Maurizio has over 20 years of experience in the manufacturing industry, leading Tratos, a global cable manufacturer and innovator, as the CEO and Chairman.

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.

Amitosh Dash is a researcher at KWR Water Research Institute in the Netherlands. In collaboration with his colleagues and drinking water utilities, he performs scientific research to address open-ended questions affecting the drinking water sector. Broadly, Amitosh tackles problems related to drinking water quality and asset management employing a combination of experimental techniques, modelling, and data analysis.     

Sarah joined VinylPlus as Public Affairs Senior Manager in January 2023. She is an experienced public affairs and communications professional with ten years of experience. Sarah started her career at the European Small Business Alliance in Brussels and then moved to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki, working as Administrative Assistant for the Board and the EU Relation's Team. Eventually, she came back to Brussels and became the Public Affairs Manager for the campaigning association Fire Safety Europe. More recently, Sarah worked at BCW as Director in the Sustainability practice.  She gained over the years a deep and comprehensive expertise on chemicals regulation, construction products regulation, as well as on larger sustainability issues.

Ludo Debever has served the plastics industry >35 years in various international management
functions including in operations, marketing, risk management, communication and finance. From 2001 until 2003 Ludo was general manager of the newly founded association EPPA. He held Board seats in EPPA (European Plastic Window profiles Association: 2007-2015) and Federplast.be (The Belgian Federation of Plastic Converters: 2011-2017) and Recovinyl (2019-2021). Ludo joined TEPPFA as General Manager in April 2017. In 2019 TEPPFA introduced its new visual identity and in 2021 the new TEPPFA vision 2025 with a strong focus on circular economy and sustainability. Ludo holds a Master of Arts in Multilingual Communication from the University of Ghent (Belgium).

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.

Dr. Stefan Fokken, born on 25th January 1969, finished his studies of chemistry in 1994. He stayed at the University of Mainz /Germany for a PhD-Thesis on organo-metallic chemistry on the field of titanium based catalysts for olefin polymerisation in co-operation with the company BASF.

In 1997 he joined the R&D-department of Baerlocher GmbH starting his work in basic chemical research on different PVC stabiliser systems. In 2000 he took over responsibility for the development of new alternative stabiliser systems based on Ca/Zn and Ca-organics designed for application in pipe extrusion and injection moulding. Subsequently he became global Head of R&D of Baerlocher in 2006 and is now responsible for basic research as well as for product development of PVC stabiliser one-packs in conjunction with the application labs and regulatory affairs departments of all Baerlocher affiliates worldwide.

Born in 1973, Eric GRANGE has an engineering degree in material science and structural mechanics from Polytech Orléans. He started his career in Amphenol as R&D project manager for connectors and took a position of product marketing manager for RF connectors and antennas. He integrated the ITT group in 2005 for switches as a global product manager and then moved as automotive segment leader in 2015 covering the switch business for OEMs and Tier 1 on a global basis. He joined BENVIC in 2020 as marketing manager to set up the marketing function to sustain the group growth’s within its different new products and segments.

Magdalena has joined ECVM in April 2021. Prior to that, she worked for the European Aluminium Association, where she worked on the environmental and circular economy policies. She has also experience in public affairs of the machine tools sector. Her professional experience included 3^rd party quality control audits. Magdalena holds a PostGraduate diploma focused on Turbomachinery from The von Karman Institute of Fluid Dynamics in Belgium, and a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Poznan, Poland.

Since 2020, Elizaveta has been a part of the plastic research industry, developing the expertise with Chem-Courier, global market intelligence agency in reporting on the chemical markets. In 2021, she assumed the role of Lead Market Analyst for Polyolefins and PVC markets, showcasing her commitment to in-depth industry analysis. Her contributions go beyond analysis, as she has organised and actively participated as a speaker in various events hosted by Chem-Courier and other international companies, demonstrating her dedication to knowledge sharing and industry engagement.

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.

Piotr Kearney is Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer at Spolana. He is a highly experienced C-level executive with over 29 years of experience in the oil and gas, petrochemical and chemical sectors of ORLEN Group. Piotr worked as CEO, CFO, Board of Directors Member, Strategy and M&A Executive Director in Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Canada and the United States.

Since 2022, Pavel Kolman has been working as an independent consultant among others for Capacco, following a career at the Brno University of Technology and CEITEC, where he served as a mechanical engineer and researcher from 2005 to 2021. Pavel also represented the Czech Republic and Slovakia as a Regional Representative for Recovinyl from 2008 to 2019.

He holds a Ph.D. in Physical and Materials Engineering and an Ing. degree in Engineering Optics from the Brno University of Technology. 

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.

Miguel Angel is graduated in Organic Chemistry in 1992 from the University of Barcelona. All his professional career has been developed during 25 years in a very well known multinational company from the cable sector in the chemical area as a Chemical Lab Responsible giving technical support to Production and Commercial Department and developing compounds in PVC, rubbers and silane compounds and Project Manager for developing rubber and PVC compounds as an integrant of R&D Department. Since 2021 Miguel joined Grupo Revi as a Responsible of Materials of the Group, developing materials for pipes and cables based in polyolefins and PVC.

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.

Dr. Rajesh Ranjan is Director of R&D at a leading solvent cement company Weld On Adhesive where he is working to develop health and environment friendly formulations for PVC pipe bonding. Dr. Ranjan is a distinguished expert in polymers. He had led advanced material research for GKN Aerospace, Church & Dwight and Saint-Gobain. Dr. Ranjan has authored many publications in reputed journals and hold several patents. Dr. Ranjan earned his PhD from renowned polymer science program at university of Akron (USA) and MBA from Stern Business School at New York University (USA).

Charlotte has been managing ECVM and VinylPlus since January 2024.
She has been working for the PVC  industry for a decade, previously representing the interest of the PVC window profile industry towards policy-makers, standardisation bodies and other sectors. Her functional experience includes the sustainability assessment of construction products, standardisation activities, chemical and waste legislation and corresponding advocacy actions.

Charlotte Röber completed her Masters in European and International Law at the University of Maastricht. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from the Vlerick Business School in Ghent.

Eric holds a degree in chemical engineering with a background in petrochemicals, refining, and polymers. He began his career in 1985 at Shell in Amsterdam, conducting fundamental research on heterogeneous catalysis. In 1989, he moved to Belgium and spent over 30 years at Total Energies, gaining extensive experience with pilot plants, demonstration units, and industrial units. During his last 2.5 years at Total Energies, Eric focused on pyrolysis projects for polyolefins within the Polymer Business Department.

In May 2021, Eric joined INEOS Inovyn, where he began developing dissolution, pyrolysis, and gasification technologies for non-mechanically recyclable PVC. The dissolution technology is being developed internally, with two pilot plants installed in April this year. The other two technologies are being developed in collaboration with external partners.

Since May, Eric has been serving as the Director of Project Circle, working on the first industrial unit, which is scheduled to start up by 2030.

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.

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.

Miroslav Trojan is a graduate of the Technical University of Brno, where he earned a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1980. With 44 years of experience in the cable industry, he held key roles at Draka and Prysmian. Since 2016, Miroslav Trojan has been serving as the President of AVK, the Association of Cable and Wire Manufacturers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

After a degree in Electronic Engineering at the University of Florence, in 1995 Roberto started his career in the industrial sector, in the multinational company Sun Chemical. In 2002 he became General Manager and CEO of Union Derivan, where he was responsible for restructuring the company, preparing its sale and managing its entry into Caffaro, a company owned by SNIA SPA. He faced the same challenge in 2009, when he was in charge to restructure and sell the Italian company Altair Chimica. He fulfilled this mandate in 2011 when Altair Chimica (now Altair Chemical) was bought by the Esseco Group. In 2021 he was appointed General Manager of Esseco Industrial, the Industrial Chemical Division of Esseco Group.

Miguel Zambrano holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela, and a Master's degree in Sustainable Chemistry and Technologies for the Circular Economy from the University of Padova in Italy. During his master's program, Miguel focused on resource management, product design, and recycling, culminating in a thesis project centered on designing for the end-of-life of small electronic devices.

Currently, Miguel works as a scientific regulatory officer and is part of the technical team at Polymer Comply Europe, the service company of European Plastic Converters. He monitors and supports projects to ensure compliance with chemical regulations. His work also involves contributing to various projects and initiatives across the plastics sector, with a particular focus on circularity, substitution, recycling, and safety.