Speakers at this Event

Gavin is an Innovation Lead in UKRI – Innovate UK’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Team and has a track record in leading innovation projects developing sustainable products, material technologies and business models. Gavin has worked predominantly with polyolefin polymers and relevant performance-enhancing additives across a broad range of applications and polymer conversion technologies and is passionate about being part of a positive change around the way we use plastics.

Gavin looks after several of SSPP’s large-scale Demonstrator projects that are aiming to deliver major advances in chemical recycling, the mainstreaming of reusable packaging for ‘pre-filled’ and ‘refill’ business models, and food-grade PP recycling. He also manages many of SSPP’s Business-led R&D projects, from novel identification, sorting and tracking technologies to new recycling-friendly coatings and barrier materials.

Brendan is an experienced commercial specialist with a history of working in the finance and plastics industry. With a background in finance and retail banking in his native South Africa. Currently based in Europe, Brendan has represented major brands and major polymer suppliers in different sales and marketing roles, all with value selling at its heart.

For the last 8 years, at Braskem, Brendan's focus has been centred around the I’m green polyethylene, made of sugar cane, offering and in more recent years adding other circular Braskem's offerings under the corporate brand and recently launched brand, Wenew.

Mr. Bart Van Hoof has worked at SABIC for over 22 years, holding diverse functions in Sales, Marketing, Strategy and Business Management in the field of polymers and engineering plastics.

In his current role as Global Marketing & Competence Center Leader – Circular Economy, Bart oversees all aspects of Marketing related to SABIC’s TRUCIRCLE™ solutions, including business intelligence, value chain interaction, sustainable innovation, product marketing and new business (model) development. Furthermore, he leads a world class competence center for SABIC’s circular economy business by driving a global certification strategy, and setting up digitalization activities and differentiation initiatives in compliance to all relevant regulations.

He graduated with a Master of Applied Economic Sciences from KU Leuven University (Belgium) in 1994.  Bart resides in Bornem, a small village near Antwerp (Belgium) with his wife and son.

Werner Bosmans, a Belgian national, graduated as a bio-engineer at Ghent University, Belgium, and obtained a Ph.D. in international economics in Montpellier, France. He also holds a degree in Public Management. After some years in research, he worked as assistant to the heads of the Belgian and Flemish Ministry of Agriculture. He is also part-time professor at the ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles).

In 2005, he joined the Directorate-General Environment of the European Commission. He helped setting up the International Resource Panel with UNEP, co-authored the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe and initiated work around the Circular Economy. The last years, he developed the Plastics Strategy and the Directive on single use plastics. He is now the team leader for several follow-up actions on plastics.

Wiebe Schipper is the Vice President of European Operations and leads the team’s mission to establish and operate PureCycle’s first polypropylene recycling plant in Europe, in the Antwerp port’s NextGen District. He is also responsible for managing the commercial relationships with those local and global partners that are headquartered in Europe.

Wiebe is a Circular Business Leader, bringing almost 27 years of diverse chemical, plastics & recycling industry-experience from roles at LyondellBasell and predecessor companies. Before joining PureCycle in 2022, he was the CEO of QCP - Quality Circular Polymers, a JV group of companies active in mechanical recycling of plastic waste. Wiebe has a background in technology, manufacturing, business analysis, advocacy, commercial, supply chain and JV-management. He has led international teams responsible for LPG-trading, feedstock procurement, transport procurement, logistics operations, customer service and restructuring & integration. He also served as representative and board member at multiple industry associations and organizations.

Sustainability is a recurring theme throughout his career. Wiebe is a dual Engineering graduate (Chemical/Process Design) from Delft University.

Jiwon graduated from University Cologne, Germany with a master’s degree in environmental sciences. She has several years of professional experiences in certification scheme and supply chains. As a ISCC PLUS team lead, she’s involved in continuous development of ISCC PLUS standard with the team.

Steven is Commercial Director at ReVentas, with over 15 years of experience in the recycling industry across plastics and electronics. Steven has worked across Europe and South East Asia, and developed a number of patented technologies in that time and leads a team which identifies recycling challenges, develops solutions and matches those to industry needs. ReVentas is a result of identifying the key challenges facing users of recyclate today and seeks to change the dynamic of how plastic is recovered and reused into the future.

Steven’s experience gives him great insight into the recycled supply chains throughout Europe and the UK, while sitting on both the CEN and ISO committees for Plastic Recycling as a representative of the UK.

Charlotte de Montpellier is a Senior Economist at ING Belgium. She is responsible for economic forecasts for France and Switzerland and closely follows European and global macroeconomic developments. She has been working at ING since 2018, and before that was a research and teaching assistant at one of Belgium's major universities, UCLouvain.

Graham worked for Unilever for 23 years in a wide range of global roles in the supply chain, in R&D  and in Sustainability. Since 2009, Graham is the Managing Director of SLOOP who offer consulting services, project management and tools related to making packaging more sustainable.

Graham founded and is Project Coordinator at Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging (CEFLEX). CEFLEX  is a collaborative initiative by over 190 companies from across the flexible packaging value chain. They work to make flexible packaging even more relevant in the circular economy.

SLOOP also manages the CELAB (Self Adhesive Labels) initiative.

Nathalie Jude is the Global Product Sustainability Director of Aptar Closures. She has 30+ years of experience in the food and beverage packaging industry in both carton and plastic materials  and 10 + years at Aptar. She officially took over the new Product Sustainability role about 4 years ago. She is fully committed and is a strong believer in the future of Circular economy.

Christian Abl is Director Recycling at Reclay Group and responsible for the business unit "Recycling" of the international company. He has a professional background of 20 years in waste management business and cement manufacturing in Europe, South America, and the Middle East. Among his employers were companies like Holcim (today LafargeHolcim), Griffin Refineries, the Reclay Group and Saubermacher. Major parts of his career he has been responsible for the production, transportation of RDF in various plants as a general manager. Furthermore, he continuously worked on the improvement of RDF utilization at various cement plants. He has been working in business development, supply chain management, operations and general management related functions and owns a perfect set of skills as logistics and operations manager.
 
Mr. Abl holds a degree in business administration and economics from the University of Graz in Austria, he is CIEH Level 2 (Carthered Institute for Environmental Health, UK) certified OH&S Manager especially for cement industry and waste management and has passed several industry related courses in management and leadership at the University St. Gallen and the IMD in Lausanne.

Olivier has worked in the chemical industry for 14 years and held various positions at ExxonMobil throughout his career in manufacturing, sales, product management and market development. In his current role as Head of Primary Packaging Europe, Olivier’s team is responsible for helping our customers make the transition to circular plastic packaging solutions.