Adam is Global Director, Research and Reports at Smithers. He has over 15 years’ experience in market intelligence, consultancy, directing market research and working with clients to deliver high-value strategic studies and analysis.
During his time at Smithers, he has published or delivered hundreds of market studies, reports, technical books and single-client projects across a range of industries including packaging, print, paper, nonwovens and raw materials.
Adam has spoken at and moderated many industry and client events including the Global Packaging Summit, Future of Polyolefins, and The Banknote Conference. Adam has established and developed a global network of experts, consultants and researchers who contribute to hundreds of primary research-based projects every year. He is a member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals
Troy Swope is the Co-Founder and CEO of Footprint, and if you are looking for alternatives to plastics in packaging, Troy Swope is the visionary that will most likely already be working on a solution. Troy’s experience in packaging innovation spans over 20 years, first as an award-winning engineer at Intel where he introduced new methodologies and created a new department to explore packaging polymer innovation that resulted in a $350 million-dollar costs savings over 4 years. Later he created Unisource Global Solutions (UGS). At UGS, he and his team pioneered new material supply chains using bamboo fibers for Dell Computers, a move that disrupted the EPS and EPE foam packaging industry by creating highly marketable and sustainable molded pulp packaging alternatives for consumer electronics.
At Footprint, Troy has created a sustainable technology company that manufactures solutions to eliminate single use plastics. Troy’s success comes from his intense vision of a plastic free future and from the team members with which he surrounds himself. As CEO, he has amassed a world-class team of engineers, scientists, environmentalists and designers that has resulted in over 20 patents, all focused on disrupting our dependence on single use plastics.
Ilkka Harju, Packaging Design Director, is leading the Metsä Board’s packaging design team responsible for the European and Asian markets. Before joining Metsä Board in 2018, he was responsible for packaging design and innovation needs for various companies.
Harju is renowned for pushing design boundaries by working collaboratively with other designers and technology experts. He constantly advocates the role of responsible design, technology and renewable raw materials as a tool for a healthier environment. In 2017 Harju received a Worldstar Award for his jewelry packaging design.
Oscar Duarte is Business Segment Director at Stora Enso, the renewable materials company. In early 2020, he was nominated as one of "35 future hopes under 35" by a Finnish business magazine, with a strong drive from a GROW trainee to a business leader. Educated both in Chemical Engineering and Business Management, Oscar is committed to working with sustainable and circular solutions that contribute to customers as well as our planet.
Since 2016 she works in Ecoembes, and currently as a Innovation coordinator in charge of the open innovation projects that are directly linked to the packaging materials and their Ecodesign, giving support to the Companies and Ecodesign department in the new projects more oriented to the innovative developments.
She is responsible for the coordination of the multidisciplinary team that has developed the methodology for the evaluation of packaging sustainability and actively participates in the projects that deal with the Circular Economy of packaging within the program H2020".
Michel Steinecke is leading the sustainable packaging initiatives at Britvic. He has the challenge bring the company up with the highest standards of sustainability in packaging development. Before joining Britvic, Michel worked with Packaging Sustainability at Danone Nutricia in the Netherlands and previously had an extensive experience in corporate sustainability as a consultant.
Bernhard Wohner is a researcher at the Section of Packaging and Resource Management at FH Campus Wien (University of Applied Sciences Campus Vienna). He is an expert on life cycle assessment and sustainability evaluations, with a focus on food waste and circularity. Currently, he works on finishing his PhD thesis with the title 'Novel approach for the sustainability assessment of packaging'
Alexis Van Maercke is Secretary General of APEAL, The Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging.
Before joining APEAL, he was policy officer at the European Commission, Directorate General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.
Prior to this he spent five years in the European Parliament as political advisor to Marianne Thyssen, former Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, in charge of legislative files related to food safety, environment and consumer protection.
He holds a Master's degree in Law from the University of Leuven in Belgium as well as a Master's in European Interdisciplinary Studies from the College of Europe in Warsaw, Poland.
Mauro Salini, mechanical Engineer graduated in Belgium in 1984. Starting his career in Belgium he quickly moved to other European countries for an International development during his 36 years of working life so far. He gained technical experiences for plastic processing in different market from packaging to automotive where he spent more than 25 years. From technical manager he rapidly progresses in operations acquiring Lean concept on the field. Since more than 10 years he is General Manager.
Citeo is the company in charge of the Extended Producer Responsibility schemes for household packaging and for graphic & printed paper in France, working with 20 000 packers and fillers, 900 local municipalities and 300 recyclers. The annual turnover is around 850 M€ per year for both activity.
He joined the public policy affairs department of Citeo in 2018, after experiences in the high administration and advisory firm for the public sector. He works very closely with all the actors of the packaging value chain in particular on the Circular Economy Package, the european plastics strategy, the circular plastic alliance, the national pacts on plastic packaging, the new circular economy action plan within the European green deal and EPR projects around the world.
He’s also lecturer on circular economy and european affairs for the university of Paris and ESSEC - international business school.
Joachim Quoden studied law at the “Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität” in Bonn between 1987 and 1992 and served his legal internship in Bonn and Cologne from 1993 until 1995.
In between these placements, he spent 4 months within the German Federal Ministry of Environment where he was working on packaging issues including the German Packaging Ordinance.
From February 1993 until June 2006 Mr Quoden worked for Der Grüne Punkt - Duales System Deutschland GmbH (DSD) in various capacities. From January 2001, he served as Head of International Affairs of DSD and was vested with general commercial power of representation in 2003.
In January 2001, he also became Secretary General of PRO EUROPE, the umbrella organisation of 35 packaging recovery organisations using the Green Dot trademark. Between April 2005 and February 2013, he was appointed as managing director of this organisation.
Since April 2013 he is appointed as managing director of EXPRA – Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance – Inspiring Packaging Recycling, an alliance of currently 26 non-profit packaging recovery organisations owned by obliged industry from 24 countries from Europe, Canada and Israel.
Besides this, he is working since June 1995 as independent German Lawyer specialized on international extended producer responsibility legislation. In addition to his work as Managing Director of EXPRA and being a German lawyer, he is involved in the following positions and associations
Vincent is head of SUEZ.circpack® within SUEZ, a world leader in smart and sustainable resource management. Vincent has over 10-years’ experience in innovation in the recycling industry. He established multiple new recycling propositions and set up partnerships. With an extensive background in marketing, product innovation and sustainability, Vincent combines strong customer focus with a clear understanding of technological challenges.
As the head of SUEZ.circpack® he offers consultancy-services to retailers, packagers and brand owners with the aim to increase the recyclability of packaging. The operational knowledge of SUEZ in the field of collection, sorting and recycling of packaging material, provides additional credibility to the expertise of the circpack-team. On top of that, his department provides certification on recyclability for different types of packaging.
Vincent is 49 years old and holds a degree in Marketing from The Hague University of applied science. He was born in The Netherlands, is married and has 1 daughter. In his free time, he enjoys being a windsurfer, a football referee and singer in a rock band.
CONAI International Affairs Head, dealing with packaging environmental /sustainability policies and tools. Graduated in Food Science and Technology, with over 15 years’ experience in the Italian Packaging Producer Responsibility Organisation (CONAI). Currently also Chair of UNI TC Packaging and Convenor of the Italian Packaging Institute TC “Packaging&Environment”. Member of the Board of EXPRA, of which is chairing the Sustainability & Packaging Working Group
At einhorn Lena is part of the fairstainability team and responsible for packaging. Ideally she should have nothing to do at all, because the most sustainable packaging is theoretically none.
But, to be honest, it's not that easy and so she is constantly working on on reducing and developing the packaging to be as sustainable and fair as possible - we call that “fairstainable in
progress”. Lena is a graduated designer in the field of textiles and materials and gained her expertise in sustainability through a strong focus on circular design and biological materials such
as bacterial cellulose. Her passion for packaging was awakened as a freelancer in innovation agencies, where she worked on projects on disposable packaging for food and beverage.
Volker Maier is Global Luxury Engineering Leader and Engineering Director at COTY Inc., the global beauty company with renowned cosmetic, skin, fragrance and hair brands. As a globally working employee of COTY, Volker is driving the implementation of circular economy projects starting at the COTY Fragrance plant in Cologne. Volker started his career at Procter & Gamble in baby care. He gained expertise in the areas of new process- and equipment-development in baby care as well as in beauty care with a track record in each area. He is leading the agile plant engineering organization in Cologne as well as the Global Luxury Engineering group. Volker is of German nationality, is married with two children. In his spare time he likes traveling and sailing. He is passionate about finding smart solutions, which are cost effective, simple and sustainable.
At ISRA Vision she is focusing on vision systems dedicated to the print packaging industry to help to support customer needs for quality printing with sophisticated inspection technology.
Earlier she gained a demonstrated history of working in and for the print media industry with a high level of experience as Product Manager at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and as a research engineer at the graphic arts institute FOGRA, with a master degree in printing technologies.
Trang Nhu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Sustainable Systems Engineering (STEN) group of Ghent University, Belgium. She is currently involved in the projects focusing on sustainable development and recycling of plastic packaging (i.e., H2020 Glopack, Circopack, Matter). She obtained the degree Master of Science in Environmental Sanitation from Ghent University, and then a PhD degree in Applied Biological Sciences at the same university.
Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum is passionate about sustainable and digital innovation which accelerate the transformation to a climate-positive circular economy.
After his studies of physics, chemistry and environmental technology he joined Henkel more than 30 years ago. More than 20 years Thomas was responsible for the global R&D and on top for almost a decade for the global production and supply chain of Henkel´s Laundry and Home Care business.
As Co-Chair of the Henkel Sustainability Council and CSVP Innovation & Sustainability he is responsible for the company´s sustainability strategy and its implementation.
He acts as expert and advisor for several institutions like the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, the Consumer Goods Forum, the German Circular Economy Initiative, the Fraunhofer Competence Cluster for Circular Plastic Economy and Bioeconomy Science Center.
He teaches global innovation management at the University of Applied Science in Krefeld, Germany and is an associate of the German society of the Club of Rome.
Helmut Schmitz works since 2013 as Director Communication / Public Affairs for “Der Grüne Punkt - Duales System Deutschland GmbH“ in Berlin, Brussels and Cologne. As Head of International Communication and Director Public Affairs he was responsible in 2000 – 2013 for projects with different international stakeholder groups, especially in Europe and Asia. After finishing Albertus-Magnus-University in Cologne with a Master Degree in Biology he worked seven years as Secretary General of the Young Federal Civil Servants Association, the umbrella organisation with 45 independent associations in the German public service.
After finishing her master’s degree in environmental engineering Charlotte Glassneck started to work for Veolia Umweltservice GmbH. During her tenure, she served as a project engineer and was responsible for the planning process of different IT-projects. Additionally, she was accountable for the administration of an electronic waste recycling laboratory.
In 2018, Ms. Glassneck joined the business development department of TOMRA Sorting Recycling. In 2019 she became a manager for Plastics Applications within the Circular Economy Team. To enhance the usage of recycled plastics she and different colleagues take on a consulting role for brand owners, NGO´s and political institutions
Francesca joined Tetra Pak in 2008 and covered various roles in the sustainability team.
In her current assignment, she is responsible to coordinate regional collection programmes, support Tetra Pak's international clients in their sustainability journeys, and actively engage in circularity industry initiatives.
Currently based in Modena (Italy), Francesca is Italian and holds a master’s degree in Environmental Economics from the Institute of Advance Studies (University of Pisa).
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Over 25 years of experience in climate finance, forestry, and environmental sector, co-founder and director of BVRio / Circular Action Hub, co-founder and former President of EcoSecurities Group Plc ( greenhouse gas mitigation and carbon trading, listed in the London AIM stock exchange); author of more than 100 publications including IPCC reports recognized with 2007 Nobel Peace Prize; PhD from University of London.
Vanessa is Product Policy Manager at FEVE, the European Container Glass Federation, dealing in particular with Circular Economy topics and coordinating Close the Glass Loop, a multi-stakeholder partnership to establish a material stewardship programme that will result in more bottle-to-bottle recycling.
Formerly a Director and Head of Practice at Grayling’s Brussels, she counseled clients in the transport, environment, energy and food industries. She also worked at the Representation of PSA Peugeot Citroën to the EU, handling environment, transport, consumer and competitiveness issues.
A French national, her experience includes developing and implementing EU-Brussels and pan-European public affairs campaigns for leading companies and trade associations.
Vanessa holds a Master Degree in European Administrative and Political Studies from the College of Europe (Bruges) and a Master Degree in Public Affairs from SciencesPo (Paris). She speaks French, English and some German.
Krzysztof Krajewski is currently Director Packaging Sustainability Hygiene at RB (Reckitt Benckiser) based in Amsterdam. Passionate about the Packaging big Purpose – Sustainability in all aspects of Reduce, Reuse and Recycling with emphasis on driving circular economy by establishing partnerships with various actors across the industry. With nowadays environmental focus on plastics Krzysztof’s background is more relevant than ever. He started his “circular” career twenty years ago within plastics industry - blow moulding/ injection moulding and moved to RB in 2007. Since then Krzysztof was responsible for leading different teams in both functional areas of supply (regional) packaging and R&D packaging (Innovation/ Global Packaging). Throughout the years he relocated from Poland to Singapore for the role of Regional Packaging Manager East Asia, Venice area – Cluster Packaging Manager Fabric Care and finally to Amsterdam where is based since 2013 driving innovation in packaging (R&D). As a side interest he is passionate about statistics and methodological approach to problem solving management which is linked with his certifications of Six Sigma Master Black Belt as well as Lean Manufacturing. Additionally he is a board member in Dutch NVC Packaging institute. Author of multiple articles about plastics, packaging, process improvement. Acknowledged by multiple Packaging Awards with breakthrough packaging launches across the years.
Nick oversees Ocean Conservancy’s global portfolio of work on marine debris, including its annual International Coastal Cleanup, the Trash Free Seas Alliance®, the Global Ghost Gear Initiative® and its science research portfolio on ocean plastics. Nick has extensive field experience researching ocean plastics – his debris-related assignments have taken him from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to the remote coastlines of Alaska and Indonesia. He has testified before the U.S. Senate on the sources and impacts of ocean plastics, and regularly engages in policy discussions at international fora including APEC and the United Nations. Nick conducted his graduate work at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment, and he is a frequent media commentator on marine debris. He is based at Ocean Conservancy's office in Portland, Oregon.
As a Chancellor Fellow at Fraunhofer Institute of Material Flow and Logistics in Germany, Arpit is currently investigating the potential of reusable packaging models. He is currently on sabbatical from Accenture Strategy where he focused on business and operating model aspects of circular economy and resource efficiency across various industries. He has an engineering degree and has an MBA.
As CEO of an innovative Greentech — working with leading brands and converters — Henri has unique insight into the regulatory, environmental, technological and economic problems faced by the packaging sector as well as the latest manufacturing solutions.
He has extensive previous business experience gained both as an entrepreneur with his start-up and at leading corporations including PwC, BearingPoint, Arthur Andersen and EA games. Henri holds a Master’s Degree in International Marketing and Strategy.
Armin von Keitz is the Sustainability Manager for Tata Steel in Europe. Armin works within the Packaging sector on all packaging-related sustainability issues including recycling, Life Cycle Performance of steel, food waste reduction and ethical sourcing. He has a background in Chemistry and a PhD in Material Science.
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