As the Senior CSR & Sustainability Manager of foodpanda Hong Kong, Woody Chan spearheads the company’s mission to become more environmentally and socially responsible while also overseeing its strategy and execution. Since joining in 2020, Woody has focused on reducing foodpanda’s carbon emissions, cutting plastic consumption and promoting sustainable foods, with projects including a Sustainable Restaurant Certification Scheme and a surplus food donation programme. Most recently, Woody has driven foodpanda to partner with WWF-Hong Kong to launch a groundbreaking reusable food packaging pilot - the first of its kind in Hong Kong. On the CSR front, he is dedicated to helping foodpanda give back to the community and improve employee wellbeing
Kiril Dimitrov is a Chemical Engineer by education with over 20 years of extensive experience in the field of packaging development and materials innovation. Professional career across the entire packaging supply chain, working for some of the leading paper and packaging manufacturers and recyclers, with many years in food retail and currently a Packaging Expert at Nestle’s Confectionary Product Technology Centre in York, UK. With specific interest and focus on restorative and renewable solutions, Kiril Dimitrov has been leading the confectionary packaging science & technology R&D portfolio for the past 4 years.
Coming soon...
Pollene graduated with a degree in BS Packaging Engineering and has held various roles in the packaging industry. She has been a Packaging Development Specialist for RFM Corporation, and Packaging Scientist for Universal Robina Corporation - both food and beverage manufacturing companies in the Philippines. Pollene also joined Sealed Air Corporation, a global packaging materials and equipment supplier, as a Territory Manager. She was with the company for 6 years and has led a series of packaging development projects for B2B and B2C sectors. During her stint with Sealed Air, she supports all the packaging development activities in close collaboration with internal and external stakeholders: from business proposition, evaluation, installation & commissioning, to commercial launch.
Currently, she works as an Investment Manager for Emerald technology Ventures’ Sustainable Packaging Fund. Emerald is one of the first venture capital firms to focus on sustainable industrial innovation. From intelligent water efficiency, to smart packaging, to innovations in electrification of transport and industrial automation, Emerald has been at the forefront of sustainability for many years. Based in Emerald’s Singapore office, Pollene covers the sustainable packaging sector wherein she is involved in all phases of the investment process: sourcing, evaluating, selecting and supporting novel packaging start-ups from early diligence to exit.
Laurent Besson is the General Manager of PT Veolia Services Indonesia, the largest PET recycling facility in Indonesia. Based in Pasuruan, East Java, Laurent has a 26-year work experience with Veolia, the world leader in ecological transformation. Prior to his current assignment, Laurent worked for Veolia's water division in France, China, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Michelle Yu is the Sustainability Manager for UPM Raflatac’s APAC region. She leads the sustainability strategy development and implementation in the market for the region. Michelle’s responsibilities include climate and beyond fossils roadmap development, management of products’ eco-design and life cycle assessment through UPM Raflatac’s Label Life service, development of RafCycle® program, sustainability expertise support for the business team, stakeholder and partnership development, as well as sustainability marketing and communications. Michelle has more than 15 years practical experience in sustainability topics like climate, responsible sourcing, circularity and sustainable forest management etc. That experience is now applied to being a sustainable packaging solution provider with UPM Raflatac in areas like Food, Home and Personal care, Retail, Logistics, Wine and Spirits.
Mechanical Engeneering, working on packaging since 1999. At Boticário Group since 2018.
Prof. Li currently serves as a full time PI at the Center of Low Dimension Material, Donghua University in Shanghai, China. His research interests include product carbon footprint, plastic circularity technology, and packaging material application development. Prior to join the academic circle, he has worked 15 years in Dow with various application development experience from wire and cable to hydrocarbons, and packaging as well, mostly in the polyolefin areas. He also serves as the deputy director of Green Recycled Plastics Working Group (GRPG), which is a cross value chain consortium with 60+ companies to drive plastic circularity. Dr. Li holds 15 granted US patents.
Samantha is Senior Manager, Sustainability - APAC & MEA at Electrolux. Samantha ever worked in HAVI for managing the sustainabilty packaging portfolio in APAC. HAVI is a global company focused on innovating, optimizing and managing the supply chains of leading brands.
In parallel, Samantha sits on the Packaging Partnership Program in Singapore through her role as Deputy Sector Group Leader to support the industry transition towards the nationwide EPR by 2025.
Samantha currently holds a master degree in environmental management, and has worked across a breath of sustainability industries ranging from FMCG, NGOs and consulting.
Karolina has over ten years of experience in Lush Manufacturing, from making products to Purchasing and leading teams.
She joined the Creative Buying team in 2020, initially responsible for labels and consumables and now sourcing and managing Primary Packaging. Karolina is committed to developing and evolving the packaging remit to support the Lush goal of "leaving the world lusher than we found it".
In early 2022, Agathe Detanger joined the PT Veolia Services Indonesia rPET factory, the largest PET recycling facility in Indonesia. Agathe and her team work on designing, deploying and continuously improving the mechanisms driving the sustainability programmes. Working in close partnership with our client and local NGO in the field, the Sustainable Development department at PT Veolia strengthens our ties and enhances the production operation of the Indonesian informal waste sector.
At Food Industry Asia, my role is to provide policy and regulatory advice and insights to the food and beverage companies in Asia. My main area of expertise includes topics such as Recycled Food Contact Materials, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and other key sustainability- related issues impacting the industry.
Howard is the Packaging Technologist at LUSH Cosmetics in the United
Kingdom. He is involved in the development of packaging products, materials
and manufacturing technologies that are Inline with LUSH’s core values of
environmental and social regeneration, and providing global technical support
for the company’s international Buying Team.
Howard’s background is in Industrial Product Design having previously
developed product’s for brand’s such as John Lewis, Mathmos, B&Q, Argos,
Maxeda, Wickes, Screwfix & Laura Ashley.
Debasish Mandal, heading the Packaging Predevelopment & Sustainability function of the regional R&D center of Beiersdorf in India. He is responsible to lead the sustainable packaging development for Emerging Markets including India, Africa, Russia, Turkey, Middle East & also few of the South East Asian countries. Debasish has work experience in India, Thailand & Germany for Beiersdorf and Colgate Palmolive.
Attorney Marc Anthony Cruz Cox (Marc) is the Director for Stakeholder Relations of Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines, Inc. (CCBPI).
In this role, Marc is responsible for managing and developing strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, including industry groups and foreign chambers, NGOs, local government units, partner communities, and national government agencies to advocate issues of close concern to CCBPI.
In the area of sustainability, Marc is leading the company’s initiatives toward establishing a more robust circular economy for sustainable packaging— as aligned with The Coca-Cola Company’s World Without Waste vision: to collect and recycle 100% of its plastic and can packaging by 2030. Towards this goal, Marc represents CCBPI as a Director in PETVALUE Philippines Corporation— the company’s joint venture with Indorama Ventures Limited of Thailand. PETVALUE Philippines is the country’s first food-grade bottle-to-bottle PET recycling facility which commenced operations recently (2022). Through his leadership, PETVALUE Philippines was granted pioneer investment status by the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry -Board of Investments in December 2020, further paving the way for a truly world-class recycling enterprise to be established locally.
