David Allaway is a senior policy analyst at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s Materials Management Program. Since 1989, he has helped hundreds of businesses and communities across North America to reduce the environmental impacts of materials and wastes. At Oregon, David has led efforts to develop and update the nation’s first sub-national consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions inventory, served as an invited science advisor to Wal-Mart’s Packaging Sustainable Value Network, and served as an advisor to Paul Hawken’s Project Drawdown and the New York Times bestseller Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. His current work is focused on the design and implementation of several next-generation policies and programs as Oregon transitions from end-of-life “waste management” to holistic, full life cycle sustainable materials management. David has a B.A. in physics from Carleton College, Minnesota and is the recipient of awards from the US EPA, the Association of Oregon Recyclers, and the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment.
Kyle Strenski is a Director of Global Business Development at UPM Raflatac. His focus is understanding the packaging challenges brands face: sustainability, circular economy, and cost pressure. He works closely with the business, R&D, and the sustainability team to provide pressure sensitive label solutions that not only meet brands’ current needs, but also those of the future.
Kyle has a Bachelor of Science in Material Science and Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. In addition, he has a green belt in Six Sigma from Villanova University, Certified Packaging Professional from I.O.P.P., and is a committee member on both Olefins and PET technical committees in the Association of Plastic Recyclers.
Joe Dages helps clients successfully navigate the complex US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory requirements that apply to food, food additives, and food contact materials. He advises companies on all aspects of the premarket review requirements and pathways to market for these materials, as well as post-market compliance, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), labeling, marketing, risk, and litigation avoidance issues. In addition, he provides advice to clients seeking to establish the compliance of their products in other jurisdictions, including Canada, the European Union, and South America.
Joe's practice is increasingly focused on the regulation of biopolymers and other sustainable packaging materials used in contact with food. He also helps companies that manufacture materials used in the production of animal food and feed in bringing their products to market.
Prior to and during law school, Joe worked in government relations and international affairs for a leading trade association representing the food, beverage, and consumer product industry. He leverages this background to assist trade association clients address challenging policy and legal issues. He has authored numerous amicus briefs on behalf of trade association clients.
Jeff has over 37 years of experience in packaging design and development. Prior to joining Sonoco, Jeff was employed for 14 years with Viskase Corporation, a manufacturer of specialty films and casings for the meat and dairy industry. Jeff joined Sonoco Products Company in 1996 as Technology Manager for the newly formed Flexible Packaging Division. In his current role, he is responsible for the global technology efforts across Sonoco’s Consumer Packaging businesses including flexible, rigid paper & closures and rigid plastic packaging. In addition to Product and Process Development, Jeff’s responsibilities include Open Innovation, Product Safety, Sustainable Packaging Design and IP Management. He chairs Sonoco’s Corporate Technology Council and serves on its Sustainability Council. Jeff also serves on the advisory board of the Sonoco Institute and chairs the advisory board of Sonoco FRESH, both at Clemson University. He holds 45 U.S. patents related to packaging.
Wesley Spindler is a Business Strategy & Sustainability Director within Accenture and co-author of The Circular Economy Handbook. She acts as Accenture’s Circular Economy Lead, delivering circular economy programs around the globe with partners and companies across industries, bringing to bear strong expertise in purposeful business, technology and innovation. She was Program Director of The Circulars, the world’s premier circular economy award program, which ran for 5 years in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, and will be re-launching as an Innovation Accelerator program in the autumn of this year.
Jacob serves as the Packaging Sustainability Program Manager for HP Inc. He oversees programs that ensure HP packaging solutions are safe, legally compliant, responsibly manufactured, and which exceed customers’ sustainability expectations. Specifically, Jacob works closely with HP’s internal packaging community to meet government and customer packaging requirements around the world and to pave the way for future sustainable packaging innovation.
He is a native of Rancho Cucamonga, California and a graduate of the University of California, San Diego with a degree in Environmental Engineering.
Cali Reed is the Senior Sustainability Specialist at PreZero US, a California-based recycling solutions provider for hard-to-recycle materials. Cali manages the post-consumer recycled (PCR) content certifications for plastics and works alongside the Commodity Sales team to build circularity-focused partnerships with brands, retailers, and brokers. As a major part of the business development strategy, Cali also works to uncover future expansion opportunities for PZUS by identifying untapped markets for innovations in the recycling sector.
Cali holds a B.A. in Political Science and a certificate in Environmental Studies certificate from the University of Hawaii. She’s also a certified TRUE Zero Waste Advisor through the USGBC and is a bonafide zero waste expert.
Julia Attwood leads the Advanced Materials team at Bloomberg NEF. She writes about the emerging materials and manufacturing technologies helping to decarbonize industry. Prior to this, she was BNEF's expert in lithium-ion battery technologies, costs and supply chain. Before joining BNEF, Julia developed educational materials on energy generation systems and researched advanced polymer composites. Julia holds a PhD in Materials Engineering from the University of Cambridge.
Suzanne is the voice and the vision of Shelton Group. Drawing on her extensive experience in energy and the environment – and 25+ years in the marketing and advertising industry – Suzanne provides high-level strategic insights for our clients and guidance for our research and creative departments. She regularly speaks at conferences around the country, including Sustainable Brands, Fortune Brainstorm E and the International Builders’ Show, and serves as a guest columnist for publications like Fast Company, Green Builder and GreenBiz.com.
Prior to founding the the nonprofit organization, Recycle Across America® in 2010, Mitch had over 20 years experience in communications and branding, serving Fortune 500 companies, as well as small to midsized companies. She has relied heavily on those communications and branding disciplines when developing the society-wide standardized labeling system for recycling bins.
Mitch’s passion is to improve the economic viability of recycling and closed loop manufacturing to thereby expedite environmental progress. To achieve this, she created the first and only society-wide standardized labeling system and Recycle Across America® (RAA) and Recycle Across the World® (501 c3 nonprofit organizations). Additionally, Mitch and RAA have launched the celebrity led "Let's recycle right!" PSA campaign to help the public know about the standardized label solution and the need to begin to recycle properly.
Dan Felton is Executive Director of AMERIPEN – the American Institute for Packaging and the Environment. He is a well-known policy and trade association leader who has worked within the bottled water, credit card, healthcare and information management industries. He is particularly passionate about environmental, sustainability and packaging issues and has engaged extensively in those areas at the state and federal levels. He has chaired committees and led task forces for several national trade associations and has served on the board of the State Government Affairs Council (SGAC) where he is a graduate of the their nationally recognized professional certificate programs. A former professional actor and musician, he has run the finances and served on the board of a nationally recognized theatre education non-profit. He has also been involved with the Commission on Presidential Debates since 2000 in support of their quad-annual presidential and vice presidential debates. A graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, Dan lives in the Washington DC area.
Mike Riola is the Sustainability Project Manager for the Rehrig Pacific Company. He has over 20 years of experience in the injection molding industry, with an extensive background in alternative plastic materials and rigid packaging. Mike leads the team focused on all sustainability initiatives.
Mike ensures Rehrig Pacific is on the cutting edge of alternative material use. He partners with Fortune 500 and environmental waste companies to find solutions to their recycling needs. He began his career as a Plant Engineer and evolved into positions including Plant Manager and Operations Manager; he brings this hands-on knowledge to his current role.
Betsy Dorn is one of three Principals at Circular Matters LLC, a consulting firm specializing in sustainable materials management and circular economy solutions for packaging, paper, and selected other materials. For over 30 years, Betsy has been assisting public and private sector clients develop plans, evaluate policies and operations, and launch new programs. In recent years, Betsy’s work has focused on the end-of-life management of packaging materials, packaging policy analysis and recycling market development. Prior to becoming a consultant, Betsy managed Mecklenburg County (Charlotte), N.C.’s Recycling Division for 6 years.
Betsy has an undergraduate degree in Biology and a Master of Science in Public Health degree in Environmental Sciences and Engineering. When not working you may find Betsy running, paddle boarding or mountain bike riding in her south Florida surroundings.
Thais Vojvodic is part of the New Plastic Economy initiative team at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which aims to bring together key players from around the world to rethink and redesign the future of plastic. With extensive experience in the private sector in Latin America, Thais joined the Foundation in May 2020 and is responsible for the development of Plastics Pacts in several different countries, including the US Plastics Pact.
Prior to founding Loopline, Anna gained 15+ years of experience in the fashion/retail industry and over a decade of experience in sustainability — working at global corporations, high-end avant garde shops, and launching her own eco-conscious fashion brand. She soon realized the need for a mindset change in the fashion/retail industry. She went on to evolve the “waste less” strategy used in her own brand by partnering with a start-up fashion technology company focused on retail recycling where she journeyed with them to win the H&M Global Change award in Stockholm, Sweden. She went on to create circular products/packaging, launching with Twitter, and continued to build products for global companies under her new company, Loopline. Recently, Loopline was selected as a featured innovation for STANFORD REBUILD 2020 (innovations in global solutions related to re-building after COVID-19 pandemic).
