The Second European Process Industry Conference: Meet our Speakers
A.SPIRE is thrilled to announce that there is only one week left until our exceptional line-up of speakers will take the stage on Day 1 of the Second European Process Industry Conference - Shaping the Transformation - on the 23rd of October 2024, at BluePoint, Blvd Auguste Reyers 80, 1030 Brussels, for inspiring insights and valuable discussions.
Here is a swift introduction of the speakers, and a glimpse into the expertise and insights they will bring on the 23rd of October.
The event will be captivatingly moderated by Katrina Sichel.
- Katrina is a London-born and bred, Brussels-based moderator and communications specialist, with a degree in French and Russian from Oxford University. As part of an eclectic career path spanning steel-trading in West Africa to business development in the post-Soviet states, she spent four years as Head of Production of an award-winning broadcast PR company. Since 2007 when she moved to Brussels, Katrina has moderated events covering diverse topics and policy areas. These span R&D&I; digital transformation; agriculture; aviation; environment and climate change; social affairs; migration; energy transition; mobility and transport; fisheries and maritime affairs; finance, and health(care). Alongside, until 2017, she managed the content design and roll-out across Europe of multimedia, multilingual communications campaigns targeting the public, and EU and national stakeholders, from diverse sectors, for two of Brussels’ leading communications agencies working with the EU institutions. Katrina describes her style as “journalism crossed with theatre”, and we are excited to see it in action.
The sessions Empowering the Green Transition will bring together on the stage Maria Cristina Russo and Pierre Joris
- Maria Cristina Russo is the Director of the Prosperity Directorate in DG Research and Innovation. In this role she is responsible for Industrial research innovation & investments agenda, Valorisation policies and IPR, Industrial transformation, and Industry 5.0 and AI in Science. Previously Director for Global Approach & International Cooperation in R&I with responsibility for developing and implementing the EU international strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation and the international dimension of the Horizon programme. She has been working for the European Commission since 1992 where she held several policy and managerial positions related to external relations, the EU decision-making process and various EU policies, in particular Research & Innovation. Before being appointed Director, she was a member of the Cabinet of the Commissioner in charge of research policy and Head of Unit in the Secretariat-General of the European Commission holding different positions dealing with inter-institutional relations and policy making, and in the department in charge of consumers' policies and financial services. Maria Cristina holds a degree in Political Sciences from the Luiss University of Rome and a Research Master’s Degree in European Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges. She has three children.
- Pierre Joris is an Engineer in Physics from education, holding a M.Sc. from the University of Stanford, and an Advanced Executive degree from Kellogg's School of Management, Chicago. Pierre has 36 years of international operational experience in the Chemical Industry. He built his career for 29 years at Solvay, where he held different leadership positions in R&D, Corporate and Global Business Management. He completed his career as Chief Innovation Officer for the group and was then recruited as Senior Executive Advisor to the Chemical division of Daikin for more than six years. Pierre now holds non-executive roles as Consultant, Senior Partner at JF Chemical Associates, Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group, and is an independent board member at various companies in the field of materials and chemicals, including Domo Chemicals. It is in this last tenure that he was elected chairman of A.SPIRE in March 2019.
From 10:30 to 11:30 the scene will be shared by four expert voices discussing The Role of Innovation to Transform the Process Industry:
- Jürgen Tiedje, working with the European Commission since 1992; of German nationality; lawyer by educational background, with wide experience in different Commission departments of European policymaking. Between January 2017 and March 2021, Jürgen was in charge of a unit focusing on advanced manufacturing, energy-intensive industries, energy efficient buildings and biotechnologies in DG Research and Innovation. Since April 2021, he has been Head of the Industrial Transformation Unit in the Prosperity Directorate in DG Research&Innovation. The activities of the unit cover research and innovation priorities ranging from chemicals, design of new materials (advanced materials), manufacturing (discrete and process manufacturing), and metrology. Its primary focus is to facilitate the twin green and digital transition. The Industry Transformation Unit is also in charge of the Research Fund for Coaling and Steel in cooperation with the European Research Executive Agency.
- Joao Serrano Gomes works for the European Commission-DG Clima, in the CLIMA.C.2 Unit- Low Carbon Solutions (II): Research & Low Carbon Technology Deployment. Joao is responsible of the design and implementation and further development of the Innovation Fund and the Modernisation Fund and other financial instruments related to innovative clean technologies, as well as on the implementation and further development of the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Directive, including further research on CCS. As a source of knowledge provide expertise on EU Emission Trading System in support of the EU's climate mitigation objective and in view of implementing the Paris Agreement.
- Jurgen Van Holen, R&D Manager at Oleon NV in Ghent, Belgium is an organic chemist passionate about developing new solutions, products and processes with a long experience in coatings, adhesives and oleochemistry. Jurgen will present the case study of INCITE, a promising project funded under a Horizon 2020 call of the SPIRE cPPP, and A.SPIRE's February 2024 Success Story.
- Daniel Bielsa has an Engineering master's degree, an MBA, and a PhD in Thermochemical energy storage. Daniel is an engineer with +25 years of professional expertise both in the industrial and research fields, working for research centres and capital goods manufacturing companies. He has expertise in management plans and leading research teams to continuous improvement. Currently, the Technology Coordinator of CIC energiGUNE, Daniel is focused on the development of disruptive thermal energy storage and conversion technologies. He also has expertise in prototype design and testing as well as identifying and implementing new business ideas. In 2019 he was responsible of the commissioning of the waste heat recovery pilot plant in ArcelorMittal within the H2020 Reslag project. Responsible and coordinator in many R&D developed projects, either private or with public funding from local or international institutions. Daniel will present the case study of the REslag Project, our January Success Story.
The session will be moderated by André Convents (APG Innovation Framework Vice-chair, A.SPIRE).
The session Sectors Dialogue: A Clean Industry for Different Regional Realities will bring insights and expertise from the following panellists representing companies and industrial associations
- Ilse Kenis is Chief Carbon Officer of Carmeuse and CEO of Carmeuse Technologies.Before joining Carmeuse in October 2022, she worked +9 years at Sibelco, a world-leading diversified industrial minerals player where she held several senior management positions including Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer and Executive Vice-President positions in the fields of business unit leadership, commercial and marketing. Prior to Sibelco, Ilse worked for five years as a mining expert at McKinsey & Company and several years as a post-doctoral researcher at the KULeuven and RWTH Aachen. Ilse holds a PhD in Geology from the Catholic University of Leuven (KULeuven, Belgium).
- Marit Dolmen is the Director of Process Development at Elkem ASA, Norway. Marit has 25 years of experience in silicon technology research and production. Her educational background is MSc in Chemistry, Science and Engineering, NTNU Norway.
- Koen Coppenholle is a lawyer by training, starting his career as a researcher in European Law at the University of Leuven, followed by a position as ‘référendaire’ at the European Court with the Dutch judge. After this, Koen joined legal practice in an international law firm. He worked with the Government Relations team at General Electric in 2000 and took up the position of Head of European Affairs at ArcelorMittal between 2007 and 2012. Since 2012, Koen has been the Chief Executive of CEMBUREAU, the European Cement Association and the Vice-president of A.SPIRE.
- Małgosia Rybak is Cepi’s Climate Change & Energy Director. She joined the team in January 2021. With 10 years of experience in public affairs, she leads Cepi’s advocacy efforts on the climate and energy policy framework. Prior to Cepi, Małgosia’s previous roles have included consulting and working for a variety of European industrial sectors from bio-based materials production to cement manufacturing. She holds the MSc European Public Policy from University College London, and is a member of A.SPIRE's Board of Directors.
- Dorota Pawlucka studied translations at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany, and later, she earned an MBA with a focus on innovation management and change at the Academy for Economics and Management in Dortmund. From 2000 to 2016, Dorota was the Manager of EU-funded projects at TU Dortmund, and from 2012 to 2016, the founder and leader of an EU project office. Since 2017, Dorota has been at Covestro Deutschland AG as Global Alliance Manager, Senior Expert in Public Funding and coordinator of a large-scale Innovation Action. Since 2018, she has been active at A.SPIRE, previously as Chair of Working Group Hubs4Circularity or APG Vice Chair for Competitiveness, and currently a member of the Board of Directors.
The session will be moderated by Katrina Sichel.
After the networking lunch, four representatives of European partnerships will discuss Synergies for the Twin Transition:
- Sebastian Engell, Professor of Process Dynamics and Operations at TU Dortmund and Chair of the Advisory and Planning Group of A.SPIRE will represent the Processes4Planet Partnership. He is Emeritus Professor of Process Dynamics and Operations at TU Dortmund, Germany, where he up to now has successfully supervised more than 90 PhD students, most of whom now work in the process industries. He also works for ZEDO e. V. Dortmund in projects on circular economy and Hubs4Circularity and for Enrich Global, France, in a project on supporting the Digital Partnerships between Europe and the Indo-Pacific region. He has led or contributed to many EU-funded projects on process technologies, system modelling and optimisation and digital technologies for the process industries.
- Pilar Llorente is a Programme Officer at the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking, where she is in charge of the coordination of the Work Programmes preparation, the management of the Scientific Committee, and the monitoring of a set of CBE JU projects. She holds a Master's in Physics and a Master's in EU Economics and Policies. Before joining CBE JU, she worked for several years in engineering and R&D consultancy.
- Patrick Lafontaine will represent the Clean Steel Partnership. Patrick graduated at the University of Gent, Belgium as Master of Electrical engineering, and at the University of Leuven, Belgium as Master of Business Administration. He has a long international career in the Tractebel ENGIE group, dealing with power supply and on-site power generation for energy-intensive industries. In recent years, he focused on developing an energy transition and decarbonisation strategy for the energy-intensive industries for Smart Delta Resources in the North Sea Port area (Belgium/Netherlands) in the chemical/petrochemical, steel, fertiliser, food, paper, automotive sectors, based on electrification, hydrogen and circular economy - in collaboration with Processes4Planet. Currently, Patrick is the program director of the Clean Steel Partnership with the European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP), implementing an R&D&I strategic research and innovation agenda aiming at the decarbonisation of the steel industry in Europe and based on hydrogen, electrification, circular economy and smart carbon usage pathways.
- Valerie Bouillon-Delporte is the Executive Director of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership as of June 2024. Previously, she was the Hydrogen Ecosystem Director at Michelin and held leadership roles in the French Hydrogen Association and H2 Mobility France. She also served as President of Hydrogen Europe and chaired the governing board of the Fuel Cell Hydrogen Joint Undertaking. With over 25 years of experience in the automotive industry, she has extensive expertise in marketing clean technologies. Furthermore, she has held board positions at Lhyfe and Rely Solutions and holds degrees from Kedge Business School and ESSEC Paris. Her achievements include being named a Knight of the Order of the French Legion of Honour and receiving multiple awards for her contributions to energy and mobility. She is also a founder of WAVE (Women Automotive and Vehicles in Europe).
The session will be moderated by Andrea Gentili, Horizon Europe Clean Planet Partnerships Manager, EUROPEAN COMMISSION-DG RTD.
After the parallel sessions Processes4Planet Projects and H4Cs Forum, the day will end on an upbeat note with Projects’ Audience Award, networking cocktail and a closing keynote from Aurela Shtiza.
- Aurela Shtiza is the Director of Industrial Affairs & Raw Materials at the Industrial Minerals Association Europe (IMA-Europe). She is a seasoned expert with more than 20 years of experience in regulatory affairs in the fields of Sustainability, Innovation and Environmental legislation. After working for Arcadis and Glencore in regulatory affairs and sustainability, in 2011 she joined IMA-Europe. In this role, she leads the advocacy of IMA-Europe on topics of Innovation, Sustainability, Environment, Permitting and the development of the Sector Climate Roadmap. On behalf of industrial minerals, she is The Vice-President of the Board of Proces4Planet Public Private Partnership (A.SPIRE); Sherpa in European Innovation Partnership in Raw Materials (EIP-RM); Expert in The Raw Materials Criticality Assessment expert group. Aurela SHTIZA holds a PhD in Geology from the KU Leuven (Belgium).
A.SPIRE thanks all the speakers and attendees for being at the forefront of the transformation of the European process industry towards climate neutrality, circularity and competitiveness. The future will be built with innovation.