- Brittany Onslow | Conference Producer, Smithers
- Brian Sansoni | Senior Vice President, Communications, Outreach & Membership, ACI
Brian Sansoni | Senior Vice President, Communications, Outreach & Membership, American Cleaning Institute
Brian T. Sansoni is the Senior Vice President of Communication, Outreach & Membership at the American Cleaning Institute. ACI is the trade association for the cleaning products industry in the United States, based in Washington D.C.
Since 2000, Mr. Sansoni has served as a spokesman for ACI and is responsible for the association’s external and internal communication activities, including media relations and promotion of the ACI’s technical, government affairs, sustainability and consumer education activities.
In 2012, he was named Vice President, Sustainability Initiatives, reflecting the work already done to build ACI’s sustainability programs that showcase how ACI members are leading the way in demonstrating sustainability every single day. This includes the 2011 release of the first-ever Sustainability Report for the U.S. cleaning products industry.
Mr. Sansoni also directs ACI’s membership development and member retention efforts.
Prior to joining ACI, Mr. Sansoni worked at the Grocery Manufacturers of America (now Grocery Manufacturers Association), the world’s largest association of food, beverage, and consumer product companies. While there, he served as Senior Manager for Public Policy Communications, working as a spokesman for association positions on issues like food biotechnology, food and product safety, obesity, and irradiation.
Melissa Hockstad joined the American Cleaning Institute as the President & CEO in January 2017. She is responsible for the overall leadership of ACI including advocacy, science and research, communications, consumer education, sustainability, financial oversight and member engagement.
Prior to joining ACI she served as Vice President, Petrochemicals at the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM). In this capacity, she was responsible for managing AFPM’s petrochemical activities including oversight of various petrochemical committees, organization of the International Petrochemical Conference, and providing support for addressing legislative, regulatory and communications issues impacting the petrochemicals membership.
She previously held positions at the Plastics Industry Association where she was the Vice President – Science, Technology and Regulatory Affairs, the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) where she served as Performance Improvement Director as well as at Basell Polyolefins (now LyondellBasell) where she was a Senior Engineer.
Melissa received a M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University and a B.S. in Engineering Science from the University of Virginia.
An astute strategy expert with a proven track record in actionable intelligence for business growth. A teacher, trend-spotter and big picture thinker who is expert new product innovation, consumer insights, competitive response, and strategic early warning.
Mr. Wolf is responsible for ensuring the design of sustainable products at Seventh Generation, Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of ecological household and personal care products. He is also responsible for creating frameworks for more sustainable businesses and more sustainable systems of commerce.
Mr. Wolf brings over 40 years of experience in industrial and environmental chemistry to his work, starting with environmental fate and metabolism studies for agricultural chemicals, followed by studies of the occurrence of hazardous chemicals in the environment, conducting life cycle studies of product systems, and designing more sustainable household cleaning products.
Working at Seventh Generation, Mr. Wolf has developed frameworks for environmental product design, helped educate his coworkers, customers, and consumers about the environmental impacts of consumer products and the industries that produce them, successfully lobbied for passage of phosphate bans in a number of states, helped develop standards for voluntary ingredient disclosure, and brought change to the cleaning products industry through more sustainable product designs.
Bio coming soon!
Lillian joined BASF 2020 as a participant in the PhD Leadership Development Program. She took on the role of Home Care Marketing Manager for the North American Care Chemicals business in September of 2022. Prior to joining BASF, Lillian completed her PhD in supramolecular chemistry at the University of Cambridge, and double majored in chemistry and Asian Studies at Williams College for her B.A.
15+
years of experience in the cosmetics,
personal care, and home care industry.
An exceptional creativity mindset,
leadership skills, a strong technical
sales and business development
background, and a deep understanding
of the Personal Care and Home Care
industry to drive growth in the
markets.
Chantal Bergeron, PhD, serves as the Chief Sustainability Officer at Lygos, and oversees the Home Care division. Her profound knowledge in Plant Sciences, Phytochemistry, and Analytical Chemistry culminated in a PhD from Switzerland, specializing in Pharmaceutical Sciences. With over 25 years of experience, she has made significant contributions to sustainable brands like Tom’s of Maine and Seventh Generation, as well as established consumer packaged goods corporations such as Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever, leading initiatives in research, product development, and innovation within the home and personal care sectors. Her contributions are extensively recorded in many peer-reviewed publications, and she holds several patents.. Chantal's purpose is to be a "Catalyst for aspirational change".
Blake Nanney is the Director of Government Relations at the American Cleaning Institute. In this role, Blake is responsible for leading ACI’s federal government affairs portfolio and the management of ACI’s Political Action Committee, ACI PAC.
Prior to joining ACI in 2023, Blake served as Federal Relations Senior Manager for the American Institute of Architects (AIA), where Blake lobbied on issues important to the profession of architecture. Prior to working in Washington, DC, Blake served on staff for the Illinois House of Representatives and also managed a successful state representative reelection campaign in 2016.
Blake attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science with a major in history.
Doug Gatlin is CEO of Green Seal, a global nonprofit organization and leading ecolabel dedicated to transforming the economy for a healthier, greener world.
A nationally recognized expert in the design, development and deployment of voluntary market transformation programs, Doug formerly held senior leadership positions with both the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC's) LEED Program and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ENERGY STAR Program. During his tenure at USGBC, he led the development of standards for existing buildings, schools, and neighborhoods; and later her ran building certification and personnel credentialing through USGBC’s sister organization, GBCI. Doug is experienced in ANSI/ISO standards development, conformity assessment and personnel certification requirements.
Doug holds a B.S. in Political Science from Duke University and an M.S. in Energy and Environmental Policy from Georgetown University.
Selechnik brings four years of experience in the fragrance sector, where he has focused on assessing the safety of fragrance materials. He most recently served as Senior Scientist at the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM), where he managed testing pipelines, communicated risk assessment approaches, and presented findings on collaborative research projects. Selechnik has a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from Ursinus College and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Sydney. His Ph.D. thesis received the Jabez King Heydon Memorial Prize for Best Thesis in the Biological Sciences. Upon graduating, Selechnik joined RIFM as a Post-Doctoral Scientist and has served in various scientific roles at RIFM since. In his role as Fragrance Creators’ Director, Regulatory Science, he will manage the association’s Regulatory Science Executive Committee.
Kris Weigal is Biobased Business Development-Senior Consultant for Omni Tech International. She joined the company 6 years ago after she served as Chief Commercial Officer at Resinate Materials Group, Inc. where she was responsible for directing the commercialization, sales/marketing and supply chain for the organization. As a proven director level leader, she brings insight to business strategy for commodity and specialty chemical companies, with expertise in the biobased chemicals industry.
Prior to joining Omni Tech International, Kris held several executive positions over her 38-year career in the chemical industry including Univar, Nanophase Technologies, and BioAmber.
Ms. Weigal holds a B.S. in Chemistry/Business and an M.B.A. in Operations and Production Management from the University of Wisconsin.
Kris Bosma is the Global Marketing Director for Home and Personal Care (HPC) at IFF. The HPC business is part of the Health & Biosciences organization at IFF that focuses on Biotech solutions that future proof the industry and expand the applications were biotechnology can be used. As the Global Marketing Director, Kris is responsible for setting and developing the marketing strategy of HPC. Kris joined the company in 2009 in a financial role, was the global segment leader for powder detergents and acted the regional director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for HPC, prior to starting as the Global Marketing director. Before joining IFF, Kris worked at Shell Global Solutions in Amsterdam. He obtained his MSc in Business Economics from the University of Amsterdam and currently lives in the city of Leiden in the Netherlands.
Kristen is an Application Development Specialist at Univar Solutions, where she supports the new CARE business, working with customers looking to innovate in the laundry, dish and hard surface cleaning space. She received a B.S. in Chemistry from Ohio State University and worked in R&D with Ashland’s Specialty Polymers and Adhesives group before joining Univar Solutions in 2018
Ross Ellis obtained his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh in 2009. He has worked as a research scientist in specialty chemicals in the UK, US, and now Norway. He currently works in the R&D department at the Borregaard Biorefinery in Norway, developing new biopolymers from sustainable Norwegian wood.
Kevin Goodall, Senior Director, Procter and Gamble R&D
Graduate Oxford University 1988, Chemistry
35 years experience in Global and regional FMCG Product Development R&D with P&G.
Now based in P&G in Brussels at one of P&Gs largest R&D facilities outside US, but managing teams and lived in US, Japan, UK during my professional life.
Bryan Parrish is an Associate Research Director – Cleaning Product Development at Clorox. Bryan has over 17 years’ experience in the CPG industry, leading technically complex initiatives and cross-functional, front end innovation teams in a wide range of product categories from sanitizing carpet cleaners, to concentrated film delivery systems, to ranch dressing. He holds a PhD in Polymer Science & Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a B.S. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Jessica Ek is the Senior Director, Digital Communications at the American Cleaning Institute. Ms. Ek has been with ACI since 2018, playing an essential role in leading the strategy, content creation and management of several websites, a multitude of social media channels and a consumer blog, among others.
Prior to joining ACI, Ms. Ek worked for about ten years at the American Nurses Association, formulating and sustaining the organization’s social media strategies and helping manage the association’s website. Before that, Ms. Ek worked as a copywriter and senior blog strategist for Connors Communications.
Ms. Ek has a B.A. in English from Drew University (Madison, NJ).
Olivia Barker leads producer recruitment, stakeholder engagement and communications efforts on behalf of Circular Action Alliance, a U.S., nonprofit Producer Responsibility Organization established to support the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility laws for paper and packaging. She has 15 years of experience leading policy, public affairs and communications initiatives for multi-national companies and clients spanning the food & beverage, retail, energy, environmental, technology, and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining Clear Strategy, Olivia led Amazon’s U.S. policy work on circular economy, packaging and recycling issues. She also worked for The Coca-Cola Company for 8 years, where she worked on packaging policy issues and held government relations and communications roles in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Tokyo, and Boston.