Meet the Speakers 2023
Automotive & Transport Session

Claude CLEMENT is a Belgian citizen; he holds a degree in Electrical & Mechanical Engineering and a degree in Management from Brussels University.
In a career of more than 35 years in the plastic processing sector for the automotive industry, Claude CLEMENT has held several business positions in Belgium and North America before spending 12 years in Asia.
Claude CLEMENT is now holding the position of President Europe of PLASTIC OMNIUM Clean Energy Systems since 2012. In this capacity, he is managing the Europe Business Unit covering 15 plants in 10 countries among other responsibilities.
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Virginie BUSSIERES is Vice President, Communications, Marketing and Government Relations at Pyrowave. She is a committed leader who is passionate about building trusting relationships and mobilizing partners around innovative and sustainable action. A seasoned communications and public affairs manager who is at ease navigating in a highly regulated environment, she cultivates a common strategic perspective in a complex and constantly changing world. She is passionate about environmental innovation and does not hesitate to go off the beaten path to create value and support the achievement of business objectives in local and international markets.

Philippe THIRIAUX is Global Business Manager for the Automotive, Recycling, and Compounding activity of TotalEnergies. He is member of the managing committee of Polymers Low Carbon Solutions department. He worked in Research & Development before joining the Total Group in 2004 to hold several positions in the Polymers Division's marketing, technical service, sales and supply chain, covering packaging, infrastructure and durable market segments. He is a Former member of the Plastics Europe Polystyrene main committee and holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences from Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium).
Building & Construction Session
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Myriam TRYJEFACZKA joined the Tarkett Group in 2015 where she holds the position of Sustainability and Public affairs director for the EMEA division.
Tarkett has developed an eco-design approach based on Cradle to Cradle® principles to close the loop for floorcoverings. This includes the development of ReStart® take back programmes and recycling technologies. Collaboration and Transparency in the value chain are key elements supporting Tarkett's shift towards Circular economy.
In her role, she participates in the activities of European industry associations and think thanks in the field of circular economy and construction sector. She chairs the AFNOR X30M Circular Economy standardization Commission, mirror group to the ISO TC 323.
Prior to Tarkett, she has developed thorough expertise on sustainability and public affairs at Camfil, a leading manufacturer of clean air solutions, where she participated in the development of EPBD (Energy performance of buildings directive) harmonised standards on indoor environment quality and CEN and ISO related standards.
Myriam holds a Master’s degree in Biochemistry and enzymology, completed by a Master of Business Administration. Myriam developed her professional carrier in different industrial sector (packaging, electronics air filtration and flooring, in quality, environment, international project management and has been focusing on sustainable development and public affairs for the last 15 years.

Eva MARAQUE has been working for the French Association for Expanded Polystyrene Insulation in the Building Industry (AFIPEB) since 2010. She is namely in charge of topics related to health, environment and Construction Products Regulation. Graduated from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Bordeaux (Bordeaux Business School), she began her career in a construction company where, from marketing, she gradually became more involved in technical subjects, particularly in connection with asbestos removal. She then worked for 9 years in a large construction inspection company where she was finally responsible for the technical and quality organisation of activities related to building pollutants (asbestos, lead, etc.). She then spent 3 years as health and safety coordinator on construction sites.

Jean-Philippe COSTE is Chief Innovation & Special projects Officer at Corplex. He has a carrier of 37 years in the business of the extruded plastics sheets for packaging , Building and other markets with different role and responsibilities. Indeed, he started his carreer in 1986 as R&D engineer, then he hold these different positions: Operations manager at Beghin Say, Managing Director at Dsmith Kaysersberg, CEO Dssmith extruded products: 7 sites, CIO Corplex and Managing Director at Corplex Kaysersberg France and CIO a& Special projects Officer.

Julie CHAMINADE is the Managing Director of Kaléi, the French professional association representing technical and decorative coverings. All manufacturers of plastics floors, walls, roofing or coated fabrics active on the French market are members of this association. With more than twenty years as head of Kaléi, her new appointment as representative of Vinyl Plus in France and her previous experience within EuPC, as Manager of the B&C Division, Julie has developed great insight into institutional matters as well as a large number of key contacts. Aside from these main activities, she runs the RFS, the network of training centers involved in floor coverings.

Christine BERTRAND is Business Manager Polymers at TotalEnergies. She started her career at Total in 1990 in Belgium, where she held several positions within the Polymers Division linked to developing and promoting durable applications, and in R&D leading air and water quality programs. She is a member of the managing committee of the Europe and Orient Polymers Division, as well as of PlasticsEurope PS and EPS Main Committees, and of EUMEPS Raw Material Suppliers group. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences from Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium).
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Stéphanie JACOB is plastics, coverings and joinerys sector manager at Valobat.
Valobat is a non-profit private company owned by 50 shareholders, mostly leaders in the production and distribution of building materials. Its mission is to improve the environmental footprint of construction.
Valobat acts as a multi-material producer responsibility organisation (PRO) for the management of all building wastes, offering specific approaches, adapted to each product family.
Environment engineer, Stephanie worked for 13 years for KALEI, French trade association representing floor, wall and ceiling converters as environment manager. In her role, she was the French representative of VinylPlus in France for 4 years and managed circular economy working groups for UPB (Building Plastics Union) and AIMCC (Construction Products Industries association).
Packaging Session

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Achim GREFENSTEIN, born in 1965, studied mechanical engineering at the technical university of Aachen/Germany where he finished his PhD in the area of plastics processing in 1994 and has been qualified as lecturer during his post-doc time until 1996. Until today, he teaches the subject “Plastics Compounding and Recycling” at the RWTH Aachen.
Between 1996 and 2004 he worked at BASF SE in Ludwigshafen/Germany as application engineer, marketing manager and subsequent as team leader and group-wide project coordinator in different departments of BASF.
From February 2004 to June 2013 he has been working as Director Corporate R&D for RKW SE in Frankenthal/Germany being responsible for the R&D activities of the RKW group worldwide including the patents/licenses and the market introduction of newly developed products. From 2010 until 2013 he was also product manager for label films.
Since July 2013 he is Senior Vice President Group R&D at Constantia Flexibles GmbH headquartered in Vienna/Austria, being responsible for all R&D departments for Consumer and Pharma Flexible Packaging worldwide and the Group Patents and Regulatory Affairs.
For the German Plastics Packaging Association (IK) he was from 2016 to 2019 chair of the working group “Bioplastics”. At EuPC he is Chair of the Packaging Division since March 2020 and at Recyclass/PRE he is member of the Advisory Board and the Technical Committee Polyolefin Films since July 2019.

Vincent COLARD, after two master’s degrees on law and economics, with a focus on environmental projects & political decisions, Vincent started his professional life with a first experience at Veolia, on industrial waste treatment plants. Then he joined Elipso as environment manager. He started his journey with Citeo in 2016, now he conducts with his team the ecodesign Citeo strategy for plastic and metal packaging. He is part of Cotrep board, in charge of plastic packaging recyclability assessment.

Jean-Philippe COSTE is Chief Innovation & Special projects Officer at Corplex. He has a carrier of 37 years in the business of the extruded plastics sheets for packaging , Building and other markets with different role and responsibilities. Indeed, he started his carreer in 1986 as R&D engineer, then he hold these different positions: Operations manager at Beghin Say, Managing Director at Dsmith Kaysersberg, CEO Dssmith extruded products: 7 sites, CIO Corplex and Managing Director at Corplex Kaysersberg France and CIO a& Special projects Officer.

Elke BERGES is Business Manager Packaging at TotalEnergies. She started her career at Total in 2003 in Belgium within the Polymers division, holding several positions in business development, marketing, and technical service. In 2012, she joined the Petrochemicals Platform of Antwerp to take several business & support positions within Refining & Chemicals. In 2022, she moved back to Polymers to take the position of Business Manager of Packaging. She is a member of the managing committee of the Europe and Orient Polymers Division and holds a Business Engineering degree from the University of Antwerp (Belgium).

Mattia PELLEGRINI is currently Head of Unit for « From Waste to Resources» at DG Environment, European Commission. Previously he was Head of Unit for Raw Materials, Metals, Minerals and Forest-based Industries at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Previously, he worked as Head of Cabinet of Commissioner Nelli Feroci and as a Member of the Cabinet of the Vice President of the European Commission, in charge of Enterprise and Industry. Mr Pellegrini has a Master’s Degree in European Legal Studies obtained at the College of Europe, Bruges, and a postgraduate diploma in EC Law obtained at L.U.I.S.S. “Guido Carli”, University of Rome.
Main Conference & Panel Debate

Dr. Melinda CRANE is an experienced TV anchor; as chief political correspondent at Deutsche Welle TV, she analyzes German and European policy and also hosts the English editions of Quadriga and People & Politics. Dr. Crane studied history and political science at Brown University and law at Harvard. She received her PhD in political economy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Her journalistic experience includes work for the “New York Times Magazine”, “The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine,” “The Boston Globe,” the “Christian Science Monitor” and German newspapers and magazines. Her diverse areas of expertise include transatlantic politics, energy, climate and environment, transport and communication, globalization, finance and trade, science and medicine, migration, integration and urbanization, women, youth and education as well as new media and the internet.

Olivier GREINER is Vice President Polymers Europe & Orient at TotalEnergies. He started his career teaching science in Burkina Faso, before joining PetroFina in 1991 in Belgium as an internal auditor. He held several positions in Italy, France, and the Netherlands within the Total Group before being appointed Vice President Marketing & Sales of Base Chemicals in 2007, and later Senior Vice President Styrenics. Between 2016 and 2021, he directed the R&D of Refining & Chemicals. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering from UCLouvain (Belgium) and in Industrial Management Engineering from KU Leuven (Belgium).

Dr. Bertrand FILLON is currently the Vice President of European Affairs of CEATech for renewable energy (photovoltaic, hydrogen, fuel cells, batteries,...), micro-electronics, digital, industry 4.0, circular economy and materials. He defines, organizes and follows CEATech international project portfolio. He is president of The European Composites, Plastics and Polymer Processing Platform (ECP4) and represents EuPC (European Plastic Converters) in the ECP4 Board. He is also the head of the scientific committee of the French polymer cluster Polymeris and the French Plastic institute; he is scientific advisor of the French Polymer Group (GFP) and of the CRITT MDTS in France. He is in the scientific committee of the OE-A (Organic Electronic Association). He is in the conference board of the LOPEC conference. He is involved in different European platforms and associations, and in different expert groups at international and national levels. He has been in the board of NANOfuture, EMIRI, 4M, etc… From 2016 to 2019 he worked as General Director of Research of the French Plastic Institute. From 2003 to 2016, he worked at CEA/LITEN as VP of European Affairs and program manager of renewable energy. From 1990 to 2003, he worked for Pechiney Packaging as coordinator of the Global Packaging R&D activities and leader of the Pechiney polymer expert group. Before, Dr Fillon worked for Orkem as a research engineer of polymer extrusion. He has a number of technical publications, books co-author and patents in the field of polymer packaging and processes.
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Hervé de MAISTRE is Chairman of Valobat.
Valobat is a non-profit private company owned by 50 shareholders, mostly leaders in the production and distribution of building materials. Its mission is to improve the environmental footprint of construction.
Valobat acts as a multi-material eco-organisation for the management of all building wastes, offering specific approaches, adapted to every product family.
After having graduated Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Hervé has managed subsidiaries of the Saint-Gobain Group such as ISOVER and Placoplatre. He has chaired the French Association of Construction Products Industries (AIMCC) for 6 years.
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Marco ten BRUGGENCATE is the Commercial Vice President for Packaging and Specialty Plastics for EMEA, and is based in Horgen, Switzerland. Marco joined Dow in 2000 in the role of Commercial Manager, Spray Polyurethanes within PU Systems House. In 2007, he became Strategic Marketing Manager for Dow Building Solutions, before being appointed Product Director in 2011. As part of that role, he became the Chairman of the European Extruded Polystyrene Insulation Producers Association, EXIBA and represents Dow on the Board of Directors of the Joint Venture, Arabian Chemical Company Ltd, (Saudi Arabia). In 2012, Marco assumed the role of Business Director EMEAI for Dow Building Solutions and in 2014 was appointed Global Business Director for Dow Construction Chemicals. In 2016, he became the Global Business Director of Dow Building & Construction and was then responsible for Global Strategy for the Polyurethanes Portfolio before assuming his current role. Currently he is President of Brussels based association PlasticsEurope, with a focus on driving circularity and decarbonization throughout the plastics industry. Marco earned his Masters degree in Business Economics at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. He is a vocal and active advocate for inclusion and diversity and is Co-Chair in Dow’s Women’s Inclusion Network, as well as the business sponsor for DEN EMEAI, Dow’s disability network.

Filipe de Botton has a Bachelor's degree in Business Management from "Universidade Católica Portuguesa”. Between 1980 and 1991, he represented the following banks in Portugal: Crédit du Nord (France), Banc de Sabadell (Spain), Banque Bruxelles Lambert (Belgium) and Bayerische Hypotheken und Wechselbank (Germany).
From 1985 to 1990, Filipe de Botton was a Founder and Member of the Board of Interfinança , a private bank sold to Millennium BCP, and, between 1990 and 1991, he was a Founder and Member of the Board of Fonsecas & Burnay, Sociedade Gestora de Património, which is now part of the BPI group. In 1976, he founded Logoplaste with his father and became CEO and main shareholder in 1991. Logoplaste is one of the main worldwide producers of rigid plastic. It has 70 factories in 16 countries – in Europe, NAFTA, Vietnam and Brazil – with sales of over 800 million euros.
Filipe de Botton is also involved as a Shareholder and Director in: Hotels and resorts sector (hotels in Brazil and in Portugal) ( Portobay ), Ice cream business (Santini), Production of wine in Portugal (Logowines), Largest producer of bio blueberries in Iberia ( Logofruits ), Financial Consultant Service Company (Invesfin), The largest creative hub in Portugal (LACS), Main shareholder of production of stoneware plates and cups factory (Mesacer), Asset management services (Sixty Degrees) .
He is Founder President of the Portuguese Diaspora Counsel and a French Foreign Trade Advisor.
He is also President of the CADin - Neurodevelopment and Inclusion.
He was President of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa Alumni from 1989 to 2001, Director of the Hotel da Lapa in Lisbon from 1990 to 1994 and Member of the Board of Sporting Clube de Portugal between 2006 and 2009.

Stéphanie Pernod was born on October 13, 1978 in Bourg-en-Bresse in the department of Ain.
Graduated of a Bachelor of Philosophy at the University Jean Moulin, Lyon 3, she began her career as Senior Advisor of Education and then became Professor of Modern Letters and Philosophy.
She discovered the political world by becoming Municipal Councillor of her municipality, Hauteville Lompnes in 2001 and by being re-elected in 2008. In 2013, Etienne Blanc, mayor of Divonne-les-Bains, hired her as parliamentary assistant. She will take over as Deputy in June 2016. That same year, Stéphanie Pernod became the 12th Vice-President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Council, Delegate for Vocational Training and Apprenticeship chaired by Laurent Wauquiez.
In 2020, faithful to her territory and her municipality where her two children are growing up, she becomes 1st Deputy Mayor.
In the regional elections of 2021, Laurent Wauquiez, to whom she is very closed to, offered her the position of 1st Vice President of Region delegated to Economy, relocation to Regional Preference and digital.

Jonatas Melo is graduated from the University of São Paulo.
He started his career at ExxonMobil where he held several positions during nine years.
At Borouge, he was firstly Vice-President of Global Supply and Demand; then he became Vice President of the Business Center to finally hold the position of Vice President – Asia South for which he was responsible for all commercial and supply chain activities India subcontinent, South East Asia and Australasia.
Jonatas currently works at Borealis, for several years now. Being Vice President - Performance Materials & Global P&L Owner for the Performance Materials Business Unit., Jonatas leads the teams responsible for Consumer Products (Flexible and Rigid Packaging) and Infrastructure applications across all geographies. General Commercial interface with all value chain players, with key focus on Circular Solutions.
He has more than 23 years of international leadership experience for leading multinational companies. He received several awards