Speakers at this Event

Michiel Stork MSc (1973) is an Associate Director at Guidehouse in Utrecht (the Netherlands). Michiel is an expert on industrial energy use, and associated policies and strategies, with a background in chemical engineering (Delft University of Technology, 1998) and has worked 10 years in the chemical industry (DSM, Sabic) before joining Guidehouse.?

Michiel combines his hands-on knowledge of industry with knowledge of industrial energy policies/strategies. Michiel has managed Energy&Climate Roadmap projects for chemical industry sector associations like Cefic (Europe) and Fertilizer Europe and VNCI (Netherlands), as well as projects for many industrial companies, for the European Commission and for NGO’s (currently supporting WRI with developing Science Based Target setting guidance for the chemical sector). Many of Michiel’s projects are multi-stakeholder projects. Michiel enjoys designing and delivering workshops and creative thinking sessions, creating an engaging and interactive atmosphere to share opinions and brainstorm.

Tato leads the company’s vision and strategy, bringing 25 years of experience in international project development, financing and capital markets. Prior to UBQ, Tato co-founded and managed Merhav Renewable Energies (MRE) which was successfully sold in 2008. Tato was President and CEO on Ampal-American Israel Corporation traded in both the NASDAQ and the TASE. Tato is also a member of the Board of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce & Industry and holds an MBA and BA in Business from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Babette is the VP Europe for LanzaTech, a pioneer in carbon capture technology that turns waste streams into CarbonSmartTM ethanol to create value as sustainable fuels and chemicals.

Dr Jan Michael Henke is the  Director of ISCC and Meo Carbon Solutions GmbH. He has studied International Economics at the University of Tübingen in Germany. He has worked for four years at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in the research area of environmental and resource economics. During that time, he also acquired his PhD. He then joined Meo Carbon Solutions, a management consultancy focussing on sustainability, climate change, carbon markets, renewable resources, bio- and circular economy and sustainability certification.

Jan has been involved from the beginning in the development of ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) and GRAS (Global Risk Assessment Services) in multi-stakeholder processes and is a board member of the coffee certification system 4C.

Jan is working globally on topics of renewable resources, sustainability, renewable energies, climate change, carbon markets, land use and land use change, GHG calculations, the circular economy and bioeconomy and sustainability certification for all markets. Currently he is inter alia involved in the further development of ISCC PLUS for the circular economy and bioeconomy.

Floris Buijzen works at Borealis as Strategic Platform Leader within the Circular Economy Solutions business unit. In this role he is responsible for the Renewables platform focusing on using renewable feedstocks for the production of sustainable polyolefins. Prior to Borealis, Floris worked in competitive intelligence, market development and product management at Corbion and TotalEnergies Corbion in the field of (poly)lactic acid. Floris holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Biotechnology from Delft University of Technology and a minor in Science Based Business from Leiden University.

Dr. Leticia Labriola graduated in Chemistry with a a Bachelor and Master degree from the University of Buenos Aires in 1996. and a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Buenos Aires in 2002. She is a Post-doctorate fellow from 2002 until 2007 and young
research fellow at University of São Paulo, Brazil from 2008 until 2011. Faculty in the Chemistry Institute, Department of
Biochemistry, University of São Paulo from 2011-2021, as associate professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Dr. Leticia published over 60 papers in international journals that add 1800+ citations (h=22), inventor of one international patent
and honored with several awards, fellowships, and distinctions for her academic work. Member of the international office of the Chemistry Institute of University of São Paulo (2015-2021). Scientific Reviewer of grants from national and internationals funding agencies. Scientific Coordinator and general manager of several international research collaboration projects between the university of Sao Paulo and other Brazilian, Latin American, and European universities.

Since 2022, She is the Biopolymers project manager at the Research and Development department of Fibers365 GmbH.

Jocelyn Doucet, co-founder and CEO of Pyrowave, holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnique Montreal where he has been an associate professor since 2011. Jocelyn is a new economy entrepreneur who has developed not only a newtechnology, but also a new sector of the green economy which is the electrification of industrial processes through microwaves, a low carbon and unique approach. Indeed, he has worked on several continents and was the first to address the issue of plastic waste and resource efficiency. He led a team that developed a technology that uses microwaves to break down molecules into their initial constituents. That idea led to the formation of Pyrowave in 2014. Less than 10 years later, the technology is ready as the world thirsts for end-of-life solutions for plastics.

Alexander Krapivin is Commercial Development Lead – Glycols, joined Cosun Beet Company in mid-2022. Within the foreseen Joint Venture between Cosun Beet Company and Avantium, Alexander is responsible for commercial development and industrial scale market preparation for plantMEG™ and plantMPG™ glycols from sugar beet. Prior to the current role, for the past 8 years Alexander held Commercial and Business Development leadership roles in European companies in plant-based ingredients, chemicals and materials sector.

Math Lambalk is Business Development Manager, Renewable Chemistries at Avantium and has been with Avantium for 5 years. Math is tasked with the commercialization of Avantium’s portfolio of groundbreaking renewable chemical and material technologies to enable a circular economy based on renewable carbon sources. Prior to joining Avantium, Math acquired a MSc in Biotechnology from Wageningen University & Research Center. 

Lars studied in Bielefeld, Marburg, Potsdam and St. Gallen and holds a Master in Polymer Chemistry, an Executive Master in General Management (SGMI) from St. Gallen, Switzerland and a PhD in Colloid Chemistry from the Max-Planck-Institute of
Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany.

During more than 20 years in the chemical industry he has been holding various positions in polymer research, technical marketing, ecology and innovation management in BASF Germany and China, and as the project lead for the Mass
Balance approach of BASF. He has been working seven years for the Biopolymers Business with the bio-degradable and partly bio-based polymers ecovio® and ecoflex®. Since 2014 Lars had the business responsibility of BASF’s Biopolymer
business as Head of Global Marketing located in Shanghai, PRC. During that time the business expanded and diversified the biodegradables business of BASF further, and advocated successfully for respective supportive legislation.

In January 2017 Lars joined Neste as Head of Product Marketing and Biopolymers for the Emerging Business Unit with the target to establish Neste’s global bio-based chemicals businesses, being located in Geneva, Switzerland. Since September 2018
he was heading the Emerging Businesses Unit as Vice President reporting to the Executive Committee of Neste and building the strategy for the Neste’s entrance to chemicals and polymers. Since 2019 he has been building up the Neste Germany GmbH as global headquarter for the newly installed Renewable Polymers & Chemicals business unit at Neste. After the role as Vice President value chain management he is in the role of Vice President Strategy and Long-term Development since the beginning of 2022. He is Neste`s representative to the Renewable Carbon Initiative and act as chairman for the PG Bio-based at European Bioplastics and the Vice-chair of the Board of the European Bioplastics Association.

Marc van den Biggelaar is an automotive engineer with a masters degree in business. He has worked for over 27 years at Dow and is now responsible for building chemical recycling and bio feedstock capacity for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Berend Vreugdenhil is a chemical engineer with 16 years of experience in the field of high temperature conversion of solid feedstocks. The fields he is developing are the use of biomass for the production of low carbon fuels and chemicals and the use of plastic waste as a direct source to olefins and aromatics. Within TNO he is leading both expertise groups working on this development.

Przemek Olszynski is a Senior Technology and Business Development Manager in KBR Plastics Recycling Technology since August 2021. He commenced his journey with polymers and recycling since academia and has spent the last 15+ years with major plastics suppliers like GE Plastics, Sabic and Dow Inc,

In recent years he has been focusing on plastic packaging, circularity and sustainability. He holds a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science.

Mr. Merijn Betjes, graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a Degree in Tax Law. Merijn is a global environmental tax expert and is the ESG tax lead for KPMG Netherlands. He works with various chemical companies around the world, in the end to be compliant regarding the environmental tax wave.

Philippe LAVOISIER is a chemical engineer with more than 25 years experience in the plastic packaging industry, where he first worked with 3M company in USA for development of new adhesive tapes using thin gouge plastic backing film; then moved in Engineering company for the supply of turnkey plant for the production of traditionnal fuel based plastic films such as Polypropylene or polyester; in 1985 created IDEAS company for the sales of plastic films for packaging and started to work on biodegradable films that were sold over Europe.
 
Starting 2010, Philippe developlged technology based upon Macro algae which are waste ( ULVA) and showed feasability of making bioplastics from those without odor and color as it can be founded on other Algae bioplastics. Two patents were filed related to technology to produce bioplastics with their formula, properties and application. Philippe has expertise in all kind of Biopfastics used in the plastic industry from thin gauge films till injection molded packaging for cosmetics.
 
Founder of ERANOVA in 2016 and awarded ( Program d'lnvestissement d'Avenir) from ADEME in 2017 in France for establishment of industrial Pilot plant located in Port Saint Louis du Rhone {13). ERANOVA industrial pilot started operation in 2022.

Erica Ording acquired a PhD in Chemistry from Leiden University. After her PhD, she worked for a brief period at the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) before starting as a team lead in the Renewable Chemistries department of Avantium. Here she first focused on side-stream valorization, followed by leading the efforts on electrochemical CO2 conversion (CCU). Having a chemical background with a wealth of experience in scaling innovative processes provides a multidisciplinary perspective on current packaging sustainability challenges.

In her current role, Erica focuses on building a long-term sustainable packaging strategy at FrieslandCampina.

Kim has been working in developing markets such as agricultural biotechnology, biobased economy and the circular economy for over 20 years. The past 10 years she has been involved in multiply projects to produce new product from waste and reduce the amount of waste going to incineration and landfill. Forming strategic alliances with partners in Waste-to-Product value chain. Selecting and specifying waste streams that can serve as feedstock for new processing opportunities, i.e. solvolysis, pyrolysis and gasification. Building Renewi’s Plastic Strategy based on both Mechanical as Chemical recycling.

Maarit works as a Senior Expert on Bioeconomy in the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) at the European Commission. Previously, she has worked on the SME policy designing and implementing the EU policy strategies and programmes, including the Small Business Act, the Start-up and Scale-up initiative, the SME strategy, the Competitiveness and Innovation framework Programme (CIP 2007-2013) and the COSME programme (2014-2020).  Maarit holds Master’s degrees in Law, Social Sciences, Arts and Psychology.

Emanuele Pitto works in the European Commission and is International Relations Officer in in the Directorate General for environment.

He was part of the team that developed the proposal of the deforestation regulation back in 2021 and was subsequently involved in the negotiation of the regulation with the European Parliament and the Council which led to the political agreement in December 2022