FEICA European Adhesive & Sealant Conference and EXPO

Anne De Baetzelier is one of the leading event hosts in Europe. A former Miss Belgium, Anne started her career with the Flemish commercial TV network VTM in 1989. 

Anne has become a much sought-after host with renowned companies all over Europe. She is famous for her communicative insight and her talent to present complicated matters in a simple way. Her true interest in the organisation and topics she presents, are the most important ingredients of her success.

Eric is passionate about creating sustainable business opportunities. With his team he builds strong partnerships and aligns value chains to bring sustainable solutions to the Chemicals and Polymers market. Before joining Neste in 2021, Eric has worked almost 17 years for SABIC in different Supply Chain Management, Commercial and Business positions. Eric holds a MSc degree in Economics.

Postgraduate in Marketing with a Degree in Communication Sciences, Sofia Koehler is the Vice-President of Colquimica’s Group.

With over 20 years of experience, during her professional career she was able to develop her expertise in the international market development and strategic marketing, leadership and human resources, while addressing distinct areas of the business, namely assuming the positions of Marketing Director and Commercial Director for more than 12 years. Currently, Sofia is the Vice-President of Colquimica in Europe, having recently became Chairman of the newest plant, in the United States of America.

Taking major pride in being part of Rede Mulher Líder, a Portuguese female leadership association, Sofia has an active voice in the defensing of diversity, inclusion and equality in the workplace in Portugal.

Anne De Baetzelier is one of the leading event hosts in Europe. A former Miss Belgium, Anne started her career with the Flemish commercial TV network VTM in 1989.

Anne has become a much sought-after host with renowned companies all over Europe. She is famous for her communicative insight and her talent to present complicated matters in a simple way. Her true interest in the organisation and topics she presents, are the most important ingredients of her success.

Vera Haye is Managing Director at IVK – the German Adhesives Association. Vera holds a doctoral degree in microbiology and has been working for industry associations in the field of biobased products and adhesives for more than 10 years. She is substantially involved in developing IVK’s sustainability strategy and supports the members with topics concerning adhesive bonding technology. In her spare time, Vera enjoys good food, travelling and running.

Kate Glasser is the Corporate Senior Vice President for the Adhesive Technologies Industrials Business (AEI) at Henkel Corporation. She is a business executive with 20 years of leadership experience across both mid-size businesses and large multinational corporations.

Most recently, she served as President of IDEX Corporation’s Rescue Group and spent the prior decade at Dow as Global Business Director the Coatings and Monomers businesses as well as roles in general management, strategy and M&A. Previously, she held leadership roles at US Airways and taught English in Japan and China.

Kate earned an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a BA in Mathematics from the University of Rochester.

She is also a Board President for Nerdy Girl Success, Inc., a founding member of Chief Chicago, and an Executive-in-Residence at the Booth School of Business. Kate lives in Chicago with her partner and their three children.

Ritu Paul is the Global R&D director for paper, polymer and laminating at H.B. Fuller, working closely to Flexible Materials and Rigid Packaging businesses. With over 14 years in the specialty chemicals industry, Ritu has solid experience in leading global R&D and cross-functional teams to deliver unique technology and products based on market and customer needs. She has technical expertise in a wide range adhesive technology and she and her team have a proven track record of developing, scaling-up, and commercializing new solutions for markets such as Electronics, Woodworking & Composites, Durable Assembly, BTRS & RV (bus, truck, rail, special vehicles & recreation vehicles) and Packaging. Ritu also has extensive knowledge in product management and market strategy including value-based pricing for improved profitability. She is an advocate for diversity and inclusion and adept at driving strong internal and external global collaboration for project execution. Ritu holds a Ph.D. in polymer science and engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, in the U.S.

Gunter adheres to a philosophy summarised in his book “The Blue Economy” (2009). He proposes to avoid dividing opinions centered around “for or against”. Rather he focuses on finding better solutions! He embraces radical change, shifting from the focus on efficiency and globalisation with ever lower prices, to resilience and the capacity to better respond to the basic needs of all, by generating value with what is locally available. He dedicates half of his time to inspire children with fables that empowers them to create their “World” parents could never have imagined.

• Chairman of Novamont SpA (since 2013) – Europe’s largest bioplastics company based in Italy; the first to convert a defunct petrochemical plant (ENI) into a biorefinery. Novamont is research driven with 1,800 patents, one thousand employees, €500 turnover and valued at €1.2 billion.
• Chairman of Blue Innovations (Suisse) S.A. based in Lausanne, Switzerland – one of the world’s technology accelerators focusing on 12 technologies that change the world. This company owns PORRIMA, the experimental ship that delivers a proof of operations.
• Author of The Blue Economy (2009) A Report to the Club of Rome – the trend-setting book translated in over 50 languages setting the stage for over 100 innovations that will change the way business competes on the market.
• Founder of PORRIMA based in Lausanne, Switzerland – organizer of The Blue Campus – a 9 months hands-on learning program that teaches 500 young and eager the science and technologies that are not taught at university, brought by the inventors and the masters who imagined and created the innovations.
• Designer of the learning system Gunter’s Fables – a series of 365 fables that bring science based on observations in Nature to children. The pedagogy has been adopted by the Chinese Government. To date 324 books have been published in Chinese and distributed to all schools.
• Advisor to Governments. Identified dozens of novel business opportunities and growth sectors as described in books that mobilized billions of investments such as “Plan A for Argentina” and “Morocco’s Model”.
• Leader of the think tank “Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives” created in 1994 at the United Nations University and the Japanese Government to imagine the new business models that avert climate change. This network created breakthrough businesses like “making paper from rocks without water” now with a production capacity of one million tons (China), producing hydrogen from seawater (Switzerland), isolating and destroying nano plastics from the sea with microfluidics, and fishing with air bubbles (like dolphins do) releasing all females to secure denser fish stock in the future. This think tank has consistently been voted one of the most creative top 10 think tanks in the world by Pennsylvania University.

Prof. Dr Andreas Groß has been a research associate at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Applied Materials Research (IFAM) / Adhesive bonding technology and surfaces department since 1987. Since 1997 he has been head of the “Employee Qualification and Technology Transfer” department at Fraunhofer IFAM, which integrates the accredited training facilities “Training Center for Adhesive Bonding Technology” and “Training Center for Fiber Composites”. Since 1996 he has been chairman of the DVS working group V8 “Adhesive bonding technology”, and since 1998 he has been a member of the steering committee “Technical Committee – TC” of the Industrieverband Klebstoffe e.V. (Adhesives Industry Association). In 2000, in addition to his work at Fraunhofer IFAM, he was appointed professor at the University of Applied Sciences Bremen/Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Furthermore, since 2000 he has headed various national and European working groups in DIN and CEN on the subject of “Quality standardisation in adhesive bonding technology”. He is also chairman of the working group “Adhesive bonding DIN 6701”. In this context, he is also project leader of the revision of ISO 21368 at ISO TC 61/SC 11/WG 5. In 2006, he was appointed to the board of the Fraunhofer Academy as a founding member and has been its deputy spokesperson since then. In 2013, he was appointed to the advisory board of the Fraunhofer Personnel Certification Body.

Geertrui Mieke De Ketelaere is Adjunct Professor at Vlerick Business School and part-time Director AI at imec (IDLab). She holds a master degree in civil and industrial engineering and specialised in robotics and artificial intelligence during her studies. Over the last 28 years, she has worked for several multinationals on all aspects of data and analytics (IBM, Microsoft, SAP, SAS, etc). From a business consulting point of view, she is specialised in defining the AI business canvas, from potential value to predefined risks. With her understanding of the hindsight, insight and foresight of AI technologies, she also frequently acts as an expert and coach behind the scenes. In her public presentations and recent book, Mieke puts the focus on the demystification of the hype around AI. In 2018, she was nominated “ICT Woman of the Year” in Belgium. The State Secretary of Digitalisation, Mathieu Michel, appointed Mieke as “Digital Mind” in 2020 and in 2022, Mieke was Runner-up IT Person of the Year (Computable).