MBA from Solvay Business School
Meng in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College
Flore started her career in the aerospace industry, where she worked on large development projects with multiple stakeholders. Since joining Greenfish, she adapted those project and risk management skills to the agile environment of consulting. She has advised multiple clients on strategic topics ranging from company reorganisation, market penetration, and development of new business lines, all-the-while taking into account the challenges resulting from increased pressure for sustainable growth. Flore recently finished her MBA, which allowed her to fine-tune her leadership and strategy skills, and bring adapted and tested tools to her clients.
François DE BUYL received his PhD in Organometallic Chemistry from University of Brussels, Belgium (1991) and an MSc in Advanced Material Sciences from University of Surrey, UK (2003). He joined Dow Corning Europe in 1991 and worked on various silicone-based materials development and applications, such as, silicone sealant & adhesives, organosilanes, thermoplastics and rubbers reinforcements, and coatings, before joining the Dow Silicones Belgium Silicone Elastomers TS&D team back in 2011, helping for instance customers in LED lighting fixtures using optical LSR in their LED lamps and luminaires designs. Since a couple of years, François expanded his responsibilities to support new business opportunities in the field of mobility & transportation, such as, RTV elastomers for self-sealing-tires, which he will cover during his talk on “Silicone Sealant for Extended Tire mobility” at this conference event.
Bachelor and Master studies in mechanical engineering at the university of Kassel -since 2015 scientific at UNIpace -phd studies in progess with focus on PC/LSR composites and UVC pretreatement
After studying mechanical engineering at KIT Karlsruhe, Mr. Timo Richter worked for several years at a renowned sealing manufacturer, first in the area of process development for elastomer processing, then as a product manager for sealing solutions in the pharmaceutical sector. In 2018, he joined the O-Ring Prüflabor Richter, where his areas of activity included failure analysis of elastomer components and technical customer consulting from the very beginning. Since 2020, Mr. Richter has also been responsible for the complete day-to-day business of O-Ring Prüflabor Richter GmbH as a managing director.
Axel Schmidt is the Head of WACKER’s Hybrids and Sealants Team in Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. His role is to market GENIOSIL® STP-E’s, Silicone Polymers to Compounders of Adhesives and Sealants as well as finished ELASTOSIL® products in Bulk and especially in Cartridges under the WACKER brand as well as PRIVATE Label.
Axel began his career with WACKER in 1994 as a management trainee, progressing in the year 2000 to his first of three overseas assignments in the United States as Business Line Manager Sealants in Adrian, MI before moving to California as President of Precision Silicones, Inc. (SILMIX®). Returning to Germany in 2006, he was Director for Distribution Management and Managing Director of WACKER SCHOTT Solar GmbH as well as Director Rubber Solutions. Before his appointment as Head of the Business Team he was Head of our ACEO® Start-Up, Chief Digital Officer and before that he was responsible for WACKER’s silicones business in North and Central as Vice President from 2012 to 2017. So he has held multiple responsible sales and management positions within WACKER.
Mr. Schmidt holds a Master’s Degree in Economics (Marketing, Logistics and Political Science) from Ludwig-Maximillian-Universtät Munich and was a visiting lecturer at University of Applied Science in Jena and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Hannes was born 04.02.1994 in Linz, Austria. He obtained a Master's degree in Polymer Engineering and has 7 years' experience in plastics industry – 3,5 years at ELMET
Angela’s primary focus is Material science for Imagineering R&D. Her projects involve next generation audio animatronics, rockwork, and finding global materials that meet flammability and durability requirements while focusing on creative intent.
Master of Engineering, Architectural Design & Construction Techniques from UGhent
Stéphanie has over 8 years of experience in integrating sustainability into business strategies, with a focus on waste and circularity, supporting C-suite and top management achieve their sustainability objectives thanks to her unique combination of a solution oriented mindset with an engineering background.
She has spent the last years developing the waste & circularity solution of Greenfish, deep-diving into at the European plastic market: chemical recycling solutions, international transportation and storage regulations, waste management and market shares, Extended Producer Responsibility schemes.
Education/Study (2009 to 2016)
Michael Drach studied mechanical engineering at the RWTH Aachen University with focus on plastics technology (Bachelor and Master). He wrote his master thesis on simulation and process development of a variothermal cold runner system for elastomer injection moulding.
Career (2016 until now)
Between July 2016 and Dezember 2020, he worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Plastics Processing at the RWTH Aachen University. There he was employed in the department of Extrusion and Rubber Technology, where he was involved in topics of rubber extrusion and rubber injection moulding.
Since the beginning of 2021, Michael Drach has been Head of the Development Department at Gerlach Maschinenbau GmbH. He and his team focus on the development of energy- and resource-efficient vulcanization strategies.
Dietmar Juchmes is the Vice President of Business Development & Sales at Cold Jet based in Weinsheim, Germany. He has 30 year’s experience in the molding industry, with over 20 years’ experience in dry ice cleaning applications. He holds a mechanical engineering & economics/finance degree from Cologne, Germany and began his career with Andreas Stihl AG Magnesium & Aluminum Die Casting in Germany as a toolmaker. After college he went to work for Diehl Elastomertechnik in Blankensheim, Germany molding automotive rubber parts. He also spent several year with Husky Injection Molding technical sales in Dudelange, Luxembourg. He is married with two children and is fluent in both German and English.
Stefan Betz is currently the Product Manager for the Heat Technology products manufactured by Weiss Technik GmbH. He is in the industry for more than 30 years starting his career at Heraeus Industrietechnik GmbH. Followed by management positions at ThermoFisher's automated incubator product line Cytomat he is now responsible for the industrial oven business "vötschoven" including microwave and infrared technology. Next to the product management aspect he also manages the heat technology application center at the Reiskirchen site of Weiss.
Dr. André Hebel has more than 19 years of experience in the thermoplastic elastomers and copolymer industry. In different positions like in manufacturing, R&D and application development he gained broad experiences in thermoplastic copolymers and in thermoplastic elastomers.
In 1999, he graduated from the Marburg University in Germany. In 2003, he received a PhD in polymer science on hyperbranched polymers at the University of Freiburg, Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry.
In 2021, he joined Dow as a TS&D Scientist for automotive interior and exterior applications as well as he is part of the Dow Mobility Science Team.
Jason Treharne joined Dow (Dow Corning) in Barry, UK in 2006. Through various roles in Supply Chain across the European region and Silicone Value Chain, Jason gained an understanding of material flow from silicon metal, siloxane and polymers to sealants, adhesives, and silicone elastomers.
Having learned the silicones world ‘inside out’, he took the opportunity to learn the silicone world ‘outside in’ and joined the Marketing function in 2018. Initially focusing on the product specific end markets of High Consistency Rubber (HCR) and Fluorosilcione Rubber (FSR), appreciating the value of these materials in the transportation, consumer, electrical and industrial segments, he has more recently focused on the automotive, electrical and industrial rubber end markets, and has gained market aligned responsibility as opposed to that of individual product, giving him oversight of Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR), High Consistency Rubber (HCR), Fluorosilcione Rubber (FSR) and Fluoro Liquid Silicone Rubber (F-LSR). As of H2 2022 Jason has Global Market Segment Leadership for Dow Silicones Industrial and Electrical Si Elastomers.
Jason holds a Business Administration degree from the University of Wales in 2004.
2003: Diploma in Chemistry at the University of Hamburg
2007: PhD in Chemistry at the University of Hamburg
2007-2011: Development of coatings for plastics at KRD Coatings GmbH, Geesthacht, Germany
Since 2011: Development of silicone products at Elantas Europe GmbH, German
- In the company of B.Braun since 2008, started with an apprenticeship in mechatronics
- Studies in mechanical engineering started in 2011 at the University of Kassel, Germany
- Phd candidate at B.Braun since 2018 in cooperation with the University of Kassel, Institute of material science
- PhD thesis: designing silicone components with FEM simulation considering mechanical and chemical material properties
Vanessa Frekers studied Technical Communications at RWTH Aachen, Germany, with a specialization in plastics technology. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 2012. Afterwards she started working at SIGMA Engineering GmbH in the fields of engineering and marketing. Since 2015 she is responsible for the marketing throughout Europe, while also continuing her work in engineering.
Andreas Schäfert joined the Wilhelm Weber GmbH in Esslingen in 2018.
He holds a Diploma in Applied Physics of TU Munich as well as a MBA of Collège des Ingénieurs in Paris. Earlier steps in his professional career were at USHIO Group, GE Healthcare and EVONIK Industries. As Director Business Development Medical Devices he is in charge for innovative solutions and applications in the field of injection molding in the medical sector, publishing also about recent technology developments.
Philipp Sauer is CES-Silicones Europe’s Public Affairs Manager and part of Cefic’s Public Affairs department. In this capacity he coordinates CES’ advocacy and communication activities. Following his studies in Political Science and Political Economy, he started his career at the Brussels office of thyssenkrupp before joining Cefic.
Leopold Pühringer received his Master in automotive engineering from Universtiy of Applied Sciences Upper Austria in 2005. After working several years in the heavy steel industry in Austria he joined Starlim Spritzguß GmbH and dedicated his work to silicones and silicone product development for now nearly 2 decades. As part of the RnD department her played a mayor role in developing and introducing new methods for virtual silicone product development as well as finding new applications for silicone elastomers for several years. Since 10 years he is having the lead of the RnD Department in the headquater of Starlim in Marchtrenk trying to steer, together with his team of specialists, the development of new silicone products for a broad range of customers in nearly every end application.
Since this nearly “20 years of silicone’s”, finding new ways of using silicone elastomers as well as understanding the basic behaviour and the environmental impact played a mayor role for this RnD work.
This motivation of understanding silicone’s beyond technical datasheets did develop also new methods of improving the properties of silicone products where SCD is one of such new technologies evolving from the always upcoming question: how can a silicone product perform even better?
Michael Schwab is a Sales Engineer and the Head of the Technical Center at UTH GmbH from Fulda/Germany – an internationally well-known machine manufacturer and provider of innovative customer-specific solutions for the rubber/silicone and the adhesive/sealant industries. UTH's core competencies include roll-ex® gear pump technology, which is also the basis for innovations in silicone processing. After completing his degree in Process Technology in Magdeburg (Germany) Michael started his career in machine manufacturing with a focus on drying technology and was then active in this field for six years. In his current role as Head of Technical Center Michael engineers and develops machine specific solutions in close cooperation with UTHs customers.
Advancing pipe, profile and tubing and elastomer technology is the focus of Justin McKenna’s work at Davis-Standard. As product manager, he advances technology by identifying potential products, conducting market research, generating product requirements, determining specifications, production timetables, pricing and integrated plans for market introduction. This includes developing marketing strategies and assisting regional sales managers in product promotion. He has been in the industry for 15 years; 14 of those years with Davis-Standard.
Bio to follow
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