Product Sustainability Summit Europe 2022

Dr. Peter Nieuwenhuizen is Chair of the Board of the Green Chemistry & Commerce Coalition. Peter has an extensive background in the chemical industry and sustainable development. He started his career in AkzoNobel, the coatings & chemicals company, where over the years he held roles in innovation, sales & marketing, supply chain, and sustainability, lastly as CTO and Director of Sustainability and Product, Safety and Regulatory Affairs. Peter also worked a strategy consultant for Arthur D. Little, and co-founded ECBF, the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund which invests in start-up companies in the circular bioeconomy in Europe. Peter holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Leiden University, The Netherlands. He lives with his spouse and two children in Amersfoort, The Netherlands.

Gabriela is a Senior Expert Services Manager at Enhesa. She has sound knowledge in regulatory compliance affairs since she has previously worked as an in-house lawyer.

Sebastian is an expert in ESG and Sustainability Reporting. He has also expert knowledge in capital markets and ESG ratings since he has previously worked as a Senior ESG/Sustainability Analyst for an investment company pioneering sustainable investment in Germany. In his current role, he is responsible for Bayer’s Sustainability Report following the standards of GRI, UN GC, SASB and TCFD as well as the information required by ESG rating agencies. He is also responsible to maintain external assurance of the information published. He holds a Diplom in Economy from the University of Hohenheim in Germany. He is fluent in German and English.

Justin Kew heads up ESG research within the equity team in Balyasny Asset Management since September 2021. Prior to this, he heads up ESG research in Carmignac for more than 2 years where he built up the ESG research and investment capabilities. Prior to Carmignac, Justin worked as a Senior ESG Analyst at Fidelity International. He also spent a few years in Schroders and J.P. Morgan. Justin is a CFA charter holder and holds a Master in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the University of Sheffield.

Gabriel Thoumi, CFA, FRM, Certified Ecologist, CEO and Founder, Responsible Alpha is a qualified investment research manager with over 14 years’ experience as an award-winning ESG research manager (2014, 2015, 2020 & 2021). He has led the production of plastics dashboards for Responsible Alpha. He has previously covered the chemicals sector for Calvert Investments and Planet Tracker. Currently, he is a member of various Fortune 500 and NGO boards and scientific and financial technical committees including the S&P Sustainable Finance Scientific Council. He has published over 70 ESG Integration™ investment reports, edited two finance textbooks on conserving our land and ocean resources, and hundreds of news articles on ESG integration™. In his career, he has successfully led ESG Integration™ capital market innovations in ETFs, public finance, and green bonds funds; large and mid-cap U.S., global, and emerging markets funds management; corporate engagement; and carbon markets.

Simon joined the Eurometaux Team in 2021, to provide support on EU flagship developments such as the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. Simon is a Materials Scientist with a degree and PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. His experience includes 25 years in industry (20 years in mining), and 2 years in a metals industry association. During the last few years, his focus has been on market access issues for metals, including product stewardship and regulatory affairs.

In 2008, she joined Cefic as environmental policy manager, dealing with policy matters in the field of industrial emissions, air, water, soil and biodiversity as well as occupational health related issues. Later on, she took up responsibilities related to sustainability and from 2017 onwards, she holds the position  of Director of Sustainability at Cefic. 

Javier Sanfelix is a chemical engineer with a PhD on engineering sciences. Currently working as policy officer at the Industrial Transformation Unit at the European Commission – DG Research and Innovation, dealing with research policy in the field of safety and sustainability of chemicals and materials, among other activities. Before he has worked at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission providing scientific support for polices in sustainable production and consumption, with a focus on circular economy approaches.

Emma has 35 years of experience working as a journalist and editor specialising in the health and environmental impacts of chemicals in products - 15 of those at Chemical Watch. She left in 2021 to explore avenues for raising general awareness about chemical issues, in the broader context of sustainability. Working with a great team of consumer journalists, she is in the process of launching the Ocki website, which blends information, with community activities, events and tools - all aiming to empower people who want to live sustainably.

Sjoerd has an extensive background in creating and driving sustainability and marketing strategies. He’s been responsible for creating a industry recognized sustainability strategy for DSM’s Resins and Functional Materials group (Acquired by Covestro AG). In his current job Sjoerd enables the scale-up of safe & sustainable product offerings working across the value chain in various markets.

Paul is a chemist by training and, having spent 15 years in the chemical industry in a variety of technical and commercial roles, left in 1994 to form his own consultancy, Caleb, working on the interface between regulators, industry and NGOs to facilitate the development of sustainable chemistry solutions to current human health and environmental challenges.

Shanda is a journalist who has worked on issues of education, political reform, and the environment. He has an academic background in journalism and environmental policy. Based in Paris, he joined Chemical Watch News & Insight in October 2021 as a reporter for the Europe desk and now heads our business coverage.

Kerstin is full Professor at Hamburg University of Technology and Head of the Research Group Waste and Resource Management at the Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics. Today her focus is on Circular Economy, covering identification and recovery of critical raw materials, WEEE recycling, polymer recycling and bio economy.

Imke Grassau-Zetzsche studied business administration in Hamburg and Zurich and started as a marketing trainee at Unilever. She was product and marketing manager for brands such as Rama, Lätta, Flora, Becel and Lipton in Germany and England. Before moving to Corporate Communications, she was responsible for dialogue marketing at Unilever Germany for several years. Today, she is heading the External Affairs function for Unilever in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Myriam joined the Tarkett Group where she holds the position of Sustainability and Public affairs director for the EMEA division. Since 2015, she participates in the activities of European industry associations. Myriam chairs the EuPC Building and Construction Division, as well as the AFNOR X30M Commission on Circular Economy. Furthermore, she co-chaired the CE100 co-project Mass Balance, leading to the report “Enabling a circular economy for chemicals with the mass balance approach” published by the Ellen McArthur Foundation.

Nicolas HUMEZ holds a Ph D in Chemistry. With 25 years of experience in hazardous waste management in different positions: R&D, operations and public affairs, he has a transversal and comprehensive overview of this sector in Europe and worldwide.

Tatiana holds a Chemistry degree and both MSc. in Environmental Impact Assessment and Occupational Health Safety. She has been working in chemical risk issues, chemicals legislations, occupational health and safety, chemicals in the circular economy and substitution of hazardous chemicals for around 20 years.

Mike has spent over 29 years working in the flame retardant industry including spells as VP of Marketing, Technology, and Sales at ICL, and the business that is now Lanxess, responsible for phosphorus based flame retardants and fire resistant products and also for brominated FRs.  For many of these years Mike has contributed to discussions internally, and more broadly, concerning regulating, or limiting, the use of halogenated flame retardants and issues affecting choosing more sustainable alternatives, be they halogenated or other.

Nina is an environmental scientist dedicated to increasing access to safer and more sustainable products. Nina has guided many manufacturers through product certification reviews since joining Green Seal in 2016, and more recently, she developed Green Seal’s Guidelines for Safer Cleaning and Disinfecting in response to the ongoing pandemic.

Lorenzo Zullo is the co-founder and managing director of ChemChain, a young startup from Luxembourg that has developed and piloted with the chemical industry a revolutionary blockchain platform to transfer information on chemicals in products along the value chain, from chemical manufacturers to consumers, recyclers and waste operators.

Dr. Susanne Zänker has been Director General of A.I.S.E., the International Association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance Products, since 2005. As head of the Association and based in Brussels, she leads the A.I.S.E. Team and the membership (30 national associations, 18 corporate members and 6 value chain partners across Europe) and interacts with stakeholders on a daily basis in spearheading the industry agenda. Dr. Zänker graduated as a Doctor in veterinary medicine (ULiège, BE) and received an Executive Master in International Association Management (Solvay Business School (ULB), Brussels).

Sue Bullock is Head of Chemicals Stewardship and Sustainability at TSG Consulting. With over 30 years’ experience in human health and environmental consultancy, Sue specializes in providing strategic and technical advice to chemical producers, downstream users and product manufacturers around the world. She provides support for global chemical regulation and stewardship across numerous markets, is an expert in risk assessment, and is currently helping organisations on a range of product-focused sustainability initiatives.

Lori is working as Operational Lead at Scivera an innovative software company that helps companies understand and select safer chemistries for products. She is a public health professional who has worked in the fields of sustainable chemistry, toxicology, and consumer products. She spent 23 years as the Chief Science Officer of NSF International, a public health and safety organization that develops standards and certification programs.

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.

Martin teaches Public Law, Legal Theory and Comparative Law at the University of Applied, Sciences Darmstadt and is member of the research group “Society for Institutional Analysis - sofia”. From 2008 to 2015 he was member of the Management Board, European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). From 1984 to 1993 he was researcher at the Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut e.V.) and 1990 cofounder of the “environmental law network international”.

Danielle is the Content Marketing Manager at Chemical Watch, and has been with the business for nearly five years. Prior to this, she was the Reports Editor at publisher B2B Marketing and a Senior Researcher at business intelligence company Pearlfinders. She is bilingual (English/French) and holds a degree in English & Film from the University of Southampton.