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Dora has a technical background with a Degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Science plus a Master in Communication and Scientific Journalism. She started her professional career at P&G in the USA (Cincinnati), then she moved to Rome (Italy) where she worked in R&D as Junior Manager for 3.5 years and continued her journey in Benckiser, which is now Reckitt, and spent more than 20 years working in R&D on several household cleaning products and many global brands. She developed experience in consumer research, product development, people and project management, innovation management and more recently on Sustainability.
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.
As a Regional Industry Leader for Home & Personal Care (HPC ) at IFF, I am responsible for delivering and executing the Global Industry Strategy in the EMEA region. I joined the company in 2009 in a financial role and held a commercial position within the homecare segment, prior to starting as the Regional Director in 2019, for the HPC Biotech business unit.
Before joining IFF, I worked at Shell Global Solutions in Amsterdam.
I obtained my MSc in Business Economics from the University of Amsterdam and I live in Leiden, the Netherlands.
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.
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.
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.
Søren Abildgaard holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Denmark. He joined Nopa Nordic in 2010 as project manager for laundry powders but soon after he became responsible for developing liquid laundry detergents. In this area Søren has developed several test-winning eco-labelled products. Søren is now heading the R&D team at Nopa Nordic – a team dedicated to developing sustainable and efficient home care products for the benefit of current and future generations.
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.
Thomas Kahl studied economics at the University of Applied Sciences in Moenchengladbach
He has over 25 years’ experience in sales and marketing in the European flexible packaging industry. His functional experience includes sales, marketing and project management. Since 2018 Thomas is leading the EcoSolutions project at Mondi focusing on sustainable packaging guided by the headline “paper where possible and plastic when useful”
Krzysztof Krajewski is currently Director Packaging Sustainability – Hygiene in Reckitt based in Amsterdam - Schiphol. The aim for this role is focusing on two functional areas: Regional-Global Sustainability – where a key to success is accelerated implementation of projects that fit local, individual countries recycling schemes and sourcing complexity with launches at scale with meaningful volumes that have a tangible impact on delivery towards Reckitt 2025 sustainability pledge. Krzysztof started his career over 20 years ago in plastics processing industry. After that moving to FMCG sector and joining Reckitt for the last 16 years, moving across several continents.
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.
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
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.
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
With a background in Master of Science in technology within the field of production and product development, he joined the R&D department in Nopa Nordic in 2018. In the role as Project Manager, he is responsible for carrying out the company packaging strategy. In his interests of material innovation, he is actively involved in circular partnership projects and has recent joined a Mini MBA program in Sustainable Management to support his structural work with sustainable development.
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.
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.
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.
Carlos is a Project Manager within Kline´s Chemicals and Materials division, with an extensive research experience across several markets such as Personal Care, Home Care, Surfactants and pharma. Carlos holds a Master in Chemical Engineering and Processes from URV university.
In 2015 Liselotte was part of a team of students that developed world’s first solar-powered family car: Stella. The team won the prestigious Tech Crunch Award in Silicon Valley, beating companies like Apple Pay and SpaceX. She pursued a career in innovation, combining her background in mechanical engineering and eagerness to use technology to make an impact, fulfilling multiple roles from setting up an innovation department to productmanagement for a new innovative technology portfolio. Last year she joined WeRefill as Chief Marketing Officer, a fast-growing company fully focused to reduce plastic packaging by introducing a revolutionary liquid dispenser.
Dr. Anke Schwarzenberger joined nova-Institute GmbH in 2022 and is working as a project manager in the communication department. Currently, she is part of nova’s team responsible for the communication and dissemination of three HORIZON Europe projects and supports the acquisition of new projects. On behalf of the Renewable Carbon Initiative, she conducts the newly established interview series with the RCI-partner companies.
Anke is a biologist and did her PhD at the University of Cologne in 2010. Since then, she had been working for 12 years as a senior scientist in the fields of limnology, ecotoxicology and anthropogenic stress at several institutions in Germany and abroad. In between, she worked as a gender consultant for the natural sciences department of the University of Konstanz and initiated and organised the ongoing series of events "Women in Aquatic Sciences". Furthermore, she is experienced in scientific writing, organising conferences and workshops and scripting scientific short films.
Boris is WGSN’s Director of Consumer and Market Insight, with nearly 25 years of experience in retail and FMCG analysis. Before joining WGSN, the world’s leading consumer and trend forecaster, Boris headed the German operations of Planet Retail / Edge by Ascential, focusing on disruptive forces and how they will shape the future of consumers and retail.
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.”
Ben Bonte obtained a masters degree in chemical engineering in Ghent, Belgium.
As the Product Development Formulation Manager at McBride he looks after the Manual Dishwash and Hard Surface Cleaners portfolio.
He’s responsible for the development of new sustainable formulations and the monitoring of new emerging technologies.
Ben joined the company in 2014 and has since held roles in Personal and Textile Care before taking over the Home Care segment.
Bahar Koyuncu works for A.I.S.E. as a Sustainability and Scientific Affairs Manager since 2022 and focuses on sustainability related topic such as Ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation. She completed her MSc in Sustainable Development following her studies in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Middle East Technical University, Turkey. Prior to joining A.I.S.E., she worked for Procter & Gamble as a Senior Scientist across different R&D functions including sustainable packaging development for 15 years. She is passionate about multi stakeholder collaboration and science in the transition to a circular economy.
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.
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.
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.
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.
As Ocean Ambassador of the Netherlands, Willemijn Peeters is an established international speaker on circular plastics. Being highly committed to preventing plastics from ending up in our environment, Willemijn founded Searious Business, a social enterprise that makes the difference in the world of plastics. She works together with highly motivated international brand owners to close the plastic loop in 3 impact sectors: packaging, furniture, consumer electronics. Creating innovative, economically advantageous alternatives at the source, Searious Business strategically assesses internal plastic use, accelerates circular product & business innovation, and reduces external impacts on ocean ecosystems.
Willemijn has been awarded with several titles:
-Ocean Ambassador of the Netherlands;
-Green Solutions partner of the European Commission;
-Leader in Sustainable Top 100 in the Netherlands;
-Member of Dutch circular economy transition team;
-Winner Plastic Recycling Europe Award 2018;
-Winner National Energy Globe Award 2018;
- Developer of fully recyclable drink pouch
-Co-developer of Oceans and Plastics Platform, IUCN;
-Initiator of circular product line: 276pieces.com;
-Developer of Design Sofa from >95% recycled plastics (mainly packaging materials.)
www.seariousbusiness.com
