Dr Jen Vanderhoven, Chief Operating Officer, BBIA

In this session Dr Vanderhoven will provide an overview of the latest developments in biopolymers, looking at technological development and new facilities coming online. She will explore legislation both in place and shortly coming online.

Biography

Jen graduated from The University of Sheffield, with a first-class Masters of Biological Sciences in 2004 and a PhD in Biochemistry in 2007. She is a commercially astute and strategically influential leader, with a result focused approach to enabling strategic and operational plan delivery. With a 20-plus year progressive career spanning both higher education and the commercial sector, Jen has held roles in research and development, sales and marketing, business development, and business change and transformation.

Throughout her career, Jen has led and successfully executed a wide portfolio of transformational projects dedicated to both internal and external engagement including public relations, development, government liaison and organisational development.

Before joining the BBIA, Jen was the Director of the National Horizons Centre (NHC), a UK centre of excellence for the bioindustry, where she was responsible for leading its development as a national centre of excellence for the life sciences sector, representing the centre nationally and globally. She was accountable for developing and delivering the centre’s 5-year strategic plan, ensuring its research, training and commercial successes, including all aspects of engagement, developing strategic partnerships, and marketing and communications.

Previously to this, Jen was the Global Vice President of Business Change at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB), sitting on their Global Executive Leadership Team, where she was responsible for the execution of the company growth strategy, innovation strategy, and business change portfolio, ensuring the company met its global vision, mission and challenging business objectives – being accountable for a portfolio of transformational change projects worth in excess of £500m, actively pursuing opportunities for alignment, efficiencies and organisational sustainability. During this time, she also led the Integration Management Office for the Merger and Acquisition of an $870M business.

Jen is an invited member of the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum, which provides strategic coordination of the UK’s fast growing Industrial Biotechnology sector, with participants from industry, the research community, public access scale-up facilities, funding agencies, government and other key stakeholders. She also sits on the UKRI BBSRC Follow-on-fund committee, UKRI BBSRC People and Talent Strategic Advisory Panel, and in 2017, authored the UK National Industrial Biotechnology Strategy to 2030.

Her expert business and leadership skills have been recognised several times, for example, in 2021 she was nominated for the Tees Businesswoman of the Year Award, and the Northern Power Women award as a ‘Disruptor for Good’.

John Williams, CTO , Aquapak

In this session our speaker from Aquapak will provide an overview of their biobased PVA. They will explain what a biobased PVA is, how they have created it, its applications and their future plans.

Dr Afsaneh Nabifar, Head of Global Advocacy and Sustainability for Biopolymers, BASF

In this session Dr Nabifar from BASF will explore their biomass Balanced PBATT explaining what the product is, how it is produced and created and their plans for using the product.

Biography

Dr. Afsaneh Nabifar is leading the Advocacy and Sustainability topics for Biopolymers at BASF globally. Chemical engineer by training, she has a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada. Afsaneh has been with BASF since 2012, where she has held several positions in R&D, Market, and business development for various businesses within BASF that supply material to the packaging industry.

She has solid know-how not only about the materials (printing inks, adhesives, or different barrier options) but also regarding processing technologies (film extrusion or paper coating) and the recycling options (mechanical, chemical, or organics recycling) relevant for packaging. Besides involvement in several plastic and paper packaging associations like EUROPEN, CEFLEX, and 4evergreen, Afsaneh is a Board member of the European Bioplastic Association (EUBP) and the British Bio-based and Biodegradable Industry Association (BBIA).

She is Chair of the Board at the Compostable by Design Platform (CbDP) which is a cross-value chain platform to increase the circularity of compostable packaging.

Tony Breton - Novamont

In this session Tony Breton will talk about how Novamont get their material from the fermentation process, where the material is then used, their work on biofeedstocks, sustainability when it comes to your biofeedstocks/products and their future plans.

Biography

Tony has been a strategic specialist in resource management, recycling and public affairs with Novamont since 2006. He is a founding Director of the UK Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries Association, a Director of the European Compost Network, as well as being a long serving member of the UK REA’s Organics Steering Group. He is an expert and chair on numerous BSI, CEN and ISO standardisation committees covering plastics, packaging and bio-based products.

Stanley Mitchell, Head of Business Development, Xampla

In this session Stanley Mitchell from Xampla will provide an overview of their company, describing what Xampla produces, how it is produced and its current range of applications, exploring how it can be used in current industry wide machinery and exploring their future plans.

Biography

Stanley Mitchell is Head of Business Development at Xampla, a Cambridge based technology B-Corp, pioneering the replacement of the most polluting plastics with natural alternatives. A graduate from the University of Oxford, with a Masters degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, Stanley is responsible for commercialising Xampla’s novel plant-based biopolymer technology.  

Prior to Xampla, Stanley worked as a consultant with multinational blue-chip companies to develop, acquire, and deploy breakthrough innovation. 

Conor Ludden, Senior Business Development Manager, Notpla

In this session the innovative company Notpla will explain to the audience about the development of their natural seaweed products, exploring the applications where Notpla can be used as well as how Notpla can impact the plastics industry.

Biography

Conor is a Senior Business Development Manager at Notpla, a biomaterials company that develops materials made solely from seaweed and plants, which haven't been chemically modified. Notpla was a winner of the 2022 Earthshot Prize, a global sustainability award. 

Conor is the commercial lead for Notpla Rigid, which is a revolutionary biopolymer that can be injection moulded into applications such as cutlery. He also works on the commercial development of Notpla’s flexible film made from seaweed. Conor has over 8 years of experience within the UK innovation ecosystem. 

Stephen Rundle, Cheif Operations Officer, Solinatra

In this session Solinatra will explore how their plant based product works, how it can be used in "standard" thermoplastics processing technology and will demonstrate how sustainable technology can be used. 

Biography

As Chief Operations Officer, Stephen is the technical lead for the development and trials of Solinatra materials and oversees the UK R&D Centre. With over 35 years in the plastics industry, Stephen's technical knowledge and experience ensures that the innovative, plant-based Solinatra materials meet the requirements of the manufacturing sector to provide a truly sustainable alternative to fossil-based plastics.