Jiansheng Ding, Yantai Wanhua Polyurethanes Co Ltd, People's Republic of China

Jiansheng Ding is the founder, chief scientist and chairman of Yantai Wanhua Polyurethanes Co. Ltd. He is also head of China's National Polyurethane Engineering and Technology Center. He began working for Yantai Wanhua, then a small chemical company, in 1982 on the research and development of isocyanates production.

Since then he has been leading the company's R&D team to develop large-scale, continuous production processes for MDI (methylenediphenyl diisocyanate), a key raw material in the polyurethanes industry.

This work eventually resulted in the company building two sets of 400 000 tonnes per year MDI production facilities which are running successfully. By applying Jiansheng Ding’s patented leading-edge technologies, these facilities yield outstanding energy efficiency, environmental cleanness and capital efficiency.

As a result of this work, Jiansheng Ding was awarded the 1st prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2007 and the 2nd prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award in 1999 and 2010.

Under the leadership of Jiansheng Ding, Yantai Wanhua has become the world's second largest MDI producer as well as the largest producer of TDI (toluene diisocyanate) in Europe in 2011. Wanhua's products are now supplied to customers in over 60 countries and regions.

David Reed, Chairman, UTECH Europe 2012

As a chemistry graduate from the University of Durham back in 1962, David spent a dozen years as a research chemist in the UK and overseas, including stints at the University of Manchester, Texaco Trinidad Inc., Albright & Wilson Ltd, and ICI Paints Division, before moving into the publishing world. This was initally with Shell Research BV in Amsterdam, then Elsevier International Bulletins in Oxford before joining the privately held American publisher Crain Communications Ltd in London in 1982.

He was then responsible, successively, for technical editing on the European Rubber Journal, founding editor of Urethanes Technology magazine which we launched in 1984, and programme organiser for the UTECH conferences, from their inception in 1986 in the Hague, the Netherlands.

Now retired, David now provides content for the magazine Urethanes Technology International, now edited by Liz White, as well as helping edit its Chinese language and North American editions, and creating the UTECH Europe conference programmes in 2009 and 2012.

Steven English, ISOPA, Belgium

Steven English is the global vice president for Dow Polyurethanes (Propylene Oxide, Propylene Glycol, Polyols, MDI & TDI), a global business unit of The Dow Chemical Company.  He is currently based in Horgen, Switzerland.

As leader of the Dow Polyurethanes Business Management Team, Steven is responsible for the polyurethane business strategy, organizational health, and profit/loss.  
English has enjoyed a wide experience in the polyurethane industry over the past twelve years, and demonstrates his commitment as the President of ISOPA and the Vice President of III, Inc.

English joined Dow in the United Kingdom in 1985, where he held a series of sales positions in the Chemicals and Epoxies businesses. He also held the title of European marketing manager for Dow Automotive based in Switzerland and Germany.  He relocated from Horgen, Switzerland, to Midland, Michigan, in 1998 as global marketing manager for Dow Polyurethanes, where he was product market manager for the Polyols business.  In 2001, English was named global business development director for the Flexible Polyurethanes business. He became global Isocyanates business director in June 2005, relocating to Horgen in July 2006. English was named global polyols and isocyanates business director in November 2009. He assumed his current role in January 2011.

English received a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering in 1982 from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. 

Nick Webster, Huntsman Polyurethanes, Belgium

Thorsten Dreier, Bayer MaterialScience AG, Germany

Dr. Thorsten Dreier has almost 10 years of research and technology experience in polyurethanes.  He is currently heading the Process Research department in the Business Unit Polyurethanes of Bayer MaterialScience.  In this role he leads the process research activities for MDI, TDI and polyetherpolyols.  He earned his PhD and MS in Chemistry, from the University of Münster, Germany.  He then gained three years of R&D experience in Bayer’s Polyurethanes division, performing polyurethanes product research for various kinds of products including rigid foams flexible foams, and specialty types of polyurethane products. After joining the central corporate development innovation department and working as the assistant to the CTO of Bayer AG, Dr. Dreier was responsible for the R&D strategy and IP Management within the Business Unit Polyurethanes. Since 2009, Dr. Dreier has been responsible for the Process Research Isocyanates department and since 2011 for the Process Research Polyetherpolyols department as well.

Uwe Hartwig, BASF Polyurethanes GmbH, Germany

In 1988 Uwe joined BASF AG, Polyurethanes Development PU Rigid Foam and within two years he became Head of Development.

He has a strong background in sales and marketing within BASF and in 2005 be became the Senior Vice President Regional Business Unit Polyurethanes Europe and Managing Director of BASF Polyurethanes Europe, based in Lemfoerde, Germany.

Alberto Fangareggi, Dow Thermosets, Italy

Alberto Fangareggi is Senior R&D Director for Polyurethanes and Formulated Systems at The Dow Chemical Company.

He has covered a variety of roles in Polyurethanes and Polyurethane Systems Research and Development (R&D), Technical Service and Development (TS&D) organisation and Marketing. He has also held roles in R&D as PET/PTA technology manager.

Alberto holds an MS degree in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Parma, Italy. He currently holds global responsibility for Polyurethanes and Systems Research and Development at Dow and is based at the PU R&D Center of Correggio, Italy.
 

John Florio, King Industries Inc, USA

John Florio is a Technical Manager in the Technical Service Group at King Industries. Since joining the company in 1981, John has made significant contributions to the development of their catalyst and polyol programs. John received his Bachelors Degree in Chemistry from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.  He has authored or co-authored many articles related to polyurethane chemistry and he holds patents in the area of polyurethane catalysts.

Oliver Loebel, PU Europe, Belgium

Oliver Loebel studied international trade in Berlin, Germany, and holds an MBA degree (Paris, France). In 1993, he joined the Leipzig Chamber of Commerce as export consultant. From 1994 to 97, he worked as national expert at the European Commission. From 1997 to 2008, he was the secretary general of the European specialist engineering contractors association (CEETB). He joined PU Europe in February 2008 as managing director.

Joop Wuestenenk, ICL-IP Europe BV, The Netherlands

Joop Wuestenenk is the Technical Development Manager for ICL-IP. He has a Bachelor degree in Chemistry. He joined the Phosphorus Group of Akzo Nobel/Supresta LLC, now ICL-IP in 1989 and has worked in the area of new products and market development for polyurethane foams.

Prior to that, he worked as an analytical chemist. He is active in both the flexible and rigid foam areas. Besides his activities as Technical Development Manager in Europe and SEA, he represents ICL-IP in many international conferences by presenting technical papers. Joop holds a variety of patents and has authored and co-authored many technical papers.

Giuseppe Vairo, Dow Italia Srl, Italy

Giuseppe Vairo is Global Technology Leader for Polyurethane Rigid Foams of Dow Formulated Systems and he is located in Correggio, Italy. He joined Dow in 2001 through the acquisition of polyurethane division of EniChem, and before his current position worked as R&D specialist for footwear and rigid foam polyurethane technologies. Giuseppe holds a MS in Industrial Chemistry from University “Federico II” of Naples, and a MBA from Eni Corporate University.

Xavier Drujon, Arkema, France

Xavier Drujon is DMSO & Thioglycolics Global Business Manager for Arkema Thiochemicals division. He earned a PhD in polymer science in 1992 from the University of Haute Alsace (Mulhouse, FR), in collaboration with the University of Arizona (Tucson, USA). He has made significant contributions to Arkema research & development program in the fields of fluoropolymers, water borne coatings, and polymer additives. He has authored or co-authored many articles related to polymer chemistry and he holds 15 patents.

After ten years dedicated to R&D, he moved to the company headquarters in Paris, to hold sales and marketing positions in successively polymer additives, glass coating and thiochemicals areas.

Bert Klesczewski, Bayer MaterialScience AG, Germany

Bert Klesczewski is a Chemist in the Business Development Group for Flexible Slabstock Foam applications in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region with Bayer MaterialScience AG in Leverkusen. He joined Bayer AG in 1997 as Research Chemist in the Polyurethanes Research Department before moving to his current responsibilities in 2000.  

David Williams, Honeywell, USA

Dave joined AlliedSignal (now Honeywell) in 1994 and is currently the Global Technology Leader for Honeywell’s Blowing Agent and aerosol propellant businesses.  In this capacity, he is responsible for global technical service, product and applications development of Honeywell’s fluorocarbon foam blowing agents.  

Prior to joining Honeywell, Dave worked for 20 years as a Technical Service and Development leader in Upjohn, later Dow, and had responsibilities in both the polyurethane and polystyrene foam areas. Dave is the past chair of the CPI (Centers for the Polyurethane Industry) Rigid Foam Industry Task Group and past chair of the CPI Management Committee.  Dave has been a member of the UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program) Flexible and Rigid Foam Technical Options Committee since 1997.  Dave holds more than 20 patents and has authored more than 50 papers in the area of rigid polyurethane and polyisocyanurate foam.  

Dave is also a contributing author to several chapters on rigid polyurethane foam in the textbook Reaction Polymers, (Hanser Gardner Publications, 1992).  Dave holds a B.S. degree in Chemistry from The University of New Haven, New Haven, CT, USA.

Georg Burkhart, Evonik Industries AG, Germany

Georg Burkhart was the head of Evonik's Business Line Comfort & Insulation, which is a leading supplier of Polyurethane Additives globally. He retired from this position end of 2011.

During his more than 30 years in the polyurethane industry he spent more than 20 years in leading positions in research and product and application development. He holds numerous patents in the field of polyurethane additives and under his technical leadership Evonik has significantly widened its productportfolio and has become a real global additive supplier with production and technical support for Evonik's customers in all major regions.

Since 2003 Georg was responsible for R&D and Marketing/Sales in the Business Line and focused on improving the sustainability of the business.

Angela Smits, Croda Coatings & Polymers, the Netherlands

Angela Smits is Market Applications Specialist Adhesives, Plastics, Elastomers and Foam, at Croda Coatings and Polymers in Gouda, the Netherlands. Involved with market and technology trends she has managed several innovation projects for new products or new applications of Croda bio-based building blocks, from idea to commercialisation. Prior to that, she worked as Product and Application Specialist at DSM Food Specialties for food coatings, as Development Chemist at National Starch & Chemical for acrylate adhesives, and as Research Chemist at ATO in Wageningen on bio-based plastics, adhesives and coatings. She studied Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Eindhoven University of Technology, where she graduated in polymer chemistry, and holds a PhD from Utrecht University on the molecular organisation and plasticiser interaction in starch polymers.

Jeff Rowlands, Green Urethanes Ltd, UK

Jeff Rowlands is a Director of Green Urethanes Limited and also, its sister company Innochem Limited. Both companies are involved in the development, patenting and licensing of in house, and third party-developed, technologies, for use in the Urethane foam industry, worldwide. Both GU and Innochem are based in the United Kingdom. Prior to this, he was a Director of Interchem International SA in Luxembourg, which developed and licensed the PIPA polyol process for use in the North American and European flexible slabstock and moulding markets. He was also Technical Director of Beaverfoam Manufacturing (now part of Recticel NV) in the UK. His first job after university in Manchester UK, was as a Unit production engineer and later, troubleshooter at Union Carbide’s chemical facility in Southern England. Jeff is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, a Chartered Engineer and a registered European Engineer at FAENI in Paris.

Christoph Gürtler, Bayer MaterialScience, Germany

Christoph Gürtler is now involved in PUR chemistry for around 10 years. He studied chemistry at the University of Bonn from  1987 to 1993 and made his PhD at the Technical University of Berlin. After a postdoc at MIT with he joined Bayer AG, Central Research department.

After several positions in coatings research and business development he worked for the member of the board for research and development to develop a strategy for fundamental research and development for new processes and product with the means of Open innovation. This lead to the establishment of  the CAT Catalytic center jointly run with RWTH Aachen university that currently employs more than 20 young scientists. He is currently heading a Competence Center in the field of process and product development dedicated to new catalytic processes.

Angel Marcos-Fernández, Instituto de Polimeros (CSIC), Spain

Angel Marcos received a Ph.D. in Organic Polymer Science in 1992. He served as a Post Doctoral fellow at UMIST (Manchester) from 1993 to 1994 under the supervision of Prof. A.J. Ryan and since then he has been working at the Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (CSIC), holding currently the position of Vice-Director. In the field of polyurethanes, he is currently involved in the areas of biodegradable non-toxic polyurethanes for biomedical applications and PU based adhesives for footwear.

Catherine Lövenich, Bayer MaterialScience, Germany

Catherine Lövenich obtained her degree and then PhD in chemistry from the University of York, UK. She then completed a post-doc at the University of Durham, UK. She joined Bayer in 2001 and moved to the polyurethanes division in 2002. She spent three years in the research department before moving to a development role for semi-rigid foams for automotive applications. In spring 2011 she became team-leader for the application Metal Panel.

Ronald van den Bosch, Dow Benelux BV, the Netherlands

Ronald van den Bosch joined Dow Benelux BV in 1984 after receiving a degree in chemical engineering. Before joining PU EH&S he was part of the technical service and development group for PU rigid foams followed by several years of research for PU both in the Netherlands and in Switzerland. Ronald joined the PU-EH&S group in 2007 in preparation for REACH. His current role includes REACH Implementation Leader for Dow PU&POPG, EH&S issue management and Sustainability. He’s also leading the ISOPA Product Stewardship Cluster among other industry association activities.

Dr. Marc Martin, BASF Polyurethanes GmbH, Germany

Dr. Marc Martin studied Chemistry in Würzburg and RWTH Aachen. After his PhD he started at BASF Intermediates Research in 2003 in Ludwigshafen before in 2009 he switched to BASF Polyurethanes GmbH. He is now responsible for the development of flexible foam formulations for automotive acoustics and furniture applications.

Dr. Ruediger Landers, Evonik Industries AG, Germany

Dr. Ruediger Landers, born in 1973, studied Chemistry at the Technical University of Clausthal. After receiving his PhD in Polymer Chemistry at the University of Freiburg he joined Evonik in 2004 as a technical manager for polyurethane additives. His main focus is the development of new silicone stabilizers for the polyurethane industry. Main fields of activity are ester foam, viscoelastic foam and VOC emanations from PU flexible foam.

Carsten Schiller works in Evonik’s Business Line Comfort & Insulation as Technical Manager Rigid Foam Development. His responsibilities include product development and technical customer service. After studying chemistry at the University of Hamburg, Carsten Schiller received his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Bochum with a thesis on biomaterials for bone substitution in 2003. He changed to the University of Essen and continued his research activities in the department of Inorganic Chemistry. At the beginning of 2005 he joined Evonik.

Pietro Campaner, Cimteclab, Italy

Pietro joined the company in 2008 and since then he has been in charge of the research activities and drafting of patents and research projects. He holds an MS in chemistry and earned is PhD in organic chemistry in 2007 at the University of Trieste.

He has recently focused his interests to natural occurring renewable resources’ extraction, characterisation, functionalisation and use as building-blocks for high-performance, complex polymeric matrices, with particular attention to the whole material’s life-cycle and to the recovery, if possible, of the resulting by-products.

Lawrence Theunissen, Reverdia (JV of DSM & Roquette), the Netherlands

Lawrence Theunissen works for Reverdia (the JV of DSM and Roquette), that commercialises Biosuccinium, a bio-based building block used by a variety of markets, including polyester-polyols for polyurethanes.  He is responsible for managing all application development projects with customers, partners and knowledge institutes.
 
After receiving his degree in Mechanical Engineering, he worked in the field of virtual product design and application engineering (CAD/CAE). He joined DSM in 2002, and since then managed application development activities for various business units in research and innovation environments.

Erwin Honcoop, Purac, the Netherlands

Erwin is responsible for applications of Purac’s biobased products in the chemical industry. He is a science graduate, specialising in polymer chemistry.

In addition, he has completed a post doctoral course in Coating Technology in the foundation of Polymer Technology in the Netherlands, and has a degree on Coating Technology and worked as R&D development chemist and application/technical service specialist at Uniqema / Croda.

Lee Salamone, Center for the Polyurethanes Industry, USA

Ms. Salamone currently serves as Senior Director for the Center for the Polyurethanes Industry where she manages the day-to-day operations of the CPI, leads strategic implementation of advocacy and market promotion efforts and coordinates the work of CPI with domestic and global stakeholders and members of polyurethane value chain. Ms. Salamone has over 20 years of experience in federal legislative and regulatory policy development, advocacy and regulatory consulting having spent most of her career managing a variety of chemical security, human health, environment, science policy and general business issues for the chemical and energy sector.  

Ms. Salamone’s trade association experience includes her previous tenure at the American Chemistry Council where she led advocacy and managed issues and programs related to children’s health, public health, environmental justice, science policy and environmental issues.

Ms. Salamone is a graduate of Georgetown University and The George Washington University.

Sarah Schmitz, Technical Manager, Evonik Industries AG

Sarah Schmitz received her PhD in Chemistry with an emphasis on Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry at the Heinrich-Heine-University of Duesseldorf, Germany.

After one year of postdoctoral research fellowship at the Centre for Nutrition and Food Science of University of Queensland, Australia, she joined Evonik Industries in 2009.

Currently she is working as technical manager within the polyurethane flexible foam team of the business line Comfort & Insulation. Her main focus is the development of PU-stabilisers, catalysts and other performance additives.

Yuriy Shafran, co-owner, OSV Technologiya

Yuriy Shafran is co-owner of Ukrainian company OSV Technologiya and he is responsible for sales of mixing and dosing machines manufactured by his company. Yuriy is 34 years old and he is graduated from the Kiev National University and got a master’s degree in the field of Mathematics.
 
Since 2004 Yuriy Shafran is in polyurethane industry and he has a wide experience and deep knowledge of polyurethane markets of Russian speaking countries.

Ahmadreza Gharehbaghi, R&D Manager, Caspian Polyurethane Technology

He was graduated as Master of Science in polymer engineering from Tehran University in 2000. He joined to Iran Polyurethane Mfg.Co., as polyurethane chemist for 8 years (2000-2007) and R&D Manager for 5 years (2007-2011).from the end of 2011 he moved to new established factory named CPT.

His main experience is polyurethane flexible, integral skin and viscoelastic foam formulation and production for Iranian car industry and public market.

Kazuo Okuda, Mitsubishi Plastics Inc

Kazuo Okuda earned M.Sci degree in Chemical Engineering from Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan) in 1974 and joined in Mitsubishi Chemical.  

After engaging to the polycarbonate plant engineering, he had engaged in R&D of Reaction Injection Molding for automobile bumper and had introduced RIM bumpers to some Japanese automobile companies.  

He engaged in joint venture of Dow-Mitsubishi Chemical and worked as Laboratory Director between 1994 and 1997.  He managed the polyurethane group at Mitsubishi Chemical between 1997 and 2000 and took the group to Mitsubishi Chemical Functional Products, Inc. in 2000.  He is now contributing to the new market of polyurethane and epoxy in Mitsubishi Plastics.  He is an Associate Director, Environmental Materials Department, Mitsubishi Plastics Inc and a chairman of High Functional Bridge Deck Waterproofing Association in Japan and a Chief Secretary of BDW committee in Japan Society of Civil Engineers.    

John A. Murphy, Foam Supplies Inc

John received his BS in Chemistry in 1965. During his nearly 40 years researching urethanes he has worked for, among others, CPR Upjohn (now part of Dow Chemical), ARCO Chemical (now part of Bayer) and Elf Atochem (now Arkema), where he introduced HCFC-141b and HFC-365mfc to the industry.  Currently employed by Foam Supplies, Inc, he is responsible for New Product Development - Ecomate.

Patrick Jacobs, Technical Service Specialist, Chemtura

Patrick received his Ph.D. in 1990 in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Antwerp in Belgium and joined the company in 1991. Currently, Patrick is focused on flame retardant solutions and technical support for polyurethanes and EPS/XPS applications in addition to providing valuable input for new product development.
 

Cinzia Tartarini, Global Project Manager - Product Development Group Extrusion & Special Applications, BASF

Cinzia obtained her degree in Organic Chemistry at the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy. In 1997 she joined the Plastic Additives Division at Ciba Specialty Chemicals in Italy to work on the process development of new Light Stabilisers. In 2005 she moved to the Chemistry Design Unit at Ciba Grenzach, Germany where she worked on the research of new additives for Home & Personal Care applications. In 2007 she joined Ciba Basel in Switzerland as Application Specialist in the Polymerisation and Emulsion Technology group where she mainly worked on additives for Polyurethane. In 2009 she joined BASF Plastic Additives Switzerland and had since then been engaged in the global development of new additives for Polyurethane.

Kerstin Schrinner, Global Strategic Marketing Manager Automotive, PUR & Elastomers, BASF

Kerstin holds a PhD in Chemistry from the Gerhard Mercator University of Duisburg. She first joined Ciba’s Plastic Additives Division in Basel, Switzerland in 2000 as Application Specialist for Polyurethane, Elastomers and Polyolefin films. In 2002 she moved to Singapore to work as Regional Marketing Manager for the polyurethane and elastomer industry. From 2005 she was based in Shanghai, P.R. China as Global Marketing Manager for the polyurethane industry. In May 2008 she relocated to Ciba in Basel, Switzerland to assume responsibility as Global Strategic Marketing Manager for Automotive, Polyurethane and Elastomers. In 2009 she joined BASF Plastic Additives Switzerland and has since then led the global marketing initiatives for Polymer Stabilisers and Pigments in these applications.

Karl-Heinz Hornbach, Head of the Processing Lab Operations Europe for Plastic additives and Pigments, BASF

Karl-Heinz holds a Bachelor of Science in Polymer Engineering. In 1998 Karl-Heinz joined Ciba Specialty Chemicals Plastic Additives in Basel, Switzerland as head of the Processing Labs for the application and testing of plastic additives. In 2003 he moved to Ciba Plastic Additives Italy where he worked as Application Specialist for additives used in Polyolefin Films. In 2007 he relocated to Basel where he took the lead of the Application Center Polymerisation and Emulsion Technology. He moved subsequently to the Application Center Polyolefin where he was responsible for technical service for European Polymer Producers. In 2009 he joined BASF Plastic Additives Switzerland and since then is leading the Processing Lab Operations Europe for Plastic Additives and Pigments