Global Electronics Summit

Geraint has more than 30 years of experience as a journalist covering environmental policy, with a particular focus on chemicals, business strategy and waste management. He started his career as a reporter for the international chemicals trade press before working at UK environmental policy journal The ENDS Report. He joined online global chemicals policy website Chemical Watch in 2008, becoming a member of the senior management team and head of journalism. At the end of last year he embarked on a freelance career.

Aidan is Director of BOMcheck, an industry-led substances declarations web database, and the EC4P web database system for WEEE, Batteries and Packaging compliance. In 2003 Aidan wrote the UK Government Guidelines on WEEE and RoHS compliance that companies must abide by in order to remain compliant. In 2008 he represented the European Union medical device industry in RoHS Directive negotiations with the European Commission.

Ruxandra defends industry interests towards legal and regulatory challenges to EU market access. Her practice is focused on EU regulatory law and litigation with a strong emphasis on product, environmental and sustainability regulations, across a large number of sectors ranging from raw materials (chemicals, minerals) to products such as electronics, consumer apparel, medical devices, cosmetics, food and food contact materials. Ruxandra also advises on supply-chain related matters, in particular environmental and regulatory. Although rules and regulations apply per jurisdiction, companies operate globally – her expertise and advice assist companies address global challenges and risks. Ruxandra’s litigation experience is extensive (she defended close to 100 actions before the European Court of Justice and before the Board of Appeal of ECHA), and she has formed and continues to act as a trusted advisor to more than 30 industry groups.

Lee Bell is the Mercury and POPs Policy Advisor for the International Pollution Elimination Network (IPEN) and Senior Researcher for National Toxics Network (Australia) and has over twenty years of experience in research and analysis of industrial pollution, hazardous waste, incineration, contaminated sites and persistent organic pollutants. He has authored a range of reports and articles on the trade and impact of mercury, POPs and plastic waste on the environment and human health. Mr Bell is a member of the Stockholm Convention BAT BEP and Dioxin Toolkit Expert Group and has just co-authored comprehensive guidance on BAT BEP for POPs contaminated sites management for the Stockholm Convention. Mr Bell, who is based in Australia, has also co-authored a range of publications on the contamination impacts of POPs in e-waste and treatment technologies to destroy them.

Adam is the Director of Supply Chain Sustainability within Intel's Global Supply Management organization, responsible for Supply Chain ESG and Chemical Compliance. Within this role, Adam oversees Intel’s Supply Line Sustainability, Code of Conduct, Human Rights/ Labor policies, Chemical Regulations and Policy, Green material selections, the company’s “Conflict Free" minerals, & Supply Chain Diversity and Inclusion programs.

Cindy is an attorney-adviser in the Existing Chemicals Risk Management Division of the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She has more than 20 years of experience in developing chemical substance regulations under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Cindy’s current responsibility is regulatory development under TSCA section 6, chemical substances in her portfolio include phenol, isopropylated phosphate (3:1), decabromodiphenyl ether, 1,4-dioxane, and trichloroethylene.

Richard E. Engler, Ph.D. is Director of Chemistry with Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. and The Acta Group.  Dr. Engler is a 17-year veteran of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is one of the most widely recognized experts in the field of green chemistry, having served as senior staff scientist in EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) and leader of EPA's Green Chemistry Programme. 

Lynn L. Bergeson has earned an international reputation for her deep and expansive understanding of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the European Union Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation, the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), and especially how these regulatory programs pertain to nanotechnology, industrial biotechnology, synthetic biology, and other emerging transformative technologies. She counsels clients on a wide range of issues pertaining to product stewardship; chemical hazard, exposure, and risk assessment; risk communication; minimizing legal liability; and product lifecycle strategy.

Mike is a product environmental compliance and sustainability expert providing advice and knowledge to manufacturers, governments and others. Mike helps manufacturers understand, monitor and comply with environmental and health-related regulations and market requirements around the world that impact product design and the supply chain.

Laura Duncan provides legal counsel to product manufacturers, importers, retailers and private labelers.  She has extensive experience resolving product and environmental compliance issues and helping companies reduce legal risks. 

Aury Hathout, M. Env, VEA®, CEA, is a certified environmental auditor and has a Master’s degree in Environment combined with graduate education in Business Administration from the University of Sherbrooke. Since 2008, Aury provides practical consulting services, including environmental compliance and management systems auditing in multiple industrial and services sectors. He is the environmental compliance specialist of hundreds of electrical and electronic products sold worldwide, with any of the following requirements: RoHS, REACH SVHC, WEEE, PFAS, TSCA-PBT, Conflict Minerals, California Proposition 65, etc. At Enviropass, Aury works as the lab quality manager.

Dr. Lauren Heine applies green chemistry, green engineering, alternatives assessment and multi-stakeholder collaboration to develop tools that result in safer and more sustainable chemical products and processes. Her work with ChemFORWARD builds on prior experience developing GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals, a pioneering method for chemical hazard assessment to enable informed substitution; and CleanGredients™, a web-based information platform for identifying greener chemicals for use in cleaning products; both tools designed to scale access to information needed to develop materials and products that are safe and circular. Lauren worked closely with the US EPA Safer Choice Program (formerly Design for the Environment (DfE)) to facilitate development of ingredient and hazard criteria for the Safer Choice Program and served on Steering and Technical Committees for the DfE Alternatives Assessment Partnerships. 

Chris Flanders is a manager in Google’s hardware group, leading environmental compliance efforts for consumer electronics. He has been working in the electronics industry nearly 20 years including past engineering and program management roles at Bose Corporation and Apple. He earned his degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire and his MBA from University of Massachusetts Amherst. Chris is passionate about the environment and integrating safer chemistry into the design of products. His favorite part of his job is working with product development and engineering teams to achieve environmental and sustainability goals. Chris has a lifelong love of technology and electronics, so it is no surprise to his family and friends that he has ended up in Silicon Valley.

Carol Monahan Cummings was appointed Chief Counsel at the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) in October 2003 and was reappointed by Governor Brown in December 2012. In this capacity, Ms. Cummings advises the Director, other Executive Office members, as well as OEHHA staff on all legal matters affecting the Office.

Stacie has over 35 years of combined regulatory and chemistry experience, with extensive regulatory expertise. In her current role with UL, Stacie applies this expertise to engage directly with industry and association stakeholders to evaluate compliance and sustainability challenges and create solutions focused on providing targeted compliance data, advisory services, and software. 

David has recently retired after 35 years in global legislative processes, and a wide range of experience of EU biocide committees, working groups and technical workshops. In addition to his recent role as Senior Regulatory Analyst in Chemical Watch he worked for just under 20 years at UK HSE (UK Competent Authority for Biocides) as well as 7 years in industry and 5 years as a consultant.

Mr Venkatehsa Murthy, renowned as Venky, is the CEO of the VANS Group of Companies, headquartered in Singapore. With a passion and vision of India, he has set up a subsidiary in Bangalore - India’s 1st integrated e-Waste recycling company with a PAN India presence. Venky is widely recognized across the globe for his path-breaking and visionary contributions in e-Waste Management using modern and state-of-the-art technologies and approaches. He plays a pioneering role as a socialenvironmentalist and corporate leader by uplifting the life-threatened conditions of informal players into a sound formal system. Intense passion and forethought for our PLANET, Venky - a visionary leader dedicated over 25 years of his experience in the area of WEEE Management, Environment, Human values, and Strong ethical practices. He has ramified the transferring of knowledge, customized technologies, processes, training, and established businesses on international arena.

At WRAP, as Head of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Jordan works with national and international partners, governments, NGO’s, charities, producers/manufacturers, and other industry stakeholders to design efficient and effective EPR mechanisms. Jordan leads the EPR vision and strategy at WRAP, engaging with all waste streams where the EPR concept can be applied, including, but not limited to, product packaging, electronics, batteries, and textiles. Jordan has 10+ years of EPR experience spanning the globe, including UK, Europe, USA, Canada, South America, Australia, APAC, Middle East, and Africa. As a member of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management's SEG (Strategic Expert Group) for Producer Responsibility, Jordan provides technical expertise to CIWM and sector stakeholders on existing and potential Producer Responsibility frameworks and legislation for various waste streams in the UK.

Carolina is an Environmental Engineer with more than 15 years of experience working in private companies with focus on environmental regulations in Latin America. Since 2015, she has been leading the area of Producer Responsibility and Environmental Affairs for Dell in Latin America, managing product environmental compliance related with e-waste, batteries and packaging take-back; circular economy; substances; eco-design, eco-labelling, green procurement; right-to repair; etc. 

As IPC’s EHS policy and research director, Kelly Scanlon leads the association’s advocacy on topics related to environment, health and safety. She coordinates with IPC’s government relations committees and the standards and education teams to develop robust policy and research agendas relevant to electronics manufacturers. Dr. Scanlon began her role with IPC in April 2019 and comes to IPC with more than 20 years of experience as a public health scientist.

Dan oversees the RBA’s environmental sustainability, circular materials, and chemical management programs. For each, he engages with companies, NGOs, and stakeholders throughout the electronics industry to collaborate on solving the greatest environmental, social, and labor challenges in global supply chains. Dan develops tools and creates programing that help all tiers of supply chains improve their capacity and ability to meet increasingly challenging demands in carbon, energy, water, and waste management systems.

Christina is the President & CEO at the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, where she is globally responsible for the growth, innovation, and impact initiatives across sectors such as built environment, fashion, cosmetics, cleaning products, electronics and packaging. Before joining the Institute Christina held management positions in international sustainability firms at the forefront of environmental and circularity services. Christina started her professional journey at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation and holds a PhD in materials chemistry.

Lee is a Partner with Environmental Resources Management (ERM) based in Austin, Texas who provides compliance assurance services for the technology and high tech manufacturing industries. She is a Registered Professional Engineer in Texas with extensive experience in global audit program delivery, compliance program development, compliance and management system auditing, on-site compliance support, permitting and environmental management system development and implementation. Lee currently advises and supports multinational technology clients through oversight and delivery of global auditing programs of their e-waste takeback vendors. She has developed, verified, and supported the various facets of implementing environmental management systems for many clients, from framework and system design to procedure writing, audit program development, and verification.

August Martin is Principal Consultant with over 20 years of experience in program management, supply chain risk management, sustainability advisory services, and EHS regulatory compliance.  He has worked with variety of private and public sector clients supporting environmental stewardship initiatives, climate change, and corporate sustainability strategy. He is currently supporting a diverse portfolio of clients in the technology, communications, and media sectors on the development of e-waste and end of life management and auditing programs. He has also actively managed projects for clients focused on bringing high technology products to market and providing strategic advice on regulatory compliance requirements.

Raquel Ponte Costa joined the EPBA team in 2019 and provides supports on regulatory matters as well as on awareness raising activities related to the ingestion of button cells. Raquel spent her career helping different trade associations in the energy field with their public affairs and digital communications activities.

Julio has a background in mechanical engineering and started his career at IBM in 2003 analyzing hardware and solution designs for safety, EMC, and homologation regulatory requirements. He later trasitioned to the Product Environmental Compliance Team at IBM and his focus is on ensuring IBM's use of batteries complies with environmental regulatory requirements globally.

Reynold D'Souza works at the Global Product Compliance Group (GPC) as a Senior Consultant. He has fair experience of more than 30 years as a R&D professional in basic and specialty chemical industries. He has worked in the printing ink area and has helped on food packaging laws such as IS 15495-2020.

With a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master's in Environmental Engineering, Carlos has over 30 years of professional experience as an environmental consultant in pollution control, cleaner production, and WEEE management.

Kamila joined Eurometaux in March 2017 and she is in charge of the Sustainability Department. Her professional experience includes working in an environmental consultancy advising amongst others on the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). In 2006 she joined APPLiA (formerly CECED) representing household appliance industry, where she dealt with energy efficiency, e-waste and chemical matters. Later on she moved to CECIMO being responsible for ecodesign, standardisation, EU funded projects and other technical dossiers relevant to machine tools sector. Kamila studied Environmental Protection and Management in Poland at Gdansk University of Technology (BSc) and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun (MSc).

Cristina studied Chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, Portugal. She worked for several years in regulatory affairs for industrial and consumer goods business, where she gained experience in the EU chemicals legislation (REACH, CLP, biocides, FCMs, electronics, …) and in chemical legislation for other regions such as Latin American countries. She recently joined knoell as a Project Manager for the Chemicals and Product Safety Regulatory Affairs.

Steven assists companies with their understanding of environmental regulations and how they are enforced. He is an internationally recognized expert, with more than 20 years of experience in EU policy development focusing on sustainability, product, waste and recycling legislation.

Valerie specializes in RoHS and REACH implementation processes at large companies, and in extended producer responsibility and conflict minerals processes. She is committed to developing and improving declaration standards, and led the working group for the International Aerospace Environmental Group’s Declarable Substances List pilot project.

Nathan is an experienced blockchain entrepreneur and one of the leading experts in decentralized system design. He is the Founder & CEO of Minespider, a protocol for responsibly sourced raw material data who are conducting traceability projects with Volkswagen and Google. His whitepaper, Minespider Protocol for Due Diligence in the Raw Material Supply Chain, has been cited in the official blockchain guidelines of the Responsible Mineral Initiative which has served as a guidepost for the mineral industry to date. He is an external contributing expert on blockchain and traceability related matters with the World Economic Forum and the UNECE. 

Mike is responsible for the Cobalt Institute’s external engagement, including government and public affairs, and communications. In particular, Mike leads on the CI’s global regulatory and political advocacy.

Andrew has reported on the science of chemical risk management and regulation for over a decade. In addition to writing news articles on the latest developments, he moderates events, contributes to the podcast, and provides analysis of key topics, including mixture effects, NAMs, nanomaterials, PFAS, and test method validation.