Antonello Ciotti

President PETCORE Europe, Chairman in CPME, Commission of the European Manufacturers of PET, representing all the European producers

He has a long-term story as Dow Plastic employee in different roles mainly in the PET business as Global Commercial Director in Equipolymers and in plastic recycling as Sr. Business Development Director EMEAI in Dow Plastics & Specialty Plastic Recycling. Antonello is Past President and actually Deputy Chairman in Corepla, the Italian EPR scheme for plastic packaging recycling.

Christian Crepet

Executive Director of PETCORE Europe

With a commercial and executive business management background, Christian-Yves Crépet started his career with Dow Chemical and went on with Eni Chem both in France and other European countries. Before running Petcore Europe, he has been the Managing Director of the French 50 kt/pa PET&HDPE recycling company Sorepla Industrie for the last 21 years.

​

He is very familiar with the PET and the Polyolefin Industry. Having been a member of Petcore since 1993, became a director and treasurer. Also, for the past 15 years, Vice-President of PRE (Plastics Recyclers Europe), Chairman and founder of it’s HDPE/PP WG and Vice-Chairman of the PET WG.

Jim Armstrong

Chairman, Recoup UK

Jim has over 40 years involvement in the PET Industry primarily within the Wellman Group (now Indorama Ventures) where among other roles, he was responsible for Recycling of PET and associated polymers. He presently serves as Chairman of the Board of Recoup/UK , is a Management Committee member  of Plastic Recyclers Europe and of the BPF Recycling Group, having formerly served as a President of the  French Plastic Recyclers and as a Board member of CSEMP(Elipso) - ( French Converters).

Raphael Jaumotte

Technical Manager, PETCORE Europe

He has been for more than 20 years in the business of PET recycling. Held various positions related to quality, environment, operations, purchasing and projects. His last position prior to joining Petcore Europe, was Director of Projects and Quality for the Plastipak Beaune (FR) operation producing more than 45.000T/y of food grade rPET for Plastipak’s preform injection operations with the main focus on continuously improving quality and output. He was formerly a board member and a treasurer of Petcore Europe and a board member of the French Elipso association. Raphael is based near Nuits-Saint-Georges in France.

Stephen Short

PETCORE Europe

Stephen Short has served the PET industry for over 40 years in several functions. Besides graduating through the industrial aspects with Eastman Chemical and subsequently Indorama Ventures, he has served the value chain in his engagement in advocacy through Plastics Europe, Committee of PET Manufacturers Europe (CPME), and eventually PETCORE. He was instrumental in establishing CPME as the platform for the PET Producers, serving as Chairman for six years. He has been holding the position of President PETCORE from 2019 to 2022.

Mike Neal

Chairman of the HSE WG, of CPME, also working on PING/GENI, Monomer Recycling WG and EPBP.

Mike Neal is Chairman of the HSE WG, of CPME, also working on PING/GENI, Monomer Recycling WG and EPBP. He represents the industry in DG Sante Food Contact materials WG, he is member of the PET Industry NIAS Group (PING), Petcore Technical Committee and the European PET Bottle Platform (EPBP) he also manages four REACH Consortia.

Vincent Colard

Packaging Ecodesign Team Manager at Citeo

He started in 2008 at Elipso, the French Plastic and Flexible Packaging Association as Environmental project manager. Then, he joined Eco -Emballages/Citeo in 2016 as Packaging Ecodesign Engineer and now managing the ecodesign team dedicated to plastic and metal packaging.

Ana Fernández

Klöckner Pentaplast – Food Packaging Global Innovations Director

Ana holds a PhD in chemistry and has over 30 years of experience in the food packaging sector. She has practically developed her entire career in the food packaging multinational company LINPAC Packaging  as Technical and Operations Director of the Pravia plant in Spain, being responsible  for  product  and process design, detailed engineering, plant operation and business improvement.

Argiris Dabanlis

Technical Manager at PETCORE Europe

He possesses MEng, MSc, MBA, has technical, and executive business background and experience. Argiris started his career at Petzetakis – Pipelife plastic pipe industry and then, he moved to FMCG area. He worked for Coca-Cola Hellenic in Greece and Armenia and then, moved to The Coca-Cola Company, holding senior technical position for Central-Southeastern Europe Business Unit. His area of expertise packaging and packaging development, end to end supply chain, package, product development and operations management.
 

Stefan Kunerth

Technical Operations Director at The Coca -Cola Company, Europe

Experienced Head of Technical with a demonstrated history of working in the food & beverages industry. Work experiences in corporate function with a matrix organizational setup as well as operational functions on plant level. Wide-ranging and in-depth knowledge in several areas, including Beverage Technology, Supply Chain, Packaging, Food Safety, Sustainability, Innovation. 19 year with the Coca-Cola System in various SC function, since 2020 Technical Operations Director – Western Europe

Antonello Ciotti

President PETCORE Europe, Chairman in CPME, Commission of the European Manufacturers of PET, representing all the European producers

He has a long-term story as Dow Plastic employee in different roles mainly in the PET business as Global Commercial Director in Equipolymers and in plastic recycling as Sr. Business Development Director EMEAI in Dow Plastics & Specialty Plastic Recycling. Antonello is Past President and actually Deputy Chairman in Corepla, the Italian EPR scheme for plastic packaging recycling.

Nicolas Lorenz

Chief Commercial Officer of PACCOR

​

Nicolas Lorenz was born in Mannheim, Germany, in 1968. He joined PACCOR in September 2014 as the Northern Europe Managing Director and later moved on to the position of Vice President Sales. Since 2019, he is also Board member of PETCORE Europe and Co-chairman of the tray work group. Mr. Lorenz possesses profound knowledge in areas such as packaging and product technologies, sustainable growth, customer care, trading, and sales.

​

Laure Baillargeon

Policy officer at the Directorate-general for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) at the European Commission

Laure has been working at DG GROW since 2007 in the area of internal market and industrial competitiveness policies, from eco-design to strategic value chains and new technology to plastics. She currently works in the Green and Circular Economy unit of DG GROW, which acts as Secretariat and Chair of the Steering Committee of the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA).

Bruno Langlois 

Carbios

Bruno Langlois, PhD, graduated from Clarkson University, NY, USA. Over 25 years of experience in the chemical industry to develop business with innovative chemistries and establish long term partnerships. Bruno is passionate about innovations. Carbios, with its unique technical solution, business model, and ability to make PET circular is a perfect fit to passionately address the major issues to transition to a more sustainable economy by reducing our plastic and textile waste.

Sofiane Mameri

Sustainable Development Manager at Sleever International

He joined the Marketing Department as Communication Executive in 2012, to become Head of Marketing & Communication in 2017. Presently responsible for sustainable development products, he promotes to worldwide brands all the added value and benefits of shrink sleeve recycling technologies. With an intricate understanding of the customers expectations in terms of packaging eco-design and differentiation, Sofiane has provided valuable insight to multiple customers and partners.

Fabrizio Di Gregorio

Technical Director of Plastics Recyclers Europe

Fabrizio Di Gregorio received an Honors Degree in Environmental Science and Technology and a PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Naples. He spent 10 years as researcher and lecturer at the University of Naples in mechanical, chemical, and biochemical processes, as well as in life cycle assessment. He was invited lecturer at the Denmark Technology University and at the Technology University of Wien. He spent 2 years as R&D manager at CONAI, the Italian EPR scheme. Currently he is Technical Director of Plastics Recyclers Europe and in charge of RecyClass, a technical value chain initiative working with a scientific-based approach on recyclability and recycled content for plastics.

​

Sebastian Lemp

Public Affairs and Circular Economy Specialist at ALPLA

Sebastian Lemp has been working for ALPLA as a Public Affairs and Circular Economy Specialist since October 2020. The 30-year-old Austrian has been living in Brussels since 2015, where he has gathered extensive experience in the fields of public affairs and communications after graduating in Corporate Communication at the Université Libré de Bruxelles. Before joining ALPLA, Sebastian worked almost three years for Petcore Europe. He is still active within the association and chairs the recently launched working group focusing on the increasingly important topic of reuse.

Casper van den Dungen

Vice president Plastics Recyclers Europe

Casper is also Chairman Working Group PET, Member technical committee EPBP, Member steering board EPBP, Chairman Technical committee PETCORE Europe, Member of BoD PETCORE Europe. Casper is more than 20 years active in PET recycling. He started as mechanical engineer with a specialization in Plastic processing. Gained experience in Explorative Research and Development as well as heading a Plastic processing using recycled materials.

Clarissa Morawski 

CEO of the Reloop Platform

In 2015 Canadian Clarissa Morawski co-founded and is currently the CEO of the Reloop Platform, (headquarters in Brussels) – an international  not-for-profit that supports proactive policy to further a circular economy. Reloop collaborates using value-chain networks that provide technical and analytical expertise to help better define, communicate and deploy waste minimization policies and operations. Clarissa brings over 25 years of technical, analytical and communications experience in waste minimization policy and operations with a specific interest in extended producer responsibility programs, cost and performance. 

Larry Logan

Chief Evangelist for Sustainability Solutions

Mr. Logan is leading the company’s efforts to create a harmonized industry solution for the automatic identification of plastics and other waste, through a form of technology generically referred to as digital watermarking. By giving each waste object its own unique identity that can be discovered by sortation equipment, industry will achieve increased quality and quantity of yields of recyclates to meet the sustainability targets of manufacturers, dual system and facility operators, and government agencies. And, as importantly, to enable consumers to engage with packaging objects through their smartphones to be directed to proper disposal even based on their location or waste service provider.

Andy Grant

Technical Director at Eunomia Research & Consulting

Andy Grant has extensive experience of operational waste management gained from managing and consulting on waste collection and recycling processes. His practical experience has led him to become a technical expert and advisor in the fields of waste and recycling collections, materials, processing facilities, service design, and efficiency savings. This has been generated from past work across a range of project both for the European Commission, governmental and private sector clients. Andy is currently contributing to several PETCore technical working groups and providing advice on the development of policy issues.

Eric Randall

Director of Recycling, Bryson Recycling

Eric is a serial social entrepreneur who started his career in recycling in 1989 with co-operative Bradford Waste Chasers. Since 1992 Eric has led the development of Bryson Recycling which now employs over 300 staff and is a leading provider of a wide range of household recycling services in Northern Ireland, Donegal and Wales. He recently set up an Industry Working Group to look at a digital solution to the introduction of deposit return schemes (DRS), and in 2020 Bryson successfully trialled the UK’s first digital DRS in Whitehead, Northern Ireland.

Luc Desoutter

Sustainability officer, Sidel

Luc joined SIDEL 31 years ago, experiencing new technology, packaging, packaging materials and development programs. Since 2018 as sustainability officer he oversees the sustainability transformation across Sidel group, interacting with the key stakeholders and business partners.

Filipe de Botton 

Logoplaste Executive Chairman

He was born in 1958, is a father of 3 and grandfather of 4, Filipe de Botton has a Bachelor's degree in Business Management from "Universidade Católica Portuguesa”. From 1985 to 1990, Filipe de Botton was a Founder and Member of the Board of Interfinança, a private bank sold to Millennium BCP, and, between 1990 and 1991, he was a Founder and Member of the Board of Fonsecas & Burnay, Sociedade Gestora de Património, which is now part of the BPI group. In 1976, he founded Logoplaste with his father and became CEO and main shareholder in 1991. Logoplaste is one of the main worldwide producers of rigid plastic. It has 70 factories in 16 countries – in Europe, NAFTA, Vietnam and Brazil – with sales of over 600 million euros.

Nizar Benismail

PHD in physical chemistry from the Henry Poincaré University of Nancy 1 and an Executive MBA from ICN Business school

He has more than 20 years’ experience leading teams in the field of analytical science and R&D at different companies in the petrochemical, nuclear, food, feed, hospital health, animal health, environment, and water fields. In 2013, Nizar joined Nestle Waters as Head of the Nestlé Quality Assurance Center located in Vittel, France. Nizar is a member of NMWE’s Quality & Regulatory Committee (QRC) and the leader of NMWE’s Task Force on Microplastics.

Ian Smith

UK Business Development Manager Machinex

Ian Smith initially having worked with Machinex as a consultant for several years, Ian joined them four and half years ago as the UK Business Development Manager, with a degree of involvement across Europe and other areas of the world. Ian’s previous experience has included roles such as, project manager, operations director, technical consultant , clients representative and expert witness. These roles have ranged from small projects for independent companies through to larger projects for major waste management companies, councils, and local authorities.

Maria Spyraki

Member of the European Parliament with Nea Demokratia party - European People's Party (EPP)

Maria has worked for 22 years as a journalist in the private sector, and she is a member of the Union of Editors of Macedonia and Thrace. As a journalist she has participated in missions to Southeast Europe (Skopje, Cyprus, Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro). Since 1998 and until March 2014 she worked as a political reporter. At the European Elections of 2014 she was elected first Member of the European Parliament with Nea Demokratia and she joined the European People’s Party. She is a member of the Committees on Regional Development (REGI) and on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), as well as a member of the EU-FYROM Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Hélène Legrand

Materials Engineer at VALORPLAST

Since the beginning of her career, Hélène Legrand has been keen to put environmental issues at the heart of her missions. Therefore, since early 2020, she joined the VALORPLAST teams as a Materials Engineer to commit to increasing the recycling rate of household plastic packaging. By creating strong and lasting partnerships with sorting centers, regenerators and packaging producers, she is today specialized in the recycling of PET packaging and is managing several R&D projects concerning this resin. In addition to this, Hélène LEGRAND actively participates in the COTREP (Technical Committee for the Recyclability of Plastic Packaging), which determines in France the guidelines for ecodesign of household packaging for the entire sector of activity.

Gian De Belder

Technical Director - R&D Packaging Sustainability

Gian is a technical director and packaging technologist at Procter & Gamble (P&G), one of the largest consumer packaged goods companies in the world. In his 20+ year career at P&G, Gian has helped drive R&D into sustainable packaging across the company. With experience in upstream technologies, sustainable resins and EU funding projects, Gian has been involved in developing key partnerships across the value chain and managing open innovation through P&G’s Connect & Develop Programme.

To help drive cross-sector collaboration, Gian is a board member of Petcore Europe (the association representing the complete PET value chain in Europe), next to being very active in Plastic Recyclers Europe’s Recyclass platform (chair of advisory board and steering board member). Gian is also active in other cross value chain associations such as Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), Ceflex, and others. He is also a regular speaker at Packaging Conferences.

Bernhard Heisel

Schwarz Gruppe

2000- 2012 Schoeller Wavin Systems (now Schoeller Alibert)

- Director TQM Germany - until 2010

- Group Manager Technical Materials, Regulation Affairs & Recycling – EMEA until 2012

Working on Quality, R&D and legal issues regarding plastics processing, additives and recycling for food and non-food contact applications

– focus materials: HD-PE, PP, PET & rHD-PE, rPP, rPET for food contact and transport packaging solutions

2012-2016 Mauser Group

- Specialist Plastics Recycling

Planning, Engineering and Projecting a new Recycling Facility for used industrial packaging (IBC, drums and jerry cans) in Erkelenz, Germany

– focus materials: HD-PE & rHD-PE for industrial packaging (dangerous goods / UN-approvals)

2016- now MEG Weissenfels / Schwarz-Gruppe

- Senior Expert Plastics & Recycling

Working on R&D (e.g. recycling processes), food contact issues, plastics processing and operational projects (plant extensions, machinery, engineering)

– focus materials: PET & rPET for food contact (beverages).

Alessandro Pirondini

CPME

Alessandro Pirondini is the Vice-Chairman of CPME, the Committee of the PET Manufacturers in Europe.Since joining CPME in 2015, he has been working with the other CPME members to ensure that the European PET industry is sustainable and can develop and grow by focusing on stakeholders' needs.

Alessandro Pirondini has over 20 years of experience in various positions in the PET industry.

Today, Alessandro Pirondini is Sales Director for vPET, rPET and flakes at Indorama in Europe.

Antoine Bourely

Pellenc

Antoine Bourely was a co-founder of Pellenc ST company in 2001 and has led the technology developments of all optical sorters within the company. Pellenc ST has grown from 7 people in 2001 to 220 people today, with a 70 % export share. Today, he is Chief Scientific Officer, with a special interest in Design for Recycling issues. He is also in charge of the introduction of digital watermarks into our sorting technologies, within the Holy Grail 2.0 project.

Dr. Suzanne De Cort 

Sustainable Food Packaging Solutions

Compliance and Regulatory Affairs. Suzanne De Cort has gained over 20 years of experience in analytical, scientific, and regulatory affairs within a multinational food business operator. Specialised in sustainable food contact packaging, she developed a holistic view of European and national policies and provides clients with analytical, scientific, and regulatory support in the development and use of sustainable food packaging solutions, including the design of regulatory compliance processes and performing compliance assessments.

Dr. Leonor Garcia

Chemicals & Packaging Materials

Sustainable transformations strategies. Leonor supports clients with scientific, regulatory and advocacy expertise. She helps companies in setting and progressing forward–looking sustainable goals on the use of chemicals and selection of packaging materials to make Green Deal ambitions a market reality. Leonor has gained over 30 years of industry working experience in R&D, Innovation, Manufacturing, and Regulatory and Public Affairs within the Petrochemicals, Chemicals Specialties and Food Industries.

Sam Rowe

Caro Consulting

Sam Rowe is a communications consultant with over 35 years’ experience. She has spent her career working in large network consultancies and moved to Brussels in 1997 having spent the first 15 years of her working life in London.

Sam now runs her own business advising a range of public and private sector clients on communications and lobbying. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and a past-president of the International Association of Business Communicators in Belgium.