Sajjid Mitha is the CEO and Founder of Polymerupdate - Asia's largest and the world's fastest growing petrochemical market intelligence company.

He is also the CEO and Founder of PWorld Tech - creators of Polymerexchange - the world's first and simplest trading platform for polymer resins.

Mr Mitha's commitment to saving the environment is represented through RACE (Recycling And the Circular Economy) - a global platform which hosts both physical and virtual conferences on waste management, grass-root level education programmes for a better understanding on handling waste responsibly and clean-up activities across beaches.

He is on the Industrial Advisory Board of the Department of Polymer Science at the Somaiya Vidyavihar University.

Founded Allied Solutions (I) Pvt. Ltd. in 1995. An Engineering Graduate. Responsible for deploying the Company’s strategic vision and developing business alliances. Partner in Genesis Nutech and Gennext Strategy Advisors. A member of various associations SPE, AIPMA, OPPI, IPI.

Has been closely associated with SPE India since 2011. Was elected as the Hon. Secretary of the Society of Plastic Engineers India 2012 to 2014 and presently id the President-Elect of SPE India. Has been involved in various SPE activities, including organizing several conference and workshops.

He is part of the Editorial Committee of Plastindia’s Insights Magazine
He was part of AIPMA Committee for Seminars and Conferences
He has been Chairman and Co Chairman of several Committees for Plastindia Foundation.

He has presented papers at various seminars organized by professional bodies and industry associations. Responsible for setting up the first Gas Assist Injection System in India, at Philips Ltd. Calcutta. Has hands on experience in Gas Assist Injection Moulding, design and process. Business experience in all fields of Plastic Processing viz; Injection, Blow and Extrusion. Has an extensive interest for Plastic Pipes, since this subject was a passion for his Father. (A.R.Parasuraman)

Patrick (Pat) Farrey has been the CEO of SPE since June 2017. A career association executive, Farrey was previously an Executive Vice President of Kellen – a global association management firm with offices in Atlanta, Brussels, Beijing, Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, New York and Washington, D.C. Farrey was a member of the company’s Executive Board and managed its Chicago and Denver offices.

Farrey was a founding partner of the association management company Landon, Farrey & Associates, Inc., which was acquired by Kellen in October 2011. Prior, he and his business partner launched Independent Publishing Company (IPC), a publisher of packaging-industry trade magazines, association journals and web sites. IPC was acquired by Medical World Communications (NJ) in December 2001.

Farrey specializes in helping Societies achieve profitability, relevance and vitality. His strengths include strategic planning, marketing, global expansion, membership development, publishing, administration, public relations, meetings and trade show management.

Farrey holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. He is a member of American Society of Association Executives, Arizona Society of Association Executives and Association Forum of Chicagoland.

Conor Carlin is the Managing Director of ILLIG LP, the North American subsidiary of ILLIG Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG, a Germany-based designer and manufacturer of thermoforming, tooling, and packaging systems. A member of SPE since 2000, he serves as editor for SPE Thermoforming and Recycling Division publications. Carlin has contributed articles on plastics and packaging for international industry press in the US, Europe, and Asia. In 2017, he was elected to the SPE Executive Board as VP of Marketing and Communications, and re-elected in 2020 as the first VP of Sustainability. Carlin has degrees from Boston University (BA, International Relations / French) and the FW Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College (MBA).

Nerida Kelton has worked in the Packaging industry for over 23 years and is the Vice President Sustainability & Save Food for the World Packaging Organisation (WPO) and the Executive Director for the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) which is the peak professional body for packaging training and education in Australasia.

Nerida is passionate about Sustainable & Circular Packaging and Save Food Packaging Design and is the lead for the Save Food Packaging Consortium project within the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre and was the packaging representative on the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment's National Food Waste Strategy Steering Committee.

She invests her time educating the industry on the important role that packaging plays in minimising Food Waste and how designing Save Food Packaging can make a difference.

She is also committed to helping educate and train packaging professionals in the importance of sustainable and circular packaging design and recognising best practice in this area.

Nerida believes that everyone has a role to play in minimising their environmental impact on our planet.

As Ocean Ambassador of the Netherlands, Willemijn Peeters is a renowned international speaker on circular plastics.

Being highly committed to preventing plastics from ending up in our environment, Willemijn founded Searious Business, a social enterprise that works together with highly motivated international brands to close the plastic loop in 3 impact sectors: (food)packaging, furniture, consumer electronics.

Creating innovative, economically advantageous alternatives at the source, Searious Business strategically assesses internal plastic use, accelerates circular product & business innovation, and reduces external impacts on ocean ecosystems.

Salvatore J. Monte, President of Kenrich Petrochemicals, Inc.; B.C.E. Manhattan College; M.S.-Polymeric Materials, NYU Tandon School of Engineering; Member Plastics Hall of Fame 2021-the Plastics Academy; Society Plastics Engineers Fellow & Honored Service Member; Licensed P.E.; Plastics Industry Association Recycle Subcommittee-Compatibilizers; Board of Governors, Plastics Pioneers Association-MTS Newsletter Chair; 32-U.S. Patents – most recent US Patent 2020/0071230 A1 dated Mar. 5, 2020; Lectured Worldwide on Titanate & Zirconate Coupling agents; 450-American Chemical Society CAS Abstracts of published “Works by S.J. Monte”; Classified Top Secret for Solid Rocket Fuel and Energetic Composites Patents for the Insensitive Munitions Program; Lifetime member of the National Defense Industrial Association; Lifetime Member of the BOD-SPE ThermoPlastics Materials & Foams Division – Annual Scholarship named: Salvatore J. Monte Thermoplastic Materials & Foams Division Scholarship; External Advisory Committee-UCF NanoScience Technology Center; former Chairman of the NYRG-ACS Rubber Division; former President of the SPE P-NJ Section; Testified several times before Congress on Trade and IP Protection; Business Man of the Year 2015-Bayonne Chamber of Commerce; Federated Society Coatings Technology C. Homer Flynn Award for Technical Excellence; Recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award; Rotary Paul Harris Fellow; UA Million Miler; Member PIA, SPE, ACS, ASCE, AIChE, SAMPE, the GRAPHENE COUNCIL, the Vinyl Sustainability Council.

Akhilesh is an MBA from Mumbai University and an INSEAD alum.

Akhilesh has over 12 years of experience on Recycled plastic in packaging in Circular Economy enhanced through digital traceability. With extensive experience through working with training of citizens, collection from local communities in slums and the complete supplying in Plastic Waste Management, he has worked whole ecosystem in Circular Economy.

A environment and ocean lover, an entrepreneur, he has been working along side with Champion of the Earth recipient Afroz Shah on ground action in Ocean Bound Plastic, Forest based plastic and from other eco sensitive zones.

Akhilesh is the Managing Director of AVI Global Plast Private Limited, India which is a leading disruptor in recycled rPET Packaging for packaging of Consumer goods, Food, fruits and vegetables, garments and Industrial goods. Akhilesh is a Director with Date With Ocean Foundation which is taking ground action on reducing marine litter and behaviour change of citizens.

Akhilesh is also the former chairman of the Environment committee at the All India Plastic Manufacturers Association (AIPMA) since 2013 through 2018.

Director Market Development EVAL(tm) EVOH Resins and fil s and Plantic(tm) Thermoplastic Starch: Experienced professional with Industrial Engineer degree in Chemistry from Liege Industrial Engineering High School and with short-MBA qualification "Business essentials for Talents in management" at Kluwer Formation.

More than 20 years experience in Barrier Packaging evolving functions of technical support, (new) business & market developments and regulatory affairs responsibilities in the area of barrier multilayer structures with accumulated experience in established and innovative plastics converting technologies.

Winner of 3 Kuraray Company awards, two for significant successful business development.

Masahiro Kitamura completed master's degree in polymer science at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan in 2003, then working in Kuraray EVAL division for 18years deeply involved in plastic packaging industry.

His main career was R&D and Technical Service of EVAL™ resin in Asian territory till 2018. Since 2018 he has been working in EVAL EUROPE N.V. (Kuraray subsidiary in Belgium) and in charge of Market Development and Technical Service for Kuraray's barrier materials with key focus of environmental friendly packaging.

Brian Schmatz is a Business Development Manager for trinamiX GmbH, a subsidiary of BASF focused on optical imaging technologies.

After receiving his PhD in Polymer Chemistry from Georgia Institute of Technology, where his thesis focused on environmentally benign printing of electronic inks, Brian joined BASF and worked as a researcher in the Effect Pigments group and a strategist in the Corporate Sustainability group before joining trinamiX.

Brian is passionate about prioritizing sustainability in his work, and is currently pursuing many circular economy projects that utilize the trinamiX NIR spectrometer.

Ravish Majithia leads Magnomer as founder & CEO.

He holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Texas A&M University. Ravish is also a Babson Fellow and MBA from Babson College. Ravish was named one of the top 100 MBA’s in 2018 by Poets and Quants and was awarded the prestigious Sorenson Merit Award by Babson College for his work on Magnomer.

Magnomer is a winner of Materials Research Society’s Innovation Award & MassChallenge Gold.

Born in Belgium in 1969.

Master in Chemical & Polymer Engineering at the University of Gent, Belgium.

Executive MBA from the Vlerick Management School in Belgium.

certified London Business School Senior Executive Program holder.

Career start in 1991 at Eurocompound, a leading European supplier of rubber emulsion compounds and coatings to the textile, automotive, and paper industries.

In 1996, transfer to Recticel, a world leader in the manufacture of polyurethane products. Started as the sales manager, later Business Unit Manager of the automotive materials division, with plants in USA, and Belgium.

In 2004, appointed Business Unit Director of Recticel Automotive Interior Solutions in Germany, with responsibilities for several car brands, as well as the set-up of Recticel’s first factory in China, and board member of a Japanese joint venture.

In 2008, becomes Vice President and mid 2009 CEO of Vitalo, a leading global supplier of plastics packaging and thermoformed plastic components. Vitalo Group, has worldwide factories and sales offices spread out over Europe, the USA, Mexico, India, Thailand, China, Japan, and the Philippines.

Early 2012, transfers as CEO of SPE, Society of Plastics Engineers in the USA. SPE is a Knowledge and Networking organization with 26 divisions and 70 regional sections, which provides services to the plastics industry in 84 countries.

August 2017, CEO of Campine, a stock listed Belgian company with business activities in the recycling of metals and the manufacturing of specialty chemicals for the plastics and textile industry.

Mr De Vos currently holds several non-executive board positions and is a management advisor to some SME companies and scientific/industry institutions.

Main expertise’s consists of: strategy and business model analyses, structuring for international growth (worked in Belgium, Germany, China and the USA), professionalizing for growth, project environments, cost optimizations and operational excellence; all these in the manufacturing and B-to-B service industry. Main sectors: Automotive, Packaging, Appliances, Metals- and Plastics-recycling, Textile and Chemical industry.

Helen McGeough is the Lead on Plastics Recycling for ICIS.

Helen has extensive experience of the recycling industry and business having worked in the sector for over 17 years.

Helen specializes in recycled PET (R-PET) with in-depth knowledge and analysis in this commodity plastic.

Jagan is the innovation director of Berry bpi recycled products for over 6 years with responsibility for product and process innovations in recycling, refuse and construction sectors.

He is also responsible for several design for recycling and recycled content projects at berry bpi.

He has a PhD degree in polymer physics from the University of Leeds and has published over 15 articles in peer reviewed journals.

Federico Magalini, a Mechanical Engineer, holds a PhD in Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering from Politecnico di Milano University.

Federico has more than 20 years practical experience on e-waste management, capacity building and policy; 4 years experiences as Operations & Quality Managers in take back scheme for e-waste, batteries, PV, and other industrial waste streams.

Federico has a solid track record in implementation of take back policies and approaches, development and enforcement of voluntary standards (WEEELABEX, EcoGuard), business model development and financing systems, policy development and technology transfer.

Federico has been actively involved in capacity building projects for policy makers and entrepreneurs across Africa as initiator and manager of the E-waste Academy for almost 8 years (www.ewasteacademy.org) and supported policy development through various projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria and few other countries.

After having developed the UK branch of Sofies (www.sofiesgroup.com) he is currently the Director of Sustainability Services for UK of DSS (DuPont Sustainable Solutions) a consulting group headquartered in Geneva.

Rudolf Pfaendner studied chemistry at the University of Bayreuth in Germany and received his PhD in 1985 with a thesis on electrically conductive polymers.

During 25 years he held different positions in R&D at the specialty chemicals company “Ciba” inter alia as Global Head of Research for the business segment “Plastic Additives” and as Senior Research Fellow.

Rudolf is now Division Director Plastics of the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF and Honorary Professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.

He has over thirty years of experience in polymer synthesis, plastics and coatings additives, stabilizers, recycling, reactive extrusion, nanocomposites, flame retardants and innovation management including numerous patents and publications.

Mrs. Kim Van de Velde has been with 3M since 1997. Initially she started at the R&D department of Scotchgard protective materials for textiles.

In 1998 she joined the application and development department of Dynamar™ Polymer Processing Additives. She assisted in the start-up of the blown film equipment and later the expansion of a 3-layer blown film line.
She is specialised in executing and coordinating customer trials in the Zwijndrecht lab on different extrusion equipment for various applications using 3M Dynamar PPA’s.

Currently, Kim works as a Technologist for Dynamar™ Polymer Processing Additives for EMEA, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Kim graduated in 1996 at the KdG University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Antwerp with a degree in Industrial Chemistry.

Suhas Dixit is the founder and CEO of APChemi. APChemi is focused on eliminating two of the world's most important problems: plastic pollution through chemical recycling and air pollution through biofuel production. Over the last 12 years, APChemi has supplied 47 projects in plastic pyrolysis and oil purification. APChemi's technology and business model is focused on converting plastic and biomass waste into high-quality oils for downstream production of circular economy plastics, retail-blended-biofuels, and sustainable chemicals. APChemi's solutions enable plastic circularity and decarbonisation using landfill plastic waste and ocean-bound plastic waste.

Inventor of over 12 patents, Suhas is passionate about developing technologies for producing high-quality liquids from plastic and biomass waste. He is equally passionate about building cross-value-chain synergies for unlocking advanced recycling of plastic waste.

Additionally, He is an insightful keynote speaker at international forums on Plastic Pyrolysis, Chemicals/Advanced Recycling, Plastic Waste Management and Sustainability. He is pursuing his Doctorate in Business Administration at the Swiss School of Business and Management - Geneva, with a focus on Advanced Recycling of Landfill and Ocean Plastic Waste.

Daniel Lladó holds a Chemistry degree from the UB and a Master in Marketing from EADA both in Barcelona.

He started his professional career as technician in an R+D+I center focused on plastics (UPC – Barcelona).

In 2004 he joined Nubiola and have been working in different technical and Marketing roles related to Plastics.

In 2015 he joined Ferro through Nubiola acquisition.

Nowadays he is the Segment Market Manager for Plastics, as well as Product Manager for different pigments of Ferro’s portfolio.

Sebastian achieved a degree for higher education for chemical engineering at the University of Applied Science Nuremberg.

During his years of study he gained professional experience at Siemens and Macrolab in Germany. His degree dissertation was titled “Silicone-free Adhesion of High-Performance Electronic Engineering”.

Since 2007 Sebastian has been with the Leistritz Extrusionstechnik GmbH as a chemical engineer. In 2011 he was appointed team manager of the Leistritz lab. His main responsibility include planning of trials and setting up extruders in terms of chemical engineering. As an expert in the field of extrusion he of course supports the sales team as well as customers. In 2013 he has been appointed Head of Process Technology, 2017 Product and Applications Manager.
Since 2020 he is responsible for all extrusion processes and applications at Leistritz Extrusion Technology in his function as Director Processing & Applications

Sebastian has been a speaker at various workshops and events of the plastics industry around the world.