European Conference Waste Management in the Circular Economy 2020

Jean-Benoît BelSenior project manager, Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and Sustainable Resource Management

Jean-Benoit is an environmental engineer holding a degree in general engineering from the École Centrale de Lille (France) and a Master degree in environmental engineering from the Technical University of Denmark. He has worked for 9 years for the Paris Region Waste Observatory (ORDIF). He is now a Senior Project Manager and Senior Expert at ACR+, specialised in waste monitoring and benchmarking.

Gemma Castejón MartínezManaging Director, Technology Centre for Energy and the Environment (CETENMA)

Gemma Castejón (Industrial Engineer, Valencia, Spain) is the Managing Director of CETENMA from 2007. She has 18 years of experience in different private companies from industrial and agri-food sector, accumulating skills on industrial security inspection and international commerce, especially with Chinese market. In the last 11 years she is managing innovation, technology transfer and R&D projects for companies. She has participated in FP7, Eco-Innovation, LIFE, INTERREG and H2020 projects. Currently she coordinates VALUEWASTE.

Gary CrawfordVice President, Veolia

Gary Crawford is employed by Veolia as Vice President of International Affairs. He is based in Veolia’s Corporate Headquarters in Paris, France. He has over 25 years of experience in the waste industry and has held various operational, technical, and managerial positions. He is responsible for establishing active partnerships with key global stakeholders and institutions to support the Company’s current activities and developing business. He is focused on emerging growth markets associated with cross-cutting subjects such as the Circular Economy, Climate Change and Smart and Sustainable Cities. He is also responsible for identifying new business models for developing economies that deliver sustainable business value. He is a member of the Board of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) and Lead Partner of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) as well as an Advisory Board Member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastic Economy and Food Initiatives.

Axel DarutEU affairs & Data advisor, CITEO

Axel DARUT is the european affairs & data advisor for Citeo, the company in charge of the Extended Producer Responsibility schemes for household packaging and for graphic & printed paper in France, working with 20 000 packers and fillers, 900 local municipalities and 300 recyclers. He joined the public policy affairs department of Citeo in 2018, after experiences in the high administration and advisory firm for the public sector. He works very closely with all the actors of the packaging value chain in particular on the Circular Economy Package, the Plastics Strategy and the voluntary commitments at the european and international scales. He graduated from the University Paris Dauphine (Master in Law and Regulatory Markets) and from the College of Europe (LL.M in EU law).

Roberta DessiChief Public Affairs, IKEA

Roberta Dessì is Director of Regulatory Affairs at IKEA Range & Supply. In IKEA, Roberta is responsible for leading regulatory strategies connected to product requirements and circularity. Prior to joining IKEA in May 2019, Roberta worked for both private firms and public institutions, with a focus on EU law and products regulation. She is a qualified lawyer, admitted to the bar in Italy.

Emmanuel KatrakisSecretary General, European Recycling Industries' Confederation (EuRIC)

He serves as Secretary General of the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) since September 2014. Emmanuel is responsible for the continuous development of the Confederation which represents today, through its Member Federations, more than 5.500 recycling businesses across Europe processing different waste streams (household, commercial & industrial waste, WEEE, ELVs). EuRIC gathers among others ELV recyclers though its European Shredder Group focusing on the various stages of car recycling. Raising awareness about the instrumental role played by recycling in sustainable development and fostering recycling friendly policy measures are among his priorities. Emmanuel is a member of different expert groups set up by European institutions aiming at supporting the transition towards a more circular economy. Emmanuel is graduated in European law from the College of Europe and the University of Paris II Pantheon-Assas.

Mattia PellegriniHead of Unit for Waste Management and Secondary Materials, European Commision, Directorate-General for Environment

Mattia Pellegrini is currently Head of Unit for Waste Management & Secondary Materials 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.

Maija PohjakallioSustainability Director, Sulapac Ltd

Maija Pohjakallio works as a sustainability director at Sulapac. The focus of her current work is in bio-based microplastic-free materials. During her career at VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland, prior to Sulapac she was involved in the development of the Finnish plastics roadmap acting as a member of the secretariat assisting the Ministry of the Environment. Maija has work experience in several fields including team leading, sustainability advocacy, chemical industry and research & teaching. She received her doctoral degree in 1996 from Helsinki University of Technology (currently Aalto-university) in physical chemistry and is particularly excited about combining chemistry with sustainable development.

Joachim QuodenManaging Director, Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance (EXPRA)

Joachim Quoden studied law at the “Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität” in Bonn between 1987 and 1992 and served his legal internship in Bonn and Cologne from 1993 until 1995. In between these placements he spent 4 months within the German Federal Ministry of Environment where he was working on packaging issues including the German Packaging Ordinance. From January 2001, he served as Head of International Affairs of DSD and was vested with general commercial power of representation in 2003. In January 2001 he also became Secretary General of PRO EUROPE, the umbrella organisation of 32 packaging recovery organisations seated in 31 European countries and in Ontario, Canada. Since April 2005 he was appointed as managing director of this organisation and since July 2006 he works fulltime as General Manager for PRO EUROPE. Besides this he is working since June 1995 as independent German Lawyer specialised on international trade mark and producer responsibility law.

Raquel Rebelo de MiraSustainability Business Partner, Royal Philips

Raquel is by background an Environmental Engineer with 20 years of internationalization and cross-industry experience in global corporations. She is an expert in Sustainability and Circular Economy (CE) and develops and delivers strategic programs and initiatives in this field. Raquel’s triple-accredited Bradford University MBA in “Innovation, Enterprise, and Circular Economy” further enabled her to support Philips in embedding the pioneering themes of a circular economy in its business strategy and action. In this role, she helps businesses to redefine their vision to innovate by thinking in systems while addressing their multidimensional challenges towards an advanced model of the circular economy. While doing so, Raquel enjoys the challenge of spreading the concept of CE across businesses and functions while stimulating inspirational dialogues and decisions towards redesigning organisational processes, from product innovation to service models design.

Jim RushworthIndustrial Affairs Director, European Cement Association (CEMBUREAU)

He started his career in the gold mining industry in South Africa in 1981 and has over 37 years experience in the cement, lime and aggregates industries in both technical and operational roles. His current role is Industrial Policy Director at CEMBUREAU where he leads the Industrial Policy team. Past roles have included Global Head Corporate Citizenship for LafargeHolcim (LH), Global Vice President Sustainable Development & Public Affairs in Lafarge, Head of Sustainability in UK, Head of Emissions Trading and leading the waste fuels program in UK for Lafarge. Internationally he co-chaired taskforces for WBCSD-CSI, CEMBUREAU and UEPG (EU Aggregates Association). In UK he was also on the board of BCSD-UK and Emissions Trading Group and chairman of working groups for Minerals Products Association and ETG. He has been selected by the UK Government to represented EU extractive industry and UK industry on several occasions and represented LH at the UN Global Leaders assembly in New York.

Helmut SchmitzHead of Communication / Public Affairs, DSD – Duales System Holding GmbH & Co. KG

Helmut Schmitz works since 2013 as Director Communication & Public Affairs for “Der Grüne Punkt - Duales System Deutschland GmbH“ in Berlin, Brussels and Cologne. As Head of International Communication and Director Public Affairs he was responsible in 2000 – 2013 for projects with different international stakeholder groups, especially in Europe and Asia.

Gisela SommerWaste Management Technician, Waste Agency of Catalonia

Gisela Sommer has been working at the Waste Agency of Catalonia as an Environmental Technician since November 1994. Currently she forms part of the work team dedicated to the EU Horizon 2020 Project DECISIVE (A Decentralised Management Scheme for Innovative Valorisation of Urban Biowaste). She has been involved in different aspects of waste management and in particularly in data collection and elaboration of waste statistics. In addition, she has collaborated in EU waste management projects like the European Topic Centre on Waste and the INTERREG IVC Project Regions for Recycling (R4R). From 1993 to 1994 she worked with TÜV Rheinland Sicherheit und Umweltschutz GmbH (Cologne, Germany) on a Hazardous Waste Management Project for the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City. From 1992 to 1993 she worked with ICICT/TÜV Rheinland Iberia (Barcelona/Spain) in the field of emission and water pollution control of industrial activities.

Martín SorianoR&D Project Coordinator, Technology Centre for Energy and the Environment (CETENMA)

Martín Soriano (B.Sc. Env.Sci., Ph.D. Soil Sci.) works as a project manager at CETENMA (Spain) where he coordinates the VALUEWASTE project. Martin has over 13 years of experience in public (CSIRO, Australia; CNRS and INRA, France; ISR, New Zealand) and private (Ziltek) R&D organisations, and universities (UMH and UPCT Spain, and UofAdelaide, Australia). His areas of expertise are circular economy, waste management, sensors and soil science. He is co-author of more than 60 publications and contributions to 50 conferences.

Ferdinand ZotzSenior Managing Consultant, Ramboll

Ferdinand Zotz is Senior Managing Consultant and Head of Resources and Waste Management Department at Ramboll’s Munich Office. Ferdinand qualified as a lawyer and specialised for environmental law at international and EU level and in Germany, with a focus on circular economy / waste management policy and legislation. He supports ministries and authorities regarding assessment of existing waste policy instruments and legislation, but also in terms of developing policy options and drafting new legislation. He frequently also supports industry with assessing questions of compliance with regulatory requirements from environmental law, beyond questions on waste management also with a view on fields such as chemicals and product safety regulations.