Jim Armstrong

Recoup Recycling

Jim Armstrong 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.   

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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 President of the  French Plastic Recyclers and as a Board member of CSEMP(Elipso)-( French Converters).  

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He is a founder member of the Recoup WG which first published “Recyclability by Design” in 2006.     

Christian Crepet

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.

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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.

Stephen Short

Petcore Europe

Stephen Short, President PETCORE Europe, 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 the PET Producers, serving as Chairman for six years. He has been holding the position of President PETCORE since 2019.

Laure Baillargeon

European Commission

Laure Baillargeon is a 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 the 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).

Antonello Ciotti

Chairman of CPME

Antonello Ciotti is at present 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. 

Ana Fernández

Klöckner Pentaplast

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.

During  more than  five years she was part of  the Innovation  Department  of LINPAC being  fully involved in all projects related with  the utilization of postconsumer recycled materials for the  production of recyclable packaging  for food applications.

Currently, since the acquisition of LINPAC by Klöckner Pentaplast in July 2017, she is  Innovation Director of the Food Packaging division.

Ana is  co-chair of the PETcore thermoforming working Group  and is  also active in other industry associations such ANEP, ANAIP and others.

Jean-Francois Briois

Nestlé Waters

Jean-François BRIOIS is the Head of Nestlé Waters’ global R&D efforts on Packaging Material Science and Environmental Sustainability. As part of his current role, he supervises all work on food contact materials, renewable and low carbon packaging materials for the bottled water and beverage categories. Under his leadership, Nestle Waters R&D is developing packaging solutions with superior environmental performance and embedding circular economy principles, both inside and outside Nestlé Waters, while keeping consumers and product quality at the heart of all developments.

Jean-Francois represents Natural Mineral Water Europe as a technical expert in the European PET Bottle Platform and has co-funded the PING work group on the harmonization of NIAS analysis in PET packaging.
Before joining Nestlé Waters in 2008, Jean-François was Technical Director of Tergal Industries and pioneered the development of food grade rPET.

He holds an Ingénieur Degree in Organic chemistry and Analytical Sciences at ESCPE Lyon and a MSc on Petrochemistry at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology

Casper van den Dungen

Poly Recycling Ag

Casper has been active in PET recycling for more than 25 years. He started as mechanical engineer with a specialisation in plastic processing. He has been responsible for PolyRecycling since

2000, worked in multiple concepts to make a food grade RPET and is experienced in all RPET applications. He jointly founded the European Plastics Recyclers Association, EuPR, in 1997,

which is now called Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE). Casper has been Vice President of PRE and Chairman of the Working Group PET ever since. He jointly founded EPBP in 2008 and became

member of the Steering Board and the Technical Committee. Since 2013 he is part of Petcore Europe in the Technical Committee and BoD, as well as Vice President since 2016. PET recycling has been his work and hobby for more than 25 years.

Frédéric Durand

Tomra 

Frédéric Durand is the Head of TOMRA sorting France, a subsidiary of the Norwegian group TOMRA, based in Montpellier. Frédéric joined TOMRA in 2008 to develop the commercial activities. Since 2010, Frédéric is also the worldwide PET segment champion for TOMRA, this position gives to him a large knowledge about each specific requirement for any countries in the world, a must to roll out such industrial project. Today, Frédéric has more than 15 years of experience in the optical sorting sector applied to the recycling of materials and waste. 

With a technical background, this industry enthusiast began his career in the mechanical engineering department in 1998, before taking up a position as a sales engineer consultant for special machines.

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He recently completed his initial technical training as a mechanical engineer with a Master 2 Executive MBA from IAE Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Alessandra Funcia

Sukano

Alessandra Funcia is Global Head of Marketing and Head of Sales EMEA at Sukano AG, where she is responsible for the planning, development, and implementation of marketing strategies and communication activities, with a focus on polyester resins, recyclability, and bioplastics. As the Head of Sales EMEA, her responsibilities are in the leadership, management, and development of sales and the sales team in EMEA.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of São Paulo (USP), an Executive MBA at Fundação Dom Cabral (member of EMBAC), and a Post Grad in Innovation, Design, and Strategy in the Packaging Market from the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM, member of EMBAC). 

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Alessandra has 20 years of experience working in leading global & regional roles at multinational companies focused on the color and additives masterbatches business.

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Paolo Glerean

Aliplast

Dr. Paolo Glerean n. 05.02.1970 in Codroipo – UD/Italy Education/ Academic studies 1995 Degree in Economics at Trieste University. Current job/responsibilities Aliplast spa, Ospedaletto di Istrana (TV), Italy, 2011 to present Head of Sales and Marketing Business Development and Institutional Affairs Plastics Recyclers Europe Association – board member since 2012 and chair of the RecyClass Platform European Plastics Converters Packaging Excom – member since 2014 Assorimap (Italian plastics Recyclers Association) – board member since 2013 PETCORE EUROPE – Co-chairman of PET TRAYS Working Group since 2015 PET Sheet Europe (Sector Group of EuPC) – Past President and Vice-President since Jan 2019 Professional career Consultant, 2010 to 2011, In Business administration, managing of plastics recycling companies, R&D on plastics recycling. Chenna spa, Z. I. Ruscletto – 33030 San Vito di Fagagna (UD), Italy, (plastic recycling – production of furniture parts and decking) 2001 to 2010 CEO Crabo spa, Via del Cristo 60 – 33044 Manzano (UD), Italy, (furniture production)1996 to 2000 Head of R&D department - head of technical department.

Patrick Laevers

Fost Plus

Patrick Laevers is a business leader with a successful track record of developing and implementing sustainable operational strategies. Since 2018 he heads Fost Plus, the not-for-profit organization that is responsible for the recycling chain of household packaging in Belgium. Before that, he served as managing director Belgium and executive board member at Shanks Group plc. After its merger with Van Gansewinkel Groep bv in 2017, he became group business development director of Renewi plc. Giving substance to the circular economy has been the focus of his career. Patrick Laevers holds an PhD in applied sciences for the Free University of Brussels and a MBA in industrial business administration from Vlerick management school, thus combining business insights with technical knowledge of complex industrial processes.

Sebastian Lemp

ALPLA Group

Sebastian Lemp has been working for ALPLA as a Public Affairs and Circular Economy Specialist since October 2020. The 29-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.

Nicolas Lorenz

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.

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Since 2019, he is also Board member of PETCORE Europe and Co-chairman of the tray workgroup.

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Mr. Lorenz possesses profound knowledge in areas such as packaging and product technologies, sustainable growth, customer care, trading, and sales. He assumed different management positions such as Managing Director at Packmann (1994), Business Development Director at SCA Packaging, Germany, (2001), Sales Director at Budelpack (2006), General Manager at Ditra, Scitra, and Abiat Oleo (2009), and CCO at Shalina Healthcare (2013). 

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Emmanuelle Maincent

European Commission

Emmanuelle Maincent joined the European Commission in 2003. She worked in DG Enterprise and Industry and DG Transport and Energy before joining DG Economic and Financial Affairs where she heads the unit in charge of economic analysis on Energy, Transport, Climate change, and Cohesion policies.

Helen McGeough

ICIS

Graduate from Nottingham Trent University, is the global lead on Plastics Recycling for ICIS.  Helen has extensive experience of the recycling industry and business having worked in the sector for over 16 years.  Helen specialises in recycled PET with in-depth knowledge and analysis in this commodity plastic.

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Helen leads market analysis and consulting for global recycled PET markets, working with contacts across the supply chain from collection, reclamation through to end users.  She has over 20 years’ experience in consultancy, having worked for the past 16 years in recycled PET within ICIS and Wood Mackenzie (previously PCI).

Prior to joining ICIS Helen has developed supply demand database for recycled PET markets, including forecasts for collection, reclamation and end use of recycled PET products. Helen has been responsible for monthly coverage of recycled PET market including price discovery, analysis of market developments and regulatory developments.  Helen has generated price forecasts for recycled PET flake and food grade pellets by key regions.  Helen has delivered multiple custom studies in the recycling area, assisting investment and strategy development for parties within the recycled PET supply.

With ICIS, Helen will build the coverage of recycled plastics through her previous experience and expertise.  Helen is the author of the ICIS R-PET Analytics service launched in May 2019 and is responsible for driving content-specific contributions to ICIS services.   Helen has been a speaker at conferences and seminars on R-PET in Europe, North America and Asia.

Clarissa Morawski

Reloop Platform

Clarissa Morawski co-founded the Reloop Platform in 2015. It is an international not-for-profit comprised of industry, ENGOs, and cities that collectively support policy to further a circular economy. Clarissa is Canadian and brings over 25 years of experience in waste minimization policy and operations. In 1998 Clarissa founded and continues to act as, Principal of CM Consulting, which undertakes regular research related to access and recycling rates in Canada – the newest version was just published. Ms. Morawski has authored more than 100 articles and cover stories on Extended Producer Responsibility, deposit return, and waste management for recycling publications, including US-based Resource Recycling and Canada´s Solid Waste Management Magazine. She currently resides with her family in Barcelona, Spain.

Mike Neal

Petkonsept

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.

Carl-Eric Portaels

Petcore Europe

Carl-Eric Portaels has many years of experience on the EU Brussels scene combining public affairs jobs at the EU Commission (DG Trade) with consultancies (APCO Worldwide) and industry associations. Before that he gained solid diplomatic experience with his work at several Belgian diplomatic missions, such as Vienna, Washington, D.C. and Geneva. Last year Carl-Eric briefly became an independent consultant on the Digital Single Market working for amongst others the Business Council of Canada.  

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He holds a master's degree from the College of Europe in Bruges as well as from the Graduate Institute in Geneva and a bachelor's degree from Vesalius College. He had the chance to do an exchange at American University (Washington, D.C) and Sciences Po (Paris). 

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In his free time he gets passionate about French history, US politics and captivating crime series.  

Eric Schaffner

Zeloop

Eric has worked in the beverage packaging industry for over 20 years, in a variety of commercial leadership and operational roles worldwide. After several years in Japan, he relocated in Dubai, where he met his partners who share same values and willingness to help changing habits in society, health and sustainability. Sensitive to the growing issue of plastic pollution, they decided to found ZeLoop; an innovative Circular Economy Rewarding Platform to make our planet healthier. This includes a mobile application rewarding consumers on plastic bottle collection.

Martin Stephan

Carbios

Martin joined Carbios in February 2017. He is now Deputy CEO of the Company. Martin has made his entire career in the chemical industry. Prior to joining Carbios, he held several senior international positions at Du Pont de Nemours, Chemours, and at the chemical branch of the French Oil & Gaz major, Total. He worked in France, Germany, Italy and in Switzerland, where he is currently resident.

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Martin Stephan holds a Master in Business Economics from HEC in Paris and a BA in Economics from Paris II University.

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Carbios is the first and only company in the world developing biological processes for the end-of-life of plastics and synthetic fibers with the potential to engage the entire industry in a truly circular economy. The company is now moving to industrialization with two disruptive innovations, of which a process to infinitely recycle PET without any quality loss, opening the possibility to create a virtuous circular economy scheme.

Luca Stramare

Corepla

Luca Stramare graduated in Chemistry at the University of Milan.

After holding positions in food packaging and PET resin manufacturing companies, he currently works for COREPLA, which is the Italian EPR scheme for plastic packaging waste. Within COREPLA, Luca is responsible for special projects and relationships with associations. He also held the role of Secretary General of the EPBP from 2014 to 2020.

Luca has over 25 years of experience in plastic packaging and plastic packaging recycling, with a specific focus on PET. His expertise includes polymer chemistry, packaging design and performance evaluation, packaging food contact compliance, and packaging end of life management: separate collection, sorting and recycling. 

Marc de Voogd

ALPLA Group

Marc de Voogd joined Alpla in 2013 as General Manager Alpla France and since 2018 also took over the responsibility of Spain and Portugal. He is currently responsible for 12 plants and 1200 employees and prior to joining Alpla has worked 10 years in the agri and food business for Bunge as Procurement Director EMEA. Next to having a strong international experience having lived and worked in over 7 countries, Marc is actively engaged in the circular economy through his current responsibilities and as a board member in Elipso, EUPC and PETCORE.