Born in the UK, educated in Rhodesia and South Africa, Stephen Harrod spent eleven years building a market research company in South Africa, focussed on the paper and packaging industry in that country, following which he spent six years in the paper industry with Mondi and JAC Labels before relocating to England. He has been consulting on ad-hoc projects and authoring reports for Smithers since 2006, with a focus on global paper and packaging markets. Stephen is responsible for a range of Smithers market reports including the Global Corrugated Market, the Global Folding Carton Market, Retail Ready Packaging, Liquid Packaging Board, Sustainable E-Commerce Packaging and many others.
Stephan Auer-Stüger studied political science and has been a member of the Vienna City Parliament since 2019. He is deputy chairman of the Climate and Environment Committee and is responsible for the areas of climate policy and waste management.
Sebastian Frank brings over two decades of experience in the packaging industry, commencing his career in 2004 at Horn Verpackung GmbH. Throughout his journey, he has honed expertise in consulting, development and sales of diverse packaging solutions. As the Sales Director Europe for MailerBAGs at Mondi, he specialises in advising clients on optimal e-commerce packaging solutions that align with their sustainability objectives.
Scott currently oversees all departments of the European Outdoor Group. He is ex-Apple and has an MBA from the University of Cambridge,
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Mike Turner is the Managing Director of the European Carton Makers Association (ECMA)
who are the ‘voice’ of the European folding carton sector, representing 500+ companies with
80,000 staff, he is also Chair of Fibre Packaging Europe, an advocacy focussed coalition
representing €120 billion of European fibre packaging revenue and a consultant to the fibre
packaging sector through his company, Socium Consulting Ltd. Since 2020, he has represented
packaging converters on the 4evergreen cross-industry alliance, which is focussed on
achieving a 90% recycling rate for fibre packaging by 2030.
Mr Turner joined ECMA in 2019 from Graphic Packaging International, where he served as
Managing Director of their EMEA Foodservice Packaging business. Prior to that, Mr Turner
spent 14 years with International Paper, working in positions of increasing responsibility
culminating in the position of Managing Director of their EMEA Foodservice Packaging
Business and Lead Team member of their Global Foodservice Packaging Business. Prior to
that, Mr Turner spent 10 years with M-Real, a Scandinavian paper mill and merchant group.
Mr Turner has also served 4 years as President and Chairman of the Brussels based ‘Pack2Go’
representing manufacturers of packaging for food & beverages ‘to go’. Mr Turner serves on
the Board of ‘First Steps’ which is a UK based family & child support Charity.
Lieven became Program Manager Sustainable Packaging in 2024 at Fost Plus, the Belgian PRO for household packaging, having joined the company in 2002. He is responsible for realising the commitment of Fost Plus and its members to put more sustainable packaging on the Belgian market, helping companies to develop more recyclable packaging that can be easily incorporated into the current sorting and recycling processes. He is also responsible for defining eco-modulation in the tariff structure, which gives companies the financial incentive to choose more sustainable packaging.
Before becoming Program Manager Sustainable Packaging Lieven was responsible for the collection, sorting and recycling of household packaging waste, as well as the realisation of Business Development projects and the implementation of innovative solutions throughout the packaging value chain.
Lieven holds a master’s degree in Bio engineering and environmental sciences and a postgraduate degree in Business Administration which he obtained at the University of Leuven.
Thibaut Zussy has been a member of Amazon Mechatronics and Sustainable Packaging team since 2021, supporting vendors to convert their products to Ship In Product Packaging in the EU. He is proud to lead a project that has a positive impact on the environment while delighting customers with less packaging. Prior to Amazon, he held a variety of sales and sales leadership roles at Amcor, one of the leading companies in the packaging industry, primarily focused on managing global key accounts, defining processes to improve the profitability and developing new service models.
Manfred Tacker is founder and CEO of Circular Analytics, a consulting firm specialized in
Packaging Sustainability and Circular Packaging Design. The company helps clients to apply the
principles of Circular Economy to restructure their packaging portfolio. Circular Analytics has
developed a proprietary digital tool, The Packaging Cockpit, to analyze the circularity of
packaging systems and to optimize the environmental impact of packaging.
He is the founder of the study programmes “Sustainable Resource Management” and
“Packaging Technology” at the University of Applied Science Campus Vienna.
Manfred holds a master and a doctors degree in Chemistry from University Vienna.
In his professional career he served as CEO of the Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry and
Technology and as head of the Austrian Packaging Institute. His research interest are
sustainable packaging and eco-design.
Rasmus studied packaging technology and sustainability in Vienna. In recent years he has worked as a packaging development and sustainability manager in the food industry. Since 2023, he works as an innovation manager at Austrian Post with a strong focus on enabling the circular economy in online retail. For this purpose, he develops new forms of packaging in collaboration with partner companies.
Thomas Fugl is co-founder and CCO at RE-ZIP. Thomas has severe experience within last-mile and infrastructure. And as part of the founder-team at RE-ZIP has set out the change the future of Ecommerce packaging offering state of the art circular packaging concept: System, infrastructure and packaging.
Gerald Rebitzer is responsible for Sustainability at Amcor Flexibles Europe, Middle East and Africa and Amcor Flexibles Americas.
From 2007 to 2009 he was head of product-related sustainability management at Alcan Packaging, globally. Prior to this, he had several roles related to EHS and sustainability within Alcan, focusing on the various aluminium production and fabrication businesses (2003 – 2007). Gerald has over 20 years of experience in implementing sustainability initiatives and life cycle approaches in sectors such as Packaging, Building and Construction, Automotive, Aerospace, Electronics, and Metals.
He holds a Ph.D. in Life Cycle Management from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne and a Masters in Environmental Engineering from the Technical University Berlin. He is editor for The International Journal of LCA, member of the Executive Committee of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, and chairman of the Sustainability Committee of Flexible Packaging Europe. Gerald was also member of the Steering Committee of the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol’s Product and Supply Chain Initiative and was active in the board of the UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative. Gerald has published more than 120 papers in the area of life cycle thinking and sustainability and regularly speaks at international conferences.
Dr. Thomas Maier-Eschenlohr studied Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich (TU München). He completed his Ph.D. at TU München and Harvard Medical School, focusing on medical robotics. Following his academic career, Dr. Maier-Eschenlohr worked as a production manager in the medical device industry. Since 2013, he has been the co-founder and CEO of Landpack GmbH, a company specialising in sustainable packaging solutions.
Emiliano has always been interested in innovation in technology and business sustainability. Qwarzo® technology struck him because of the impact it could have, so Emiliano decided to invest in the company in 2020 and then serve as CEO in 2022, supporting and assisting the development of the brand's growth strategy with the goal of creating a new international standard.
In the meeting between Emiliano and the inventor of Qwarzo ® that took place a few years ago, foresight is combined with the capacity for vision and creation of winning business models gained over the years.
Maurizio Carano joined WestRock in 2022 as the Director of Marketing with oversight on corrugated automation, e-commerce, and the broader corrugated portfolio. Before joining WestRock, during the past 20 years, Maurizio held various Marketing roles with global packaging companies including; Tetra Pak, Avery Dennison, Klockner Pentaplast and Robopac. Maurizio holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, and a Master's in Marketing, Sales and International Trade.
Christoph is a Principal in AFRY Management Consulting’s packaging practice. He joined the Munich office in 2011 and has been working extensively within the packaging value chain, cooperating mainly with packaging material and -converting companies in Europe, MENA and other global regions. Key focus has been on strategic advisory, and topics ranging from strategy development, trend research, to Due Diligence assignments.
Tania's experience in packaging manufacturing and innovation spans 20 years. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Communications from Hautes Études Commerciales in Montreal, with focus in marketing management. Ambitious and determined, Tania is successful at discovering customer insights, and developing sustainable solutions that fulfill unmet market needs. She's passionate about the circular economy and thrives on identifying innovative & sustainable ways to redesign e-commerce packaging.
Bio to follow
Michael has been working on the concept of smart packaging for five years. He joined BHS Corrugated in 2018 as a Product Manager for digital solutions. As the project leader for the innovative smart packaging concept, he is driving the vision of a package that connects the entire corrugated packaging value chain.
Bio to follow
Nina is a passionate international sales expert with extensive experience in the fields of smart security labels and product digitalization. As Head of Sales at SECURIKETT, she has worked across a variety of industries and applications, supporting customers all around the world to tackle all the different challenges they are facing related to counterfeits, supply chain transparency and direct customer engagement – an increasingly relevant topic in today’s digitalized world. She combines high-level expertise in both the physical and digital aspects of product security.
Having studied social sciences at the university of Vienna, focusing on intercultural communication and international relations as well as sustainability, Nina joined SECURIKETT, a company dedicated to enable trust in original products, in 2015. After a year in R&D, she moved to Sales which she is heading since 2017. In 2024, she has completed a Global Executive MBA at a joint program of the Vienna University for Business and Economics and the Carlson School of Management, Minnesota.
Philip Ortin is head of prouduct management & marketing and works with traceless since April 2022. Philip Ortin previously gained many years of experience in B2B marketing and sales functions in the chemical industry. He worked in various countries in Europe and Asia. His expertise extends across different markets and applications from packaging in the food industry to structural adhesives in the automotive industry.
