Ron joined China Hongqiao Group in January 2020, following 11 years as Secretary General of the International Aluminium Institute (London). Previous roles include Executive Director of the Australian Aluminium Council (2002 to 2008), Chief Executive of the World Coal Institute London (1997 to 2001) and senior positions with the Minerals Council of Australia (1987 to 1996). Prior to these appointments, Ron was an economist with the Australian Government (1976 to 1987). Ron is an Australian with a small beef cattle farm in Australia.

China Hongqiao Group is one of the largest fully integrated aluminum company in the world with extensive activities along the whole production chain, based on major direct investments and long-term strategic partnerships. Production is dominated by operations in China, combined with key resource developments in Indonesia and Guinea.

China Hongqiao attaches great importance environmental protection, energy conservation and sustainable development. with clean green production and higher value products as core business goals. China Hongqiao seeks to continuously improve the full industrial chain by building unique aluminum industry clusters. Central to the industrial cluster philosophy is the development of surrounding enterprises and the cities in which the plants are located

China Hongqiao is committed to helping achieve China’s carbon peak and carbon neutral goals – and has adopted a roadmap to take positive actions to optimize the energy structure, carry out industrial upgrading, and promote low-carbon transformation of the industry. The goal is to achieve peak carbon emissions before 2025 and net-zero carbon emissions in Scope 1 and 2 before 2055.

1. In my current role I am responsible for the implementation of our Henkel sustainability strategy in the Supply Chain (specifically the production sites as well as outbound logistics)of our Consumer Brands business unit.

A graduate of the Department of Economics (English) at Istanbul University, Ebru Şapoğlu completed ‘’Leading in a Global World’’ program organized by The University of Texas, and ‘’Executive Leadership’’ program organized by INSEAD throughout her professional career. After embarking on her career as a Product Responsible in Şişecam Flat Glass business unit in 1999, Şapoğlu took various managerial roles in the architectural glass, energy glass, and home appliance glass segments. She was appointed as Marketing and Sales Vice President in Flat Glass in 2016 and Senior Sales and Marketing Director in July 2021. As of January 1, 2022, Ebru Şapoğlu serves as Şişecam Chief Sales Officer.

Joachim von Schéele has a career spanning over more than three decades working with manufacturing industries, predominantly in steel, minerals, and metals production, but also in automotive, and chemical sectors, etc.

With a mix of metallurgical research and consultancy background, Joachim von Schéele joined the industrial gases industry in 1996. Since then, he has served in many different technical and commercial management roles at AGA, BOC, and Linde, and been actively doing business in more than 40 countries around the world. After a decade in Asia, first in India as VP for South Asia and then in China heading Application Development & Sales for Asia-Pacific, he is since 2020 based in Munich, Germany, pursuing his current role at Linde.

Focusing on decarbonisation including use of hydrogen, Joachim von Schéele is very much engaged in driving the sustainability agenda supporting steel, metals, mining, and other hard-to-abate industries to achieve measurable progress and success.

Joachim von Schéele is a well-known speaker and panelist, and has published more than 200 papers, mainly on energy and emission conservation, recycling, and production. He has served as a member of more than 30 boards of companies, associations, and research and education organizations. Joachim von Schéele is included in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in Engineering, and Who’s Who in Asia, and he holds seven patents related to metallurgical production. He is the author of chapters in five books, most recently on China in ‘Touching Hydrogen Future – Tour Around the Globe’.

Joachim von Schéele received his MS and PhD from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1987 and 1992, respectively, and a BA from Stockholm University in 1990.

Florent Bouguin is the Chief Technology Officer at OPTEL Group. Florent is a research and development executive with substantive experience in developing new technologies and business solutions that measure and reduce human impacts on our global environment. After graduating from Polytechnique (Orleans, France) and completing graduate studies at Laval University (Quebec, Canada), Florent worked as a System Engineer for ABB in the space industry. Holding several technical and management roles over the course of 15 years, he contributed to developing spaceborne analysers for greenhouse gas observation, weather forecast prediction and ozone measurement. He joined OPTEL group, a BCorp certified organization, in 2016 as Vice President of Engineering and Operations, where he has been participating in the expansion of the business in the life science industry. Currently the Chief Technology Officer, Florent drives the technology and go-to-market strategy of OPTEL group, whose corporate vision is a connected world providing full transparency and optimized performance, encouraging social and environmental responsibility and accountability while earning the trust of consumers. As a member of the Executive Committee, Florent collaborates with the president and Executive Committee to define the vision and set corporate strategy, goals and policies. Father of two kids and ultramarathoner, Florent's motivation is promoting the balance between family life, active life and professional life.

Laurent Delmotte is Sustainability and Product Stewardship Director for AGC Glass Europe and Project Manager for the Low Carbon glass range. Master of Engineering, (engineering geology, from ULiege), Laurent has 20+years of experience in glass : research in glass composition and raw materials, technical coordination on float glass furnaces, purchasing manager for float raw materials and Procurement senior manager leading corporate purchasing team, to supply European floats, laminating, coater, mirroring, fire-resistant and glass processing lines, now active in sustainability field focused on product stewardship and plants compliance.

Jürgen Schmiezek has been Chief Growth Officer at the Industrial AI company Tvarit since February 2022. He is responsible for sales and marketing as well as the growth strategy of the emerging deeptech software company. Schmiezek has many years of management experience in the IT and software industry. He is also a proven expert in restructuring and turnaround processes. Before joining Tvarit, Schmiezek was CEO of the start-up Techtriq GmbH. He also spent several years in leadership and management positions at Lobster GmbH and SynerTrade SES AG, where he was responsible for the development and successful implementation of sales and growth strategies.

Schmiezek started his career in 1999 at IBM Germany as a pre-sales consultant. This was followed by ten years as an independent consultant for business process reengineering in the areas of production and supply chain management.

Johanna joined ABB in April 2023 as the head of ABB’s consulting team in Europe, focused on the Digital Solutions and Sustainability offering.

She has 29 years of experience in advanced industrial software and automation across many verticals, including pulp and paper, mining, and metals.

Prior to joining ABB, Johanna worked for Metso, Valmet, and their predecessor companies in different functions.

She holds a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering, major in paper converting technology, minors in environmental sustainability and automation, from Tampere University of Technology in Finland.

Björn studied Molecular Microbiology at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, NL and obtained a PhD in Environmental Microbiology from Auckland University, NZ in 2009 during which he joined LanzaTech. Currently active as the Technical Director Europe for LanzaTech EU bv, based in The Netherlands. Over the last 14 years Björn has been involved in the discovery phase, development and scaling of the continuous gas fermentation process in New Zealand (5 yrs), Japan, China (1 yr) and the USA (7 yrs). The scale up phase accumulated into the 1^st full commercial facility startup in May 2018 at a Shougang steel mill in China where he was responsible for the first production runs. At this facility >200 million liters ethanol have since been produced from steelmill offgas. Several other commercial plants are now operational in China while the 1^st European commercial plant is located at the ArcelorMittal steel mill near Gent, Belgium where ethanol production has been announced.

Björn is passionate about expanding and combining Carbon recycling technologies. The fast-changing energy and carbon reduction landscape presents exciting and urgently required opportunities across various carbon intensive sectors. The combination of new and existing catalytic conversions up and down stream of the proven LanzaTech regenerative biological conversion will give value to CO₂, demonstrated by current products in the end user markets.

I am director Net Zero industries, employing strong analytical capabilities and a personal approach to find effective solutions for complex challenges. Driven by the urgency to decarbonize our industry, I navigate the technical, economic, and political landscapes to create impactful change. By collaborating with industries and key enablers of the energy transition, I accelerate progress and unite diverse perspectives for a sustainable future.

I am a senior consultant specialised in industrial decarbonization. My focus lies in developing comprehensive decarbonization roadmaps specifically tailored for process utilities and flexible electrification. Motivated by the urgent need to mitigate climate change and achieve net-zero industries, I bring expertise in innovative energy systems and technologies that pave the way for successful decarbonization.

Renée is a Senior Product Manager at Wolters Kluwer, responsible for the direction of the Environmental and Waste applications, and has worked in the environmental space, primarily in the areas of air quality and greenhouse gas emissions, for the last twenty years. Starting as a consultant working on permitting has given her deep domain expertise which she has brought to the digital realm, helping a several companies implement software solutions to help meet their environmental compliance obligations. Renée is passionate about having a positive impact on the world, and loves to help other individuals and companies along this path.

Marcello is currently Supply chain leader at IBM Europe, having worked through the years on various positions on the area of Procure to Pay, Customer Experience (Marketing, Sales, Service, e-Commerce) or Supply Chain. Marcello brings with him an extensive experience of customer engagements from various industries and more recently on the role of AI demanded by the future of sustainable order fulfillment.

As an experienced executive in the tech industry, Gesa Schneider is driven by entrepreneurship and has a determined mindset with a passion for 3D printing, the CircularEconomy, and sustainable manufacturing.

Since March 2023 she is responsible for the Central Europe Sales Team at Markforged, a producer of industrial composites and metal 3D printers, and is based in Berlin, Germany. Throughout her career, she has executed various ideas in both 3D printing startups and corporations, gaining hands-on experience in all levels of the entrepreneurship sphere.

As the founder and former CEO of Circuteria, a digital platform for sustainable materials solutions, she is a leading thinker on the transformative role of emerging technologies, circular practices, and innovative business models in combating climate change. She has broad international experience in the 3D printing industry and sustainable materials, and has won various competitions and hackathons in Berlin's startup scene.

In addition to speaking at conferences, she maintains a blog (circular3dprinting.com) about the ecological benefits of 3D printing, circularity, and innovative business models. Her vision is to unlock the full potential of the Circular Economy and to make product manufacturing more sustainable.

As Sweep’s VP Climate Action, Renaud brings to Sweep a decade of experience in the field of carbon offsetting and corporate climate strategy. Committed to helping businesses be a driving force to reach global net zero, he launched the Net Zero initiative reference framework for corporate carbon neutrality and carbon finance website Info Compensation Carbone.

Hilbrand Kuiken is the founder and CEO of Quantillion. He is an entrepreneur focusing on data intelligence that enables real time autonomous decision making in complex environments. Hilbrand loves working with passionate people in creating real value for the clients. He believes data is not about analytics but about doing!

Hilbrand has more than 10 years of experience in both primary aluminium smelting and Industry 4.0 digital product implementation.

He has a BSc. In Engineering from the University of Applied Science, Utrecht Netherlands and an MSc. In Economics from the Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm (KTH), Sweden.

Prior to founding Quantillion, he was the Director Asset Management & Digital Services – Industry at Royal HaskoningDHV Engineering

Christian Leroy joined European Aluminium in January 2014 as Consultant in charge of Innovation and Life Cycle Assessment. Previously, as full-time employee of European Aluminium since 1999, he was in charge of various functions covering education, technology and environmental fields. He holds a Ph.D. and Master degree in Process Engineering from “Université Catholique de Louvain” in Belgium.

Christian is currently Director Innovation, managing the Innovation Hub of European Aluminium. This collaborative industrial platform aims to trigger research projects that target prioritised technology and raw materials challenges for decarbonising and circularising the industry. The Innovation Hub aims to match more effectively the priorities of the European Aluminium Industry with the EU innovation agenda and funding programme, especially within “Horizon Europe” programme. For such purpose, the European aluminium industry is engaged in 3 key Public Private Partnerships (PPPs): Processes4 Planet (previously SPIRE), Made in Europe (previously “Factories of the Future”) and Built4People (previously “Energy-efficient Buildings”). Currently, the innovation Hub secretariat is composed of a team of 4 experts and is involved in 10 collaborative projects, 7 of them being Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe projects.

Jan Salzwedel is a dynamic speaker and accomplished researcher in green factory planning, having studied Industrial Engineering and Business Administration at RWTH Aachen University and Università degli Studi di Torino. With a focus on resource efficiency and sustainability, Jan develops innovative Key Performance Indicator (KPI) systems and life cycle models for factories, with a particular focus on the transformation of brownfield factories. He collaborates closely with industry partners, including the Ford Motor Company, on projects such as the "Positive Impact Factory," aiming to create sustainable, long-lasting factories with a positive ecological footprint. Jan's expertise also extends to strategic site selection, integrating green factory KPIs and global megatrends to assist organizations in making informed decisions aligned with sustainability objectives. Through his work at the intersection of academia and industry, Jan Salzwedel is dedicated to advancing sustainable manufacturing practices and inspiring a greener future in the field of industrial engineering.

Michiel Smets recently joined Borealis as Lead Buyer Renewable Energy, bringing expertise on renewable energy strategy development and detailed insights in PPA transactions and energy markets. His knowledge on renewable electricity transactions needs to accelerate the sustainable sourcing of energy to meet the 100% green electricity target by 2030 Borealis has set itself. Over the past years, Michiel grew expertise in all types of PPA transactions, driven by different underlying business strategies and resulting in both on- and off-site renewable developments. He held responsibilities in electricity procurement and hedging strategies within the EMEA region, giving him the market insights needed to develop renewable sourcing strategies.

Michiel holds a Master’s degree in Bio-science Engineering from the University of Leuven and a Master’s in General Management from Vlerick Business School.

Mr. Sarim Sheikh is an experienced global business leader and an independent director with more than two decades of P&L and business leadership experience across energy, transportation, health care and retail sectors. He has held several global and regional leadership positions since joining Shell Group Plc in 1995, in Downstream, Midstream and Renewables and of living and working on 5 continents. In 2012 he joined as President & CEO of GE Industrial businesses in the Central Asia region for Aviation, Health Care, Oil & Gas, Power & Renewables. In 2019, he was appointed the Chief Operating Officer, GE Offshore a start-up within GE.

Mr. Sheikh was named one of the "Best Performing CEOs" by Karachi Stock Exchange and was also awarded the GE Chairman’s Leadership Award. Mr. Sheikh has served on several not for profit boards of charities, industry associations, public companies and government advisory boards. Mr. Sheikh is a global thought leader on energy transition and a passionate advocate its acceleration.

Mr. Sheikh has a B.Sc in Physics and an MBA from London Business School awarded with distinction. He and his wife live with their daughter and son in London.

Pascal van Putten, CEO and founder of VPInstruments studied Mechanical Engineering at Delft University of Technology and performed his masters’ research project at North Carolina State University. Pascal founded VPInstruments in 1999. VPInstruments offers industrial clients Energy Management solutions for compressed air, technical gases as well as other utilities. VPInstruments produces flow meters for both supply side (wet air) and demand side (typically dry air) down to the point of use and pioneered 3-in-1 sensor technology: All flow meters measure also pressure and temperature. Connected to VPVision monitoring software, they can provide easy insight into the energy consumption and efficiency of a compressed air system. Pascal has almost 25 years of experience in flow measurement, compressed air monitoring and industrial energy management. Pascal lives in Delft together with his wife Marjolijn and three daughters Janneke (who is now studying at Limestone University in SC), Annemarie and Willemijn.

Cristiana Ciaraldi Jolivet is currently Head of Sustainability at Holcim. She is responsible for accelerating the execution of Holcim’s sustainability strategy in the EMEA region on Decarbonization, Circular Economy, Nature and People.

Prior to Holcim, Cristiana managed the Built Environment project at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) where she passionately drove transformation towards net-zero carbon, circular, healthy, inclusive, adaptive and resilient built environment through multi-sector and multistakeholder collaboration. Before the Built Environment project Cristiana has had various roles within the Cement Sustainability Initiative at WBCSD.

Cristiana’s career in sustainability started in environmental NGOs (WWF and Greenpeace) followed by many years as Environment Legal Officer and CSR Manager for Construction Industry’s Trade Associations in France and Italy. She also worked for the Italian Government as a member of the Cabinet of the Environment Minister.

Cristiana holds a Master in European Law (University of Roma Tre) an LLM in International Environmental Law (University of Wales), and a DAS in Management of International Organization (University of Geneva).

In his current position Karsten Büker is principal chemist and team leader of the Carbon2Chem^® project at the division of Technology, Innovation and Sustainabilty of thyssenkrupp Uhde, the chemical engineering unit of thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions. In addition he is leading R&D projects dealing with catalyst technology for the production and conversion of synthesis gas to hydrogen, ammonia and methanol. Karsten Büker has more than 20 years of experience in industrial catalysis among them 4 years in the refining industry. He holds a PhD in physical chemistry from the Free University of Berlin.

Sarah is an Innovation Lead at Innovate UK, supporting the Foundation Industries to be sustainable and internationally competitive through collaborative R&D competitions and tailored sector support. This includes social science aspects, addressing the future skills gaps, ensuring the sector is inclusive and captures diverse innovation and workforce, tracking societal behaviours and breaking down systemic innovation barriers.

Sarah is a Materials Engineer by background and has been working in the Materials Processing Industry for the past decade, initially conducting research at both the University of Oxford and Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, before joining Innovate UK in 2020.

Helen joined Climate Group in 2017 as its Chief Executive Officer. In addition to leading the growing Climate Group team, Helen sits on the board of the We Mean Business Coalition , and is on the board of the Sustainable Development Capital Energy Efficiency Income Trust.

 Prior to joining Climate Group, Helen worked at Forum for the Future, Médecins Sans Frontières, and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte.

Sarah is an Innovation Lead at Innovate UK, supporting the Foundation Industries to be sustainable and internationally competitive through collaborative R&D competitions and tailored sector support. This includes social science aspects, addressing the future skills gaps, ensuring the sector is inclusive and captures diverse innovation and workforce, tracking societal behaviours and breaking down systemic innovation barriers.

Sarah is a Materials Engineer by background and has been working in the Materials Processing Industry for the past decade, initially conducting research at both the University of Oxford and Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, before joining Innovate UK in 2020.

Ira Brueckner is Senior Manager Sustainability Strategy at Heidelberg Materials, based in Heidelberg, Germany. At Heidelberg Materials, she assists and reports to the CSO regarding sustainability strategy and leads the global circularity strategy implementation. In her professional career to date, Ira has gained experience in waste and wastewater treatment as well as change and strategy management. She is a Waste (B. Sc.) and Environmental (M. Sc.) Engineer and holds a PhD from RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

Chris is a leading member of the projects team and has worked in glass R&D since 2005. Prior to that, he developed products for the food industry. Chris co-ordinates a team of eight researchers at Glass Technology services and participates in a wide variety of projects ranging from desk-based research through to practical laboratory, pilot scale development, site trials and testing. He also regularly undertakes non-standard testing and consultancy work.

His background is in marine biology and environmental science but has wide-ranging interests from recycling and environmental improvement to novel uses of glass in biomedical applications, energy generation and photonics. Recent initiatives have included waste and energy minimisation projects for European Glass Manufacturers, the Horizon 2020 FISSAC Construction industry Industrial symbiosis project, and developing a manufacturing facility for novel biomedical and photonic glasses.

Chris’ background in environmental science has led to a focus on projects that reduce the environmental impact of the glass supply chain either through efficiency improvements in the glass manufacturing process, increased use of recycled materials, and the development of products with lower environmental impacts. Chris has worked as technical lead on container recycling projects in the UK and Russian Federation, and circular economy projects in the construction and architectural glass supply chain across Europe. He has also carried out studies into the technological and economic potential for low grade post consumer glass. He has delivered training courses on glass recycling and environmental improvement in the UK and internationally.

Andrew leads GCCA’s work promoting the sustainability value of concrete in the future of construction. His role includes improving the understanding of concrete’s lifecycle and its role in the circular economy.

He joined from Mineral Products Association in the UK where he was Executive Director for both The Concrete Centre and British Precast.

Özgeholds a MSc in Chemical Engineering. She has 17 years of experience in thepetrochemical industry in various roles including R&D in the field of energy and yieldimprovement for various petrochemical processes as well as strategic investment planning.Since 2015, Özge has been working at SABIC. She started in the Feedstocks and CrackerTechnology team and then moved to the Business Strategy team responsible with olefins andcarbon neutrality. She currently works in the Circular Economy Business team as a businessmanager where she leads a portfolio of activities to achieve the commitment of SABIC for 1million metric tons TRUCIRCLETM solutions by 2030. To make this happen, she isresponsible with business development via the collaborations along the value chain.