Speaker Profiles - Pack to The Future 5

[Christian Rossel]

We've got an exciting line-up of speakers for the impending Pack To The Future 5 event.

Please find below their profiles:

Dr. James Colwill  BSc (Hons) PhD FIMMM , Lecturer at the Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Loughborough University

James has spent the past five years researching and lecturing in Sustainable Manufacturing at Loughborough University. In addition to developing and teaching on the sustainable manufacturing MSc, James is also the Principle Investigator on the Resource Efficient Manufacturing Grand Challenge project under the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability with Cambridge, Cranfield and Imperial, as well as the CoI on another EPSRC funded National Research Center on Food. His main research interests are Resource Efficiency, Resilient Supply Chains, Food and Packaging, Bio-Polymers and Renewable Materials. Prior to joining Loughborough James spent over 20 years in industry as a consultant for many or the world’s leading manufacturers and brand owners delivering a range of technical, creative and strategic packaging related projects, as well as founding a number of companies including  a packaging consultancy, media company and food export business. James is also on the Board of the IOM3 Packaging Society as communications officer.

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/mechman/staff/james-colwill.html

Jeremy Plimmer FIMMM, Publisher/Editor Product & Image Security Newsletter

Jeremy Plimmer has 35 years of experience in the security related print & packaging industry working originally as Sales Development Director for manufacturers of passports, high security print and labels and more recently as a Consultant. He is a Graduate Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Fellow of the Institute of Minerals, Materials and Mining and Chairman of the West Midlands Packaging Society.

As an author and co-author of a number of specialist market research studies, some commissioned by single clients and others published on a multi-client basis, he has identified market opportunities, bench marked products, analysed markets and predicted future growth opportunities in authentication products for clients in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Israel, Sweden, South Africa and the UK. He also has experience working with the European Commission, the OECD and a number of Universities as an expert evaluator of suppliers of new authentication technologies requesting research and development grants.

Jeremy also acts as Secretary General of the Product & Image Security Foundation, an International Forum for Manufacturers, Suppliers and users of Security Labels, Tags, Tickets, Materials, Systems and Document and Product/Image Security Technologies. The Foundation acts as an introductory source for authentication suppliers and advises its members in the security print and packaging industries in the areas of brand protection, paper security, print security, counterfeit deterrence and intelligent packaging.

Iain Ferguson FIMMM APkgPrf CEnv, Environment Manager, The co-operative food

Iain has worked for the Co-operative Group for 25 years.

He initially worked in Quality Assurance, but more recently on packaging.  He was appointed Environment Manager in 2007 with a prime objective of delivering activities under the Courtauld Commitment - a voluntary agreement aimed at improving resource efficiency and reducing the carbon and wider environmental impact of the grocery sector.

Some of the successes that he has contributed to have been introducing PET carbonate bottles with recycled content, numerous glass light-weighting projects including moving all Co-operative brand ales to best in class bottle weights, the introduction of the UK's first fully certified home compostable carrier bag, and the introduction of novel packaging film to extend the shelf life of tomatoes.

Iain has an MSc in Environmental Management & Technology, is a Fellow of the Institute of Packaging, an Accredited Packaging Professional and a Chartered Environmentalist.

Dr. Noreen Thomas MA, PhD, FIMMM, CEng , Reader in Polymer Science and Technology at the Department of Materials at Loughborough University                           

Dr Noreen Thomas is a Reader in Polymer Science and Technology at the Department of Materials, Loughborough University. Before joining Loughborough as a lecturer in 2003, she worked in applications development and technical service for a PVC producer, European Vinyls Corporation (now Ineos Chlor Vinyls) and prior to that as a research scientist for ICI.

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/materials/people/dr-noreen-thomas.html

Dr. Alistair Irvine PhD, Manager, Food Contact Compliance at Smithers Pira

Alistair manages the Food Packaging Safety Section within Smithers Pira. This involves advising clients on the safety legislation which applies to food packaging in a wide range of different countries throughout the world and coordinating work programmes to ensure that clients' products meet these requirements. His expertise spans all the EU countries, USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Israel, Russia and all the South American countries.

Alistair graduated with a degree and PhD in Chemistry from Birmingham University. After working for BP and the Department of Health, he joined Smithers Pira in 1994, taking up his current position in 1995.