Suzanne is the voice and the vision of Shelton Group. Drawing on her extensive experience in energy and the environment – and 25+ years in the marketing and advertising industry – Suzanne provides high-level strategic insights for our clients and guidance for our research and creative departments. She regularly speaks at conferences around the country, including Sustainable Brands, Fortune Brainstorm E and the International Builders’ Show, and serves as a guest columnist for publications like Fast Company, Green Builder and GreenBiz.com.
Benjamin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and an M.B.A from the University of Akron. Benjamin has spent the last seven years in market research and strategic consulting across a wide range of industries. In this time, Benjamin has participated in all functions of these roles including conducting primary and secondary research, analyzing trends, developing market size estimates, evaluating competitive landscapes, authoring reports, developing strategic recommendations, and conducting presentations.
Benjamin has experience working in a number of commercial, industrial, and consumer research segments, including packaging, consumer goods, oil & gas, transportation, plumbing fixtures & fittings, HVAC-R, and printing, among others. Prior to joining Smithers, Benjamin ran the Private Equity Diligence division of a Public Equity research firm. Benjamin was responsible for all aspects of this division outside of sales.
Brent Lindberg is annoying, and he knows it. It’s more than just the corny jokes and odd quirks. With a curiosity that rivals George, Brent has the habit of relentlessly asking questions like a 5-year-old. He also has an obnoxious appetite for the unexpected (as anyone who’s seen his wardrobe can tell you).
Together these traits produce an unorthodox approach to structural packaging design which has built a culture at Fuseneo, the creative studio he started. And somehow, it seems to be working. Their incessant inquisition and boundary-pushing has been reshaping packaging experiences across retail and e-commerce for more than a decade.
Mitch is a passionate and creative sustainability entrepreneur, consultant, educator and advocate, who believes that profit and planet can share the same bottom line. He has a particular interest in solving the single-use dilemma with a design philosophy rooted in turning the ease of single-use into equally convenient reusable solutions. Mitch has successfully founded and lead Bagito, Returnity, and Revolusation, companies that provide consumers and businesses with smart reusable solutions that reduce carbon and primary resource usage, and eliminate trash, while saving money. His passion for eliminating single-use has lead him to his is current position as President of RePack North America, an innovative Finnish-based reusable shipping packaging service company. His work in the re-inventing of single-use products and packaging to multi-use solutions has lead to two utility patents, several awards and credit for inventing the concept of “Reusable-as-a-Service (RaaS).” Mitch’s other passion is educating and empowering students to sustain their natural world, and he is also the founder and director of Power2Sustain.org, a K-12 environmental literacy project.
A serial entrepreneur and nomad, Mayo Akindele graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas where he studied International Business & Finance. He founded the Nomad Spirits Company as a way to combine his love of technology and premium spirits from around the world.
Dan Felton is Executive Director of AMERIPEN – the American Institute for Packaging and the Environment. He is a well-known policy and trade association leader who has worked within the bottled water, credit card, healthcare and information management industries. He is particularly passionate about environmental, sustainability and packaging issues and has engaged extensively in those areas at the state and federal levels. He has chaired committees and led task forces for several national trade associations and has served on the board of the State Government Affairs Council (SGAC) where he is a graduate of the their nationally recognized professional certificate programs. A former professional actor and musician, he has run the finances and served on the board of a nationally recognized theatre education non-profit. He has also been involved with the Commission on Presidential Debates since 2000 in support of their quad-annual presidential and vice presidential debates. A graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, Dan lives in the Washington DC area.
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Ed Thorne is is the Head of Business Development for Loop (TerraCycle company) in Europe. Loop is a global platform that enables consumer product companies and retailers to shift from a disposable supply chain to a durable one.
Ed joined Loop in early 2020 and heads up partnerships and new business with retailers, brands, and others who are looking to develop durable supply chains across Europe.
Prior to joining Loop, Ed had a range of commercial and general management experience with innovative businesses in SaaS and corporate intelligence in Europe and East Asia.
Nicole is a senior sales and marketing executive with extensive experience across early-stage and Fortune 100 packaging and consumer packaged goods companies. Nicole currently serves as Vice President of Commercial and Business Development for AeroFlexx, an Innventure portfolio company, and is responsible for the entire customer collaboration and commercialization process for new partners and products, from initial pak design to e-commerce launch and on-shelf brick-and-mortar execution.
Nicole joins AeroFlexx from Be Green Packaging, where she led the effort to build the corporate sales and marketing functions from the ground up to support the growth and expansion of Be Green’s retail consumer goods compostable packaging business. Prior to Be Green, Nicole worked for more than thirteen years with Mars, Inc. During her tenure with Mars, Inc., Nicole worked across several business units and every retail class of trade to build teams focused on achieving sales and marketing goals. Nicole’s final position at Mars, Inc. was to oversee and grow Mars Food’s large customer relationships, working across Walmart, Target, Meijer and regional grocery chains, drug, natural/speciality, and military channels to grow e-commerce and support overall business development and growth. Nicole’s team won the 2017 Mars Food Team of the Year due to their support of overall growth across major retailers.
Tania's experience in packaging manufacturing, marketing and innovation spans nearly 20 years. She holds a bachelor's degree in Communications from Hautes Études Commercials (HEC) in Montreal, with focus in marketing management. Ambitious and determined, Tania is successful at discovering new 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.
Katie Schomberg is the director of business development for the Home Care market at Aptar Beauty + Home, responsible for both the global market and a focus in North America. Previous to this position, Katie worked in market development in Food + Beverage at Aptar and a variety of roles in consumer package goods companies, bringing an understanding of the brand and general business requirements required to partner in delivering innovation to the market. Katie is passionate about understanding market drivers, such as E-Commerce and Sustainability, and understanding how the needs of consumers, brands, the market, and industry, translate into value-added packaging solutions and services that improve the consumer experience and transform categories.
