Paolo Arcelli is Director at Plastic Consult, a privately owned independent company since 1979.  Director since 2020, he was previously Head of the Business Insight Division, where he was in charge of  tailor-made consulting and research Projects mainly for the plastics, chemicals and petrochemicals industries.   For the last few years, he's been Advisor for M&A operation in the plastic sector.Previously, (2011 - 2012) he provided consultancy service to the Italian Ministry of Economic Development on Green Chemistry.  Since 2009, he is one of the Senior Consultants of the Cerved Group, the main Italian business intelligence provider.

Since 2017, Camillo Cardelli has been the promoter and co-founder of MOPI srl, an R&D and consultancy company in Pisa, Italy, focusing on materials recycling and bitumen applications. In 2011, he co-founded IPOOL Technology Company for Materials Design, a spin-off of the Institute of Chemical and Physical Processes of Pisa.

Camillo Cardelli graduated in Industrial Chemistry from Pisa University in 1997, with a thesis on the catalytic polymerization of olefins. He also earned a degree from Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa in 1997, specializing in the properties and characterization of polyolefins (PE, PP, PE copolymers, and EPR/EPDM rubber). In 2000, he completed a PhD postdoc at Pisa University with a thesis on polymeric blends and composites.

Carlo Ciotti, engineer, is the President of the PVC Forum Italia. He lived all his working experience in the PVC value chain working for leading chemical industries, manufacturers of PVC resin.
Carlo began his career as a Project and Process Manager and became Head of Research and Development and later Site Manager in EDC / VCM / PVC production plants. Prior to becoming President of PVC Forum Italia he continued his experience in the PVC industry as a SHE (Safety Health Environment) and Environmental Affairs Manager.
He also worked in the field of PVC processing and in particular in compounding. Carlo represents the Italian PVC Forum in the European PVC Network.

Stéphane has joined the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers (ECVM) in December 2021, where he is in charge of the Environmental Footprint Committee.
Previously, Stéphane worked in Cefic (2011-2021) and supported the Silicones sector group and the Plasticisers sector group. He was also a manager of Product Stewardship working on communication in the value chain.
He also worked for 11 years at Procter & Gamble (2000-2011) in analytical, product design and process development department for liquid detergent development.
Stéphane graduated in Chemistry and got his PhD in the field of photochemistry in 1998 from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He also did a post doctoral stay at UCSD in the field of sensors (1998-2000).

Roland Dewitt got his PhD in chemistry in 1984 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He started his career with Solvay as a researcher in polyethylene catalysis, then as technical support for PE pipes. He has been in charge of the organisation of standardisation monitoring for the plastics sector of Solvay, being himself involved in a series of CEN, ISO and IEC standardisation committees, including the chair of CEN TC 249 on Plastics.
He is now a consultant and is involved with PVC4Cables and PVC4Pipes regarding standardisation of PVC cable and pipe products.

After graduating in Chemistry at the University of Pisa and attending a three-year post doc. course (Scuola Normale Superiore - Pisa), he began to work with LAPI SpA as technical manager. Participating in the main CEN and ISO working groups on reaction to fire and fire effluent toxicity, he followed the entire development and revision of standards for the building and transportation field, as UNI expert and delegate and as convenor of the UNI Working Group on fire effluent toxicity.

He continues to work at LAPI SpA, where he hold the position of Technical Director of the Laboratory and of the Certification Body (Notification Number 0987)

Working in Molecor Tecnologia for 8 years, Galera Linares has around 20 years of experience as product manager and project engineer in the construction sector.
He graduated in Industrial Engineering and Trade Management.

Born in the Netherlands in 1960, René Hermkens started to work in the gas business in 1986 at VEG Gas Institute now KIWA Technology. After different occupations varying from the research of the corrosion of high efficiency boiler and flue systems, to research of plastics materials used in the gas distribution, René is now a Senior Project Manager of various projects in the field of gas distribution technology. With his extensive experience Mr. Hermkens is the manager of projects concerning optimization of safety, maintenance, quality of used materials and inspection techniques.
He completed studies in technical physics.

Zdenek Hruska holds an engineering diploma in Plastics Technology from the Prague Institute of Chemical technology and a PhD in Polymer Chemistry from IMC in Prague.

Since joining Solvay in 1991 he held various management positions in Belgium, Germany, and France. In 2013 he moved in Brussels, first at Solvin and later at Inovyn as an Advocacy Manager.

In January 2016 Zdenek joined the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers (ECVM) as a Public Affairs Senior Manager.

Joaquín Lahoz Castillo holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at Zaragoza University. 
Currently Product Manager SBU ‘Plastics’ at CEIS, he has more 30-year experience in plastic pipe and fitting industry. His experience includes quality control, research and development, pipe and fitting production, polymer purchase, marketing and customer relationships, standardization and certification procedures and failure analysis.

Peter Mapleston has been writing about the plastics industry for almost 40 years, covering technology developments in materials and equipment, as well as global business.
After graduating in Polymer Science and Technology from the University of Manchester (UMIST) in 1976, he spent several years in communications in the UK plastics industry. He worked as a journalist with Plastics & Rubber Weekly and later Modern Plastics International between 1987 and 2004, before embarking on a freelance career in writing, research, and conference organisation. 
He writes features for several industry magazines and provides communications advice to companies in the sector. He has worked in Germany and Switzerland and has lived in Italy for over 30 years.

Laura Mazzocchetti is Associate Professor at the University of Bologna, Department of Industrial Chemistry “Toso Montanari”, where she works in the Polymer Science Group focusing on structure-properties correlation in polymer-based systems. Her research focuses on advanced composites production and (nano)modification, as well as on the end-of-life valorisation of complex and hard-to-recycle materials (thermosets, composites, tyres) via thermal processes and sustainable polymers processing and exploitation and on biobased and biodegradable systems for advanced applications, such as in cultural heritage conservation. She is also the Director of the Master program in Composite Materials in Faenza (MaCoF). She authored more that 100 papers in peer reviewed journals and 5 patents.

Silvio Messa is a Graduate and Master in Economic and Financial Securtiy Science.  He is currently the Research Director of the Fire Reserach and Certification Institute, L.S. Fire. 

He is a member of the Committee for the Preparation of Fire Regulations of the Ministry of the Interior.  Member  of ISO TC 92 SC 1, a Member of the UNI Commission and WG Reaction to fire.  A Member of Committee E05 ASTM - Reaction to fire, CEN TC 206: Fire Behaviour of Uphostered Furniture, TC 256 and WG Railways for the European Harmonised Standard for Rolling Stock, UNIFER Working Group Fire Behaviour, JWG CEN 256/CENELEC for safety of railway rolling stock, UNI CT 050, UNI CT 011, GNB SH 02, CEI CT 20, GNB SG 22    

Ettore Nanni holds a PhD in Industrial Chemistry, obtained in 1983 from the University of Bologna, Italy. He is CEO and the main shareholder of the Reagens group, a world-wide producer of additives for PVC and other thermoplastics. Since 2007, Ettore is Chairman of ESPA, the European Stabiliser Producers Association, and is also member of the VinylPlus Steering Board, where he actively contributes to its successful achievements. Since 2014, Ettore is also leading its Additives Committee. When he’s not travelling following Reagens business, or participating in VinylPlus and ESPA activities, he returns to his home in Bologna, to his wife and three children. Ettore spends as much of his spare time as possible hill walking in the mountains.

Marco Piana graduated in Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino , and attained a Master's degree from the Energetics Department of the Politecnico di Torino in energy saving and acoustic sectors.
Marco has collaborated with the application laboratories of CSI (Montedison Group). Later, he became design responsible for the direction of a manufacturer of food processing plants. Now he is the coordinator of PVC Forum Italia - Centro di Informazione sul PVC. He is a member of the UNI , UNIPLAST , CTI Commissions and CEN , as well as of national committees for thermal insulation , acoustic, fire behavior of materials for civil and industrial purposes .
He is an expert at the Ministry of Transport for isothermal vehicles and systems of foodstuffs transport and at the Ministry of the Interior in the fire behavioral material and fire prevention design.
He takes part in courses and conferences in Italy and Europe; moreover, he writes specialized technical articles and issues for didactic and formative purpose. He is a designer for innovative components for civil and industrial buildings

Daniele Redaelli graduated in mathematics from Università Statale di Milano and is the founder and CEO of DAE srl.

Since 2006 he has been Recovinyl Regional Representative in Italy and since 2021 in South East Europe coordinating and certifying more than 30 recyclers.

Daniele worked as a consultant for different sorting facilities in the packaging sector developing new management strategies in collaboration with private equity funds.

In 2021 started a collaboration with CORIPET as a logistic consultant. Skilled in developing mathematics models to describe waste flows, Daniele has a wide experience in the optimization of collection, sorting and recycling processes.

In the last two years he founded a new company, GENIUS REI, supporting the fashion industry to the green transaction.

Gianluca Sarti received a degree in chemistry at the University of Bologna and is co-author of several papers and conference papers. He has 25 years of experience in additives for plastics, particularly stabilizers, flame retardants, smoke suppressants, and acid scavengers for PVC. He started in the plastic industry in 1997 as laboratory manager at Titanstuc S.p.A. In 1999 - 2001, he became the Quality Management System and the Environmental Management System Manager and, in 2005 Research & Development Manager. 2000 - 2015 were mainly dedicated to replacing lead stabilizers with calcium zinc stabilizers. 
In 2006 he started research in flame retardants and smoke suppressants primarily focused on substituting antimony trioxide. In 2013 part of the research was dedicated to studying smoke acidity and to novel acid scavengers to reduce smoke acidity during PVC combustion. 
He is currently the Research & Development Manager in Reagens S.p.A. His employment history is as follows: Titanstuc S.p.A., Faetano, San Marino, 1997 –2020; Reagens S.p.A, 2020 – to present.

Marco Secchiari is the Technical Manager at SICA S.p.A, a privately owned company that designs and produces automatic machines for the plastic pipe industry.

He was born in Lugo, Ravenna in Italy. After obtaining a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, he started working in SICA at 26 years of age as a mechanical designer of belling machines and robotized cells. In 2017 he was appointed head of the technical feasibility team supporting the commercial department; at the beginning of 2022, he was named Technical Manager with responsibility for product safety.

Luca Serena is technical leader for the development of data analysis software and decision-making support software for water supply and wastewater management systems. He has worked as product manager and technical sales engineer for water distribution; he holds a degree in civil engineering.

Vincent Stone graduated in Plastics Engineering at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, where he also earned a PhD. He later earned a part-time MBA degree from the Solvay Brussels School Economics & Management. He joined UCB Group (later Cytec Industries) in 1998, where he led several resin and additive development projects for coatings, inks and adhesives applications. He joined in 2010 ArcelorMittal, where he developed and managed a portfolio of pipe coating technology development and testing services for a range of clients along the oil and gas value chain. He then joined in 2015 the Ferro’s Polymer Additives business (later Synegis) where he led the customer and manufacturing support activities, as well as the global product stewardship activities for the benzoate and polyadipate plasticizers portfolios. Since May 2018, he has joined the European Council of Vinyl Manufacturers (ECVM). ECVM delivers a broad range of technical, sustainability, advocacy and communication services to the leading European PVC resin manufacturers. As Technical and Environmental Affairs Senior Manager, he is mainly in charge to develop the activities of the PVC4Pipes platform. He is also actively involved in the Additives and Sustainable Product Label activities of VinylPlus®, the association managing the voluntary sustainability commitment of the PVC value chain.