Speaker bio coming soon.
Bio coming soon!
Carolina Mantilha is Latin America Sustainability Director for Packaging and Specialty Plastics at Dow. Full speaker bio coming soon.
Thais Vojvodic is part of the New Plastic Economy initiative team at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which aims to bring together key players from around the world to rethink and redesign the future of plastic. With extensive experience in the private sector in Latin America, Thais joined the Foundation in May 2020 and is responsible for the development of Plastics Pacts in several different countries, including the US Plastics Pact.
Speaker bio coming soon.
Dr. Nikola Juhasz is the Global Technical Director for Sustainability at Sun Chemical, where she engages with internal and external stakeholders to formulate sustainability-driven technical strategies, and oversees implementation of the corresponding innovation and product development programs across all of Sun’s pigments, inks, coatings and adhesives product lines and technology platforms. She represents Sun Chemical at global cross-industry organizations focused on sustainability and the future of packaging, and is responsible to driving collaborations towards circularity and end of life management.
Prior to joining Sun Chemical in 2016, Dr. Juhasz spent over 20 years in various positions of R&D leadership in the diversified chemicals, polymers and materials industries. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Rodrigo Leiva is the CEO of Valoryza, and he has been developing environmental business solutions in Latin America for over 25 years. Rod has been actively involved in Chilean EPR since its introduction in 2010, and his consultancy also supports the design and administration of Product Stewardship initiatives (including Chile's first PRO for used glass bottles) and advises major producers on waste and recovery feasibility, strategy, design, planning and implementation.
Carlos graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. He worked in industry before moving to the United Kingdom, to do his Ph.D at the University of Cambridge. During his doctoral research and subsequently as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate, he developed the basis of the Enval process to recycle plastic aluminium laminate pouches, sachets, tubes, etc.
As a result, Carlos founded Enval where he is CEO. The Company now has a commercial plant recycling laminates in the UK and is in the process of installing further units in other locations. Enval has also started to develop recycling processes for other materials, creating a link between the packaging world and the waste handling sector.
Speaker bio coming soon.
Verónica is partner and Corporate CEO of TriCiclos, a latinamerican circular economy engineering company that operates downstream recyclable management solutions, high-end consultancy projects and circular venture building. She holds an engineering degree, engineering management masters from Politecnico di Torino, MBA and MA in International Studies from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Speaker bio coming soon.
Ilhan Savut sits in BloombergNEF’s Advanced Materials team, which focuses on how emerging materials and manufacturing technologies can help decarbonize industry. He writes about the circular economy, sustainability and innovation in manufacturing, working with BNEF’s commodities teams to assess the long-term impact on these markets.
Speaker bio coming soon!
Jorge Andrés López de Mesa is a Chemical Engineer with a specialization in Finance and a Master of Administration (MBA). He is the Sales Vice President of Enka de Colombia S.A. since November 2009. He has held various positions within the same Company as Marketing Manager and Administrative and Financial Vice President. He is a member of the boards of directors of EKO RED, CEMPRE, Inexmoda and the Andi Chamber of Textiles and Fashion, all of these being important organizations for the textile and manufacturing sector in Colombia.
Brian applies his knowledge in sustainability, technology & policy into creating value by leveraging the circular economy movement into business model innovation. He connects a network of experts across industry, academia, finance & government who are keen to collaborate on innovative upstream waste management solutions.
He is keen to explore how plastic packaging can be used in a circular manner that provides the benefits of plastic, without the impacts of mismanaged plastic waste.
With Algramo, he focuses on connecting stakeholders to help catalyze reusable packaging systems on a globally significant scale. At Algramo, Brian and the team are currently working with Unilever, Nestle, Colgate and others, on game-changing packaging as a wallet technology that enables their reusable packaging to communicate with IoT connected vending machines. This enables cashless payments and small volume purchases at bulk prices-solving the Poverty Tax. Algramo’s distribution system engineers out reverse logistics to create major economic & environmental savings.
In addition to his work at Algramo, Brian is also an instructor in a graduate level circular economy class at Harvard.
With nearly a decade of experience in the packaging industry, Marcelo, General Manager of Trivium Packaging, Argentina, oversees strategy, innovation, business development and leads Trivium’s sustainable development together with Trivium’s partners through superior quality, service, innovation and sustainability. Prior to his role in Trivium, Marcelo served as a Managing Director in GKN Sinter Metals, a multinational company in the automotive industry, leading strategy and transformation efforts. Marcelo studied Mechanical Engineering and psychology at Buenos Aires University in Argentina before obtaining his PhD in Philosophy and Educational Sciences Cum Laude from the University of Barcelona. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and four sons.
Michelle co-founded Lorax Compliance in 2014 in order to help companies that are obligated under Extended Producer Responsibility and Product Stewardship legislation around the world. With 15 years of experience working in this sector, her focus is to ensure clients find the process of EPR and Stewardship reporting as simple as possible, despite the complexities placed on businesses by legislation. As COO, her role covers the management and delivery of several teams, including Accounts, Compliance, Sales, Marketing and Human Resources.
Flavio has nearly two decades of packaging industry experience working in various leadership roles of increasing responsibility, across commercial and in manufacturing, different types of packaging, and multi-cultural global organizations. He currently serves as General Manager of Trivium Packaging Brazil and is responsible for the execution of its long-term growth strategy. Prior to this role, Flavio worked in worldwide companies like Greif Inc., Van Leer Industrial Packaging, Solvay Group, and Embraer. Flavio holds an Executive MBA from INSPER, a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Aeronautical Engineering from Aeronautics Institute of Technology, and currently is coursing a Master’s in Management of Competitiveness focused on Sustainability at FGV-EASP. In his free time, he enjoys travelling and practicing sports such as running, cycling and inline skating.
Alejandra is experience in economic research and corporate valuation.
She holds a Masters in Finance from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, as well as a degree in Government and International Affairs from Universidad Externado de Colombia.
Valeria Michel is Regional Sustainability Director for Tetra Pak. She is a Chemical Engineer with specialization in Environmental Management, with 19 years of experience working in the area of Sustainability.
Gabriela has been working at Lorax/EPI since 2008, specializing in packaging sustainability and global product stewardship law compliance. She is involved with developing corporate environmental packaging design and labeling specifications, assisting clients with packaging fee reporting and conducting Design for Environment (DfE) studies and Life Cycle Assessments. She has also worked to develop packaging sustainability evaluation tools such as the Eco-filter and has published a variety of research projects involving sustainability and environmental modeling.
Experienced Commercial Director of ‘Blue Chip’ organisations across UK, U.S, European, Asian and African markets - encompassing FMCG, Food Manufacturing and Packaging - operating at Board level.
Key strengths include visioning and implementing profitable strategies, possessing an entrepreneurial style with major sales and profit growth management, new product launches, innovative advertising and promotional campaigns. Dynamic and versatile leader with high standards and expectations, both of self and others.
Kyle Strenski is a Director of Global Business Development at UPM Raflatac. His focus is understanding the packaging challenges brands face: sustainability, circular economy, and cost pressure. He works closely with the business, R&D, and the sustainability team to provide pressure sensitive label solutions that not only meet brands’ current needs, but also those of the future.
Kyle has a Bachelor of Science in Material Science and Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. In addition, he has a green belt in Six Sigma from Villanova University, Certified Packaging Professional from I.O.P.P., and is a committee member on both Olefins and PET technical committees in the Association of Plastic Recyclers.
