Bill Allen joined Smithers Rapra in 2009 with a focus on providing the tire, rubber, plastics and composites industry with market reports, customised research and Consulting Solutions. Bill has a BSc Degree in Psychology from Oxford Brookes University

Filippo Bettini holds a degree in biomechanical engineering from Politecnico of Milan and Master in Business Administration from Bocconi University of Milan. Filippo entered Pirelli in 2008 to manage some of the non-core activities of the Group, while actively cooperating in company portfolio reshaping. He has held his current role since 2010. From 2001 to 2008 he worked in Telecom Italia Group covering roles with increasing responsibility in innovation management until being appointed Chief Strategy Officer. From 1985 to 2001 he worked in the biomedical and biotechnology field both in multinational companies and academic research centers. Filippo is a Board Member of CSR Europe and represents Pirelli in the UN Global Compact Lead and in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development; he sits in several working groups addressing sustainable mobility programs. From 2014 to 2017 Filippo has been President of Federazione Gomma Plastica, Confindustria

Massimo Cialone is material and compounding chief specialist at Hankook Tire’s European Technical Center in Hanover, Germany. Massimo has been active in the tyre industry for over 24 years working in different roles in R&D for international companies and gaining expertise in raw materials and compounding. He joined Hankook in 2015 and is a Hankook delegate at the European Tire and Manufacturers Association (ETRMA) in the chemical TF for EU legislation. He studied chemical engineering with a focus on organic materials at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he graduated summa cum laude as Master of Science in 1994.

Mrs. Cinaralp joined the Rubber Industry in 1991 where she exercised several functions towards the European Institutions, mainly leading environmental projects. Between 1997-2006, she served as Secretary General of the European Rubber Industry Association –BLIC. Since 2006, Mrs. Cinaralp is leading the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers’ Association-ETRMA. Fazilet Cinaralp has extensive experience in environmental and sustainability issues. ETRMA has thoroughly proved itself to be a very effective organisation, and will continue playing a great supportive role as the European Tyre Industry continues its dynamic growth.

She is/was member of several Advisory/Expert Groups of the European Commission: GEAR2030, EIP on Raw Materials High Level Group; Raw Materials Supply Group; Roadworthiness Committee; Founding member of European Industry coalitions, among which Industry4Europe, CheMi Platform and the European TRWP Platform. She is also the appointed Advisor to the EU with the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG).

Dr Tim Clayfield joined Tyre Recycling Solutions in 2018 to set up a lab to develop applications for recycled tyre rubber. He is passionate about the need for sustainability and the need to ensure circularity of materials use.
Previously he was European Technical Service Manager for Elastomers at Resinex. From 2005-2016 he was Global Product and Application Technology Leader at Dow Chemical in Switzerland, responsible for developing new products and applications for EPDM. From 1996 to 2005 he was at DuPont Dow Elastomers in Geneva, at first as a technical service engineer, and then as business development manager, for polyolefin elastomers in a variety of applications. He joined Dow in 1989 in Germany in Tyrin chlorinated polyethlene, after his BSc and PhD in Polymer Science and Technology at the University of Manchester.
When not working, you are most likely to find him out on his bike or on his kayak.

Christophe de Valroger began his career with Tenneco Automotive, a leading automotive spare parts manufacturer, where he stayed for over eight years in various sales and marketing roles.

In 2000, Christophe accepted a role with Hertz Europe, where after two years he was promoted into an executive role as Head of Fleet, Maintenance & Car Sales Operations in France. In his next role as Vice President of Fleet, Maintenance & Car Sales Operations, Christophe served on the Hertz International Executive Committee and took on strategic leadership, general management, and product and licencing responsibilities for areas including Europe, Africa, the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle-East.

Moving back to France in 2013, Christophe served as Global Head of Mid-Term Rentals for the ARVAL leasing company. In January 2015, his strategy, business management and leadership skills, combined with his extensive experience in the automotive industry, led to his appointment as Vice President of Original Equipment at Bridgestone.

In this role, Christophe led the Bridgestone EMEA Original Equipment team, with global responsibility for Europe-based Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). His responsibilities included supplying all major vehicle manufacturers in Europe, while working closely with OEMs and new cutting-edge technologies to develop solutions for the challenging and complex requirements of the automobile industry. Under Christophe’s leadership, Bridgestone EMEA’s number of fitments increased by 30 per cent across over 40 different models and 15 manufacturers.

In 2018, Christophe became Vice President of Strategy, Products and Solutions for Bridgestone EMEA, a role that sees him look after strategic planning and business intelligence for the region. He is also in charge of the group’s product portfolio across all product lines. And finally, Christophe leads Bridgestone EMEA’s solutions strategy, including all new digital business models, business innovation and strategic partnerships.

Christophe graduated with honours for both his bachelor’s degree in Finance and Computer Science (ESSCA Angers) and his master’s degree in International Trade (Grenoble Graduate School of Business). More recently, he completed a Finance Executive programme at INSEAD.

Christophe is married to Veronique and has three children. He is fluent in French, English and is passionate about history, travel and global politics.

Wilma Dierkes studied chemistry at the Technical University in Hanover, Germany. She continued with a postgraduate study in environmental science at the Fondation Universitaire Luxembourgeoise, Arlon, Belgium. After finishing this study, she started working for the rubber recycling company Rubber Resources in Maastricht, the Netherlands, a former subsidiary of Vredestein. She was in charge of R&D and Technical Service, and she developed and introduced short recycling loops for production waste back into the original production process.

The next step in her career was the R&D department of Robert Bosch Produktie, Tienen, Belgium, where she developed windshield wipers. Additionally, she was the head of the chemical laboratory and part of the trouble shooting team in the production facility.

In 2001 she started to work for the University of Twente, Enschede, where she is still working as Associate Professor in the chair of Elastomer Technology and Engineering. From 2009 till 2013 she also held a part-time professorship at the Tampere Technical University, Finland.

Her key research areas are reinforcing filler technology, with emphasis on silica filler systems, and recycling and re-utilization of elastomers. Other research areas are polymer networks and fiber reinforcement.

Since she started her research work at the university, she has published more than 60 reviewed papers, 11 book chapters, and she holds 4 patents.

For about 10 years, she was a board member of the Dutch Association of Plastics and Rubber Technologists (VKRT), and from 2005 till 2014 she was the chairman of this association. Besides, she is a founding member of the Female Faculty Network at the University Twente (FFNT), of which she also was a board member and chairman for 3 years.

Aranzazu Guisuraga received a Chemical Engineering degree from Ovie-do University, Spain before starting her PhD at Abo University, Finland. She joined the Regulatory Affairs group of the Albemarle Corporation, Belgium in 1999 and then moved back to Spain, working at the Quality Department of Repsol at their General Quimica Plant.

Guisuraga started her career with ExxonMobil in 2001, working with the Santoprene™ TPV brand as a customer support engineer based in Brussels. At the same time, she completed a Masters in Business Administration. She then transitioned to a Market Developer role in 2003 with responsibility for product and applications development in the medical and industrial sectors.

In 2006, she was appointed Market Developer for Vistamaxx™ performance polymers evaluating new business opportunities in the hygiene and compounding sectors.

Three years later she was transferred to the planning department of the Butyl business, with responsibility for the analysis and forecasting of global tire demand. In 2013, she was appointed the Product Manager for the Butyl plants in EMEAF. Guisuraga joined the Market Development group in mid-2016 and is responsible for tire market development in Europe, while also leading the development of the global pharmaceutical market for butyl elastomers. Her primary role is to advance and grow the Butyl business in EMEAF by sharing her considerable knowledge and expertise with the steadily growing ExxonMobil team that is supporting butyl growth throughout the region.  

Sandra Hofmann is global technology & innovation director, Synthetic Rubber, for Trinseo. Sandra is responsible for maximizing the value of R&D activities, supervising research, development and technical service, developing contacts with key customers and nurturing as well as establishing collaborations with universities and institutes. She has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a Ph.D. in polymer chemistry from The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg.

Burak Ilgun is market development manager at Kordsa in İzmit, Turkey. He is focusing on new product deployment to tire industry with global experience since 2008. He has an MS chemical engineer degree from Istanbul Technical University; and a MA brand management degree from Sabanci University.  

Organic Chemist, Ph.D. from University of Bielefeld, Title: “New Silanes: Development, synthesis and applications” in 1996, started his career at Mehler, a company producing textile reinforcements for the rubber industry as a developer, 5 years’ experience as plant manager, then 7 years as global director for R&D before he joined Evonik as head of Applied Technology Tire & Rubber in 2014. Special interest in rubber reinforcement, new methods, rheology, fatigue.

Thomas Kramer studied chemistry at the University Paderborn and Waterloo, Canada. He holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry, which he finished in 2005. Since then he has been an employee of Continental Tires in Hannover. He worked in various fields within the material development for tires. Mr. Kramer currently holds a position as an Expert for reinforcements and skim compounds. 

Dr Julian Oram is Senior Advisor at Mighty Earth, a global campaign organisation that works to protect the environment. Previous positions include Head of the Land Team at Global Witness, where he led the organisation's pioneering work on rubber in the Mekong region, and senior political Advisor on Sustainable Agriculture at Greenpeace International. Julian also served as Policy and Campaigns Director at the World Development Movement (now called Global Justice Now), and as Head of the Right to Food team at ActionAid UK, as well as leading ActionAid International’s work on business and human rights. Julian holds a BA in Geography with International Development Studies from the University of Sussex and a Masters degree in Environmental Policy from Imperial College, University of London, as well as a PhD from University College, Cork.

Michael Radke has global responsibility for sustainability management for corporate purchasing at Continental AG. His responsibilities include setting corporate purchasing sustainability strategy for Rubber Group raw materials and corporate-wide, non-production materials and services. He formerly was global raw material manager, with a focus on synthetic rubber, at Continental after joining the company in 2014. Michael holds a biochemistry degree and a molecular medicine degree in biophysical chemistry from the University of Hannover and also has an MBA.

Ewan Scott has been writing about tyres and the tyre industry for over 20 years, and he now serves as editor of Retreading Business and Tyre and Rubber Recycling. His interest in rubber recycling started with an overview of end of life tyres for Tyres and Accessories and grew through his time at Retreading Business. He has since worked with the European Tyre Recycling Association and helped organize the first Tyre Recycling Forum in 2018. He is already planning for the second Tyre Recycling Forum in 2020.

Tim van der Rijken, Phd. is Secretary General of BIPAVER, which represents the interests of the European independent retread industry. He has held this position for two years. Tim is also Secretary General of the Dutch tyre and wheel industry association VACO, since 2015. He has a background in association management and strategy consulting.

Martin von Wolfersdorff is a business scout, growth hacker and tire recycling evangelist. He is principal advisor at Wolfersdorff Consulting and currently works on tire devulcanisation and tire pyrolysis, a small but growing industry where he has 20 clients and contacts to more than 300 companies globally. His specialty is product and market development for recovered carbon blacks. Martin worked in the carbon black industry with Cabot, in the custom colour masterbatch industry with Americhem and in the white pigment industry with Huntsman (Venator). Martin holds a Dipl. Ing. (Univ.) degree in chemical engineering from the Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany.

Jari-Pekka Ylipaino, Solution Manager, began his career with Cimcorp in 1985 and has served in several engineering and managerial positions. In 2017 he was appointed to oversee the Dream Factory solution that optimizes material and data flow in tire factories.

Ylipaino joined the company as a mechanical engineer straight from Tampere University of Technology, where he gained a Master’s degree in Engineering (M.Sc.), Machine Design. Prior to taking his current position, he worked as a project manager, successfully managing multiple tire plant projects around the world.

With his long and successful career at Cimcorp and in-depth technical knowledge of automated material handling systems, Ylipaino’s insight and industry expertise is invaluable in solving tire manufacturers’ material flow challenges.