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.
Olu is a consultant at NexantECA with 9 years of experience across the oil and gas value chain. He has experience in assessing production economics, supply-demand fundamentals as well as preparing price forecasts spanning the petrochemical industry value chain. He is a part of NexantECA's subscriptions analysis of profitability and pricing across the global petrochemical industry.
Dr. Pierre Furtwengler joined Renault engineering team in 2018 and is in charge of polymer material development and prescription for under bonnet applications. He is know technical polymer specialist for Renault Group. He obtained his PhD at ECPM (Strasbourg) in the BioTeam in renewable polyol synthesis from sorbitol and PU foams formulation. He received the 2018 best PhD award from French Plastic Engineer Society (SFIP).
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.
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Ryohei Akatsuka joined Asahi Kasei Corporation in 2008. As a manager of Sales and Marketing of hydrogenated styrenic thermoplastic elastomer, he is taking charge of developing new applications in Europe and Middle East region. He received his master’s degree in Molecular Physiology from Waseda University, Japan in 2008.
Jobs:
10/2020 – until today: Director Technical Service Center at MOCOM Compounds GmbH & Co. KG in Hamburg
05/2020 – 10/2020: Director Technical Service Center at ALBIS PLASTIC GmbH in Hamburg
11/2016 – 04/2020: Product specialist TPE at ALBIS PLASTIC GmbH in Hamburg
04/2013 – 10/2016: Group manager at Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT in Oberhausen
01/2009 – 03/2013: Research assistant at Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT in Oberhausen
Education:
06/2009 – 11/2015: PhD Thesis with topic “Investigations on plasticizing and foaming of thermoplastic cellulose esters” at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
10/2001 – 12/2008: Study of business engineering with focus on plastics engineering and technology at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
Fred has over 20 years in the finance industry. He began his career in a leadership role with a major Canadian bank, managing a team of almost 100 employees, to service part of their student loan portfolio. He continued his finance career in the mortgage industry , obtaining his brokers license in 2008. Since then he has continued to excel in this industry, providing commercial, business ,and residential financing solutions. Joining Safebridge Financial Group in 2013 and subsequently becoming a partner in 2019. They offer both Mortgage services and Private Wealth solutions to their clients. Fred has also worked on many private equity placements, both personally and professionally. Working with key partners to obtain necessary financing and equity to create success.
Oliver spent the last eight years in various functions in the elastomer and TPV business. At ExxonMobil he was account manager for automotive customers in Europe before moving into a technical role supporting the EPDM and TPV industry. He then oversaw sales planning for elastomers in Europe and Americas before moving into his current role where he is focusing on new application developments and on sustainability with Santoprene® TPV in Europe. Oliver holds Master degrees in mechanical engineering and sales engineering and is based in Germany.
Dr. Cristina Bergmann is Business Development Director Process Oils at Ergon International Inc. and has more than 15 years of experience in Specialty Products (Chemicals and Oils), Materials and Technologies markets with strong emphasis on Automotive industry. She has held various positions at Continental Tires, LANXESS Deutschland GmbH and Hansen & Rosenthal.
She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the German Rubber Society DKG (Deutsche Kautschuk-Gesellschaft) since 2015.
Lennaert Klerk obtained a MSc in both Physics and Chemistry and a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Utrecht University. Following this he made the move to Industry, first working at the resins business of DSM, then moving to AkzoNobel, where he had several roles first in the corporate analytical department, and later in a corporate open innovation role. In 2019 he joined Kraton as the European technical manager for Specialty polymers and since 2022 he is the regional technical manager for all Kraton Polymer activities in Europe. activities in Europe.
Daisuke Koda received his Master Degree in Bio-engineering chemistry from Kyushu University, Japan in 2009. He immediately joined Kuraray Co.,Ltd. and had been developing bio-based elastomer products and functionalized polymers.
After his career on market development of elastomer products in 2020-2021, he joined Elastomer Business Unit in Kuraray Europe GmbH as a manager of technical service and market development.
• Bachelor in applied chemistry at Reutlingen University and Master of plastics engineering (M.Eng) at Schmalkalden University.
• Professional career start at B.Braun Melsungen AG in the Material Science Department
• Senior materials expert, development of PVC and TPE formulations for medical tubing and components
• Foundation of the consultancy company Polyneers GmbH that is focused on medical polymers and its applications, trends and characterization techniques.
• Member of the VDI-committee for the upcoming guideline 2023 for process validation in the medical industry.
• From 2016 until 2020 he contributed to part 18 of DIN EN ISO 10993 – the standard for biocompatibility of medical devices within a risk management.
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Liliana Joosten received her masters degree at Maastricht University in Biobased Materials in 2020, working on the synthesis and processing of UHMW PA. Since October 2020 she is part of the VITRIMAT consortium, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant agreement No 860911, at University Claude Bernard Lyon and is doing research in the area of processing of vitrimers.
Researcher within the Sustainable Transport area at Leartiker. PhD on Materials Science and Technology by the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU in 2020. Before, she carried out Physics and Electronics Engineering Bachelor’s degrees and New Materials’ Master’s degree in the University of the Basque Country. During the last 7 years she has focused on the characterization, modelling and simulation of elastomeric materials and components, mainly for the automotive sector. She has also participated and led several research projects and published several scientific papers at high standard international journals. Currently at Leartiker, her research activities are mainly focused on the study of the dynamic mechanical behaviour and durability of elastomer materials (rubber and TPEs), not only in terms of characterization bat also in modelling or digitalization strategies.
In 2002 Hans completed a study in analytical chemistry and started his career at Cabot Leiden Technical Centre as technician rubber blacks. He continued his career at Helvoet Rubber and Plastic Technologies B.V in 2006 . A company making rubber and plastic components. He fulfilled various positions in process engineering and material development. In 2011 he completed his Weiterbildungsstudium Kautschuktechnologie (DIK) in Germany.
Since 2021 he continued his career at Kiwa in role of Senior Rubber Consultant. In this role he is involved in various projects to support customers with rubber knowledge, testing and development and is also involved with guidelines for testing and certification of rubber and TPE products.
Dr. Richard J. Spontak is a Distinguished Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Professor of Materials Science & Engineering and Alumni Distinguished Graduate and Undergraduate Professor at NC State University. He received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering (with honors/high distinction) from Penn State University in 1983 and was awarded his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley in 1988. He then pursued post-doctoral research in Materials Science & Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge (U.K.) and Condensed Matter Physics at the Institute for Energy Technology (Norway) before joining the Corporate Research Division of the Procter & Gamble Company in 1990. In 1992, he accepted a faculty position at NC State University, where he supervises the Macromolecular Materials & Morphology Group. Since that time, Spontak has published over 300 peer-reviewed journal papers and over 35 scholarly works as book chapters and invited monographs, and his work has been featured on 31 journal covers and cited over 14,000 times according to Google Scholar. Although active in a diverse range of disciplines, his primary research interests relate to the phase behavior and morphology/property development of nanostructured polymers, polymer nanocomposites and coatings, electron microscopy, and stimuli-responsive soft materials.
Thibaud is an industrial engineer with 8 years of experience in product development and industrialization in the automotive and aeronautical industries. He joined Pollen AM two years ago and is responsible for accompanying and supporting Pollen AM’s customers in their 3D printing projects and for the integration of Pam systems into the industrial apparatus.
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