery Dennison in marketing, innovation and business leadership, Renae has broad experience in packaging and labeling across multiple consumer categories, and both global and local packaging expertise. She has extensive international experience and has been based in both The Netherlands and the United States. Renae serves as a Global Sr. Director of Sustainability at Avery Dennison with her mission to drive long term systemic change through innovation, employee engagement and delivering positive business results.
Victoria Andersen brings around 20 years of experience in international business development, global account management and integrated marketing communications across APAC, EMEA & NA regions from leading multinationals, primarily in technology and consulting sectors. Victoria has also held executive roles in creative agencies, where she drove successful engagements for the renown brands like Nestle, P&G, Nespresso, Richemont Group, L’Oreal, Estée Lauder, JTI and many others.
Currently, Victoria is the Regional Lead for Sustainability and Brand Innovation under HP’s Graphic Solutions Industrial Business for the Asia Pacific-Japan region. She is inspiring and revitalizing brands and agencies through the empowerment provided by HP Indigo’s digital print solutions, by co-creating sustainable, personalized and innovative campaigns at scale.
In Victoria’s limited downtime, she enjoys discovering Asian cultures and is learning Mandarin.
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.
Coming soon...
Sumangali Krishnan, is the Head of Research at GA Circular (GA) and has developed and led various research, policy and on-ground projects aimed at developing a Circular Economy framework for Asia. Following a career in corporate law, both in private practice and more recently, in start-ups and emerging businesses, Sumangali is currently following her passion for sustainability with her role at GA.
Sumangali has a J.D. in Law and a Masters in Economics, and has lived and worked in the United States prior to moving to Singapore. She is particularly passionate about policy, legislation and business-led interventions as a solution to resource management in Asia
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).
Ben is the CEO and Secretary General of PEFC International, a position he has held since 1999.
Dune Ives is the Managing Director of Lonely Whale, an incubator for courageous ideas that drive impactful, market-based change on behalf of our ocean. An experienced leader and trusted advisor in the fields of corporate sustainability and global philanthropy, Dune brings 20+ years of expertise and a thoughtful and optimistic approach to the marine conservation industry as a keynote speaker and advocate for an ocean free from plastic pollution. Under Dune’s leadership, Lonely Whale’s NextWave Plastics and Ocean Heroes Bootcamp initiatives and campaigns, including “For A Strawless Ocean” and “Question How You Hydrate”, have helped to resolve challenges for our environment to ensure a healthier planet.
Quentin is responsible for leading the implementation of market strategies to grow the consumer packaging paperboard business in the Asia Pacific region. Quentin has been with the company for 30 years, with experience in packaging innovation, marketing, and business development. He resides in the U.S., but travels frequently to the Asia Pacific region.
Yvonne is the Materials Expert in World Wide Fund For Nature Singapore (WWF-SG) in theMarket Transformation team. She has 10 years of research experience in municipal solid waste treatment and waste management. She is also trained in understanding materials and their impact to the environment. Her role in WWF-SG is to guide businesses towards sustainability, provide consultancy on the material’s impact on the environment and develop resources to help reduce our partners’ plastic consumption.
She is well versed in Materials and Environment issues, having graduated from Nanyang Technological University with a B.Eng. in Materials Engineering (2004), M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering (2007) and PhD in Environmental Engineering (2016).
Coming soon...
Sharon holds a master's degree in sustainable development management and has 11 years of management experience in the field of sustainability. She has worked in environmental NGO, consulting company and manufacturing industry. Through innovative sustainability related programs, as well as internal and external strategic communication, she provides technical and strategic support to create business value and competitive advantage for the businesses. Extensive practical experience in environmental- friendly materials, life cycle assessment, responsible supply chain management, environment and sustainability related certification systems, and stakeholder communication.
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.
Richard Horne is the Vice President Marketing Centre Packaging at Borouge since June 2018.
Based in Singapore, he is responsible for managing future growth of Borouge’s packaging business by defining and implementing a long-term packaging strategy, developing strategic plans around application segments and creating opportunities within the entire value chain. Horne manages the positioning of Borouge’s packaging product portfolio as well as the company’s market intelligence and marketing communication in specific market areas. He is also responsible for managing circular economy for the packaging business.
Prior to joining Borouge, Horne worked for Amcor Ltd for 6.5 years in various roles, across Europe, Asia and Oceania. His last position was Sales & Marketing Director for Amcor Ltd’s food business based in Singapore, and before that, he was General Manager – Sales, Marketing, Commercial, R&D for the Amcor New Zealand business, based in Auckland, and he was responsible for managing various global key accounts and the Medical & Pharma business in the Asian region.
Born in the UK, educated in Rhodesia and South Africa, Stephen Harrod spent eleven years building a market research company in South Africa, focussed on the paper and packaging industry in that country, following which he spent six years in the paper industry with Mondi and JAC Labels before relocating to England. He has been consulting on ad-hoc projects and authoring reports for Smithers since 2006, with a focus on global paper and packaging markets. Stephen is responsible for a range of Smithers market reports including the Global Corrugated Market, the Global Folding Carton Market, Retail Ready Packaging, Liquid Packaging Board, Sustainable E-Commerce Packaging and many others.
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