Filip has a background in business psychology and has started to specialize in home care as the industry project lead and as Consultant for home and technology industries at Euromonitor. He provides analysis on trends and developments, with special emphasis on broader consumer trends and areas where home care overlaps with other industries. This big picture view helps clients to learn about opportunities and threats, and to take informed strategic decisions.
Andre Chieffi is the Senior Manager of the Surface Science Platform at Reckitt. His team works on the development of new technologies across the Reckitt’s hygiene business including the mega brands Lysol, Finish, Vanish, Harpic and others.
Before joining Reckitt in 2020, Andre did a PhD in Organic Chemistry (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and University of Waterloo, Canada), a postdoc in catalysis (MIT, USA) and worked for almost 20 years at P&G (R&D centers in UK, Mexico and Brazil). As result, he has experience in several R&D areas, including: surfactants, polymers, enzymes, bleach, antimicrobials, encapsulation, active delivery and catalysis.
Roel Hermant has a PhD in Chemistry and worked >30 years in Homecare Global product development in various content-business settings: Unilever R&D – Supply Chain (1992-2012), Enzyme application at Genencor (2012-2017) and as an independent consultant (2017-now). In 2018 he founded the platform “FRAMES Formulation Intelligence”, together with Dr. Jean-Paul Janssens.
Nikola Matic is a Vice President for Kline Chemicals practice, with global business responsibilities over Kline’s syndicated titles. With 15 years of extensive international market research experience mainly in the specialty chemicals area, he is responsible for managing Kline flagship titles in the chemical area, as well as developing new products.
Lisa Sligting studied chemistry in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with a Masters in Science, Business and Innovation. Since eight years she has been working for the chemical industry and since 2018 she works for the Dutch trade organisation for detergents. Here she has a focus on sustainability related topics, such as packaging, eco-design, green claims and sustainability labels.
Dr. Yash Parulekar is the global lead on product strategy and stewardship at MonoSol. Yash in his role as product steward for MonoSol’s entire product portfolio of water-soluble, biodegradable films oversees product strategy, product line management, technical reputation management, sustainability, and social responsibility.
Yash has been with MonoSol since 2011 in various roles in technical marketing and business strategy development. His expertise areas include bio-based materials, water-soluble polymers, unit-dose detergents, and
packaging and has to his name multiple patents and peer-reviewed publications. Prior to MonoSol, Yash worked in technical roles at Encapsys and Appleton Performance Packaging both in Wisconsin.
Yash serves on technical, regulatory, and sustainability committees and task-forces at the American Cleaning Institute in the US and at the European detergent Industry association (AISE). Yash is also on the advisory board for packaging at Cal Poly University’s Orfalea College of Business.
Yash graduated from the University of Pune in India with a degree in Polymer Engineering followed by graduate work at Clemson (M.S. Materials Science and Engineering) and Michigan State University (Ph. D. Packaging Science). Yash and his wife Aishwarya have 2 young pre-teen children and they all enjoy traveling and martial arts together as a family.
Stanley Mitchell is Head of Business Development at Xampla, a company which has created the world’s first plant protein material for commercial use, pioneering the replacement of the most polluting plastics with natural alternatives.
A graduate from the University of Oxford, with a Masters degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, Stanley is responsible for commercialising Xampla’s novel plant-protein-based biopolymer technology. Prior to Xampla, Stanley worked as a consultant at Innovia where he helped multinational blue-chip companies develop and deploy breakthrough innovation.
Jiten Dihora is a chemical engineer by training. His expertise in microencapsulation stems from his 19-year tenure at Procter & Gamble where he commercialized microcapsules in various laundry formulations, as well as his current role at Trucapsol LLC where he has helped commercialize novel microcapsules for use in personal care products.
Christopher vom Berg works for nova-Institute since October 2017 and has worked on various projects for the Sustainability department and for the Economy & Policy department. In 2020, Christopher was co-responsible for founding the Renewable Carbon Initiative (RCI), where he, due to the growth and success of the RCI, took over increasing responsibilities over time.
Today, he is one of two Executive Managers of the RCI. In his daily business, Christopher mostly works on managing and further growing the RCI, developing strategic concepts for transforming the chemical industry towards renewable carbon, and investigating policies and regulations that impact the renewable carbon family.
Christopher completed a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master/Diplom-Ingenieur in “Natural Resources Management and Ecological Engineering”, with emphasis on biotechnology, sustainability in a globalized economy and ecosystems.
Judith Friesl has established and leads Yordas Group’s European subsidiary, taking responsibility for the subsidiary’s strategic direction, project delivery and financial performance. She is actively involved in the management of large regulatory, compliance and product stewardship projects. Judith is also involved in several large-scale EU-funded research projects on risk assessment for nanomaterials and Safe and Sustainable for Design and she is an active member of the Nanosafety Cluster.
Tony has a chemical engineer background with 15 years’ experience in the Home Care Industry mainly spent in two companies:
- Novozymes where he was working as Technical Service Manager aiming to facilitate implementation of innovative enzyme technology in Home Care formulations
- Arkema where he was Business Development Manager for surfactant market. He was responsible for the strategy and R&D innovation pipeline
He joined Symrise 1.5 years ago as Global Category Director to develop the Home Care category.
Najwa’s career in professional cleaning started in 2005, during her first job for distribution of cleaning detergents to the professional cleaning sector.
She built up her experience in raw materials starting 2008 with a distribution of chemicals raw materials all over Middle East; Across the years
she earned a good experience in different sectors such as ink, plastics, cosmetics, Personal Care and Home Care.
Today, Najwa is the Business Development Manager for the Home Care and professional cleaning at Arkema; based in France ,
her role is to contribute to the international development of the global commercial and technical activities in coordination with the R&D, sustainable, regulatory and communication team.
Najwa holds a bachelor’s degree in general chemistry and a Master’s degree in Marketing and Communication from ESCP business school, France.
Ronald Lieffering is an international sales and marketing executive with 40+ years’ experience in the specialty chemical industry. He joined Locus Performance Ingredients in 2022 as VP EMEA to drive expansion for the biotech company’s global biosurfactant ingredient business. Ronald has a BSc in Chemistry, and his career has spanned a wide array of industrial areas, including detergents, adhesives, resins and acrylic monomers. He is an expert in new business development in specialty and commodity chemicals.
Silvia Jentsch is a graduate engineer from the Lemgo University of Applied Sciences in the field of cosmetics and detergents. In 1997 she joined ROVI GmbH in Schlüchtern as a sales representative for scientific and technical customer service in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. From 2005 to 2007 she worked temporarily at Dreiturm GmbH in Steinau in the Personal Care application laboratory. After her family time and a social commitment as a personal assistant to a disabled child in school integration, Silvia joined Azelis Deutschland Kosmetik GmbH in 2014 as Sales Manager Personal Care for Germany and Switzerland. Since 2019, she has been working for Evonik Cleaning Solutions as Manager Technical Service in the EMEA region.
PhD in chemistry - > 20 years experience in household care/detergent industry: 10 years R&D and Technical Sales Support in Clariant - 2 years heading Technical Customer Support team in Propack (= RB private label division) - 3 1/2 year Industry Technology Specialist in Novozymes - since 4 years HHC (household care) Market & Insights Manager in Novozymes.
Vivian Loftin studied International Cultural & Business Studies at the Universities of Mannheim and Passau. After her studies, she worked for a year in Mexico in a cultural centre in the field of intercultural cooperation. As part of an innovation programme on the topic of "Waste - Be Circular", she and her team started working on the idea for Recyda. In March 2020, she founded Recyda as a company with her two co-founders and is now in charge of communication and international data research.
Geoffrey Stijfs is a Technical Sales Manager at Sappi. He is responsible for the global market development of Fibrillated Cellulose – branded as Valida – in emerging applications, piecing together value proposition and pitting them against the market demand, identifying key new applications in the process.
Geoffrey has a master’s degree in Life Sciences, with a specialization in biomaterial science, surface and fiber chemistry. After graduating, he joined the Sappi team to coordinate production teams and balance the system chemistry following significant process changes. After several years, he transferred his activities to the fibrillated cellulose team to maximize business potential by utilizing his fundamental understanding of fibers.
To close, Geoffrey’s mindset closely relates to a famous quote from Thomas Edison:
“There is a way to do it better. Find it.”
Jeffrey M. Sanders received his B.S. in applied physics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and then his Ph.D. in biophysics and molecular pharmacology from Thomas Jefferson Medical College. Since joining Schrodinger in 2013, Jeff has served several roles in both the scientific and technical aspects of computational chemistry software. He is currently a principal scientist in the materials science division focusing on physics-based simulations in consumer packaged goods applications
Mauro Davanzo is a chemist with 25 years of experience in different sectors, among which Cleaning and Hygiene from different perspectives. The most relevant experiences have been with Reckitt, AkzoNobel, IFF, and Vileda.
He has always been interested in the consumer science and to innovative solutions which can improve the life at home