Wijnand Jongen (NL, 1959) is a globally recognized author, keynote speaker and trendwatcher on retail and e-commerce. He is founder and CEO of the Dutch e-commerce association Thuiswinkel.org and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Ecommerce Europe. He is the author of the bestselling book ‘The End of Online Shopping: the future of retail in a world that is always connected’. The book has been published in Dutch, Danish,  English, Flemish, German, Italian, Chinese and Korean.

Tim Paridaens is Director in Deloitte Consulting with extensive experience in large scale technology-enabled business process transformation and has specialized in I4.0, (Industrial) Internet of Things and Digital Supply Chains. Tim is leading all IoT-related activities in Deloitte Belgium, from go-to-market to project deliver (ideation, strategy, implementation, and target operating model design) and is a member of the global IoT team core team. He has built up industry experience in the private industry including life sciences, consumer business (retail and consumer goods), automotive, telecom & media and banking and public sector both on federal as European level. Currently, Tim serves multiple clients in designing and delivering innovative I4.0 / IIoT solutions, with a specific focus on Digital Ports, Connected Logistics, Connected Manufacturing, Predictive Maintenance, and Connected Healthcare.

As Senior Vice President and Managing Director at StrongPoint, Mr. Persson manages the business area Label Solutions at StrongPoint. StrongPoint group has 600 employees and is headquartered in Raelingen, Norway. They are listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol STRONG.

Mr. Persson has 34 years of experience in the graphics industry. He started in the industry at Tetra Pak as a printer of Flexo. Leif has also been working in PrePress for many years at Tetra Pak. For a few years, Leif worked in international technical sales at Akzo Nobel Inks with printing inks for the flexo industry in Europe. He also worked a few years at Elanders as Sales manager in commercial print. Flexible packaging was also interesting for him so as sales and marketing director at Trioplast he worked with printed packaging for many years.

In the last 12 years, he has been active in the labels Industry. First as CEO at Sydetikett AB and then as SVP & MD for StrongPoint Labels. StrongPoint Labels was an early adapter to Digital print and bought its first Indigo 15 years ago. Today StrongPoint Labels is active in the Swedish and Norwegian market.

 Mr. Persson holds a DIHM Diploma in marketing from IHM Business School.

Lars Ole has worked in the label industry since 1992. He started his career in sales at etiflex, subsequently worked for DanFlex Etiketter and Egaa Etikettrykeri, the latter of which was the basis for the FlexoPrint Group, of which he is now the CEO. The FlexoPrint Group now owns four label companies, of which two in Denmark and two in Germany. As the new Vice Chairman of DLA, he will present an overview of the Danish label market.

Global Employer Branding and Candidate Experience Manager at Danone in Paris. He is named among the most influential recruiters and has the ambition to make Danone the most attractive employer globally. 

Jules Lejeune was appointed as FINAT's Managing Director in 1998. He was closely involved in the launch of the FINAT Radar in 2014. Each year he presents the annual review of trends and developments in the self-adhesive label materials demand in Europe.

A former CEO with a CV the Times once described as "takes some beating", Hamish is now a professional speaker and consultant specialising in Innovation and "How to put the customer at the centre of your activity". Clients include Governments, Corporations, Teams, Departments and individuals across 47 Countries. See www.hamishtaylor.com for more information.

Guido Schmitz (D) is adjunct professor at Rutgers University in New York, where he brings in his broad knowledge and experience as the Head of Packaging and Technology Innovation at Bayer HealthCare (Consumer Division). He is a strong believer in a holistic design approach to product innovation. This approach involves all stakeholders: customers, suppliers and science. As a board member of the Active and Intelligent Packaging Industry Association (AIPIA) for instance, he initiated the Bayer Packaging Innovation Challenge, inviting packaging ideas for utilizing smart packaging for the OTC brand portfolio. And at the global conference for the Aluminium Foil industry, he recently presented the findings of a Rutgers University students’ project about the future role of aluminium in product design.

Re-creating your value proposition

Fredrik Härén (SE) is an author and keynote speaker on Business, Creativity, Change and Global Business who has delivered 2,000 presentations in over 60 countries on 6 continents. Fredrik Härén has inspired hundreds of thousands of business people to become more creative and to look at the world in a new way. He is the author of nine books, including "The Idea Book" that was included in "The 100 Best Business Books of All Time".

Frederik is a Partner in TickoTryk A/S a company focusing on high-end and functional labels and packaging. He has been working in management and sales since 1989 and since 2000 has been employed/self-employed in the printing Industry, RFID production and information technology. He was recently elected as Chairman of the Danish Label Association and will introduce the local organisation to the FINAT audience.

President, CEO, and owner of AWA Alexander Watson Associates

Vice President of Petcore Europe and Plastics Recyclers Europe, and Managing Director of Poly Recycling (NL). Casper is more than 25 years active in PET recycling. He started as a mechanical engineer with a specialization in Plastic processing. Takes the responsibility of PolyRecycling since 2000. Worked in multiple concepts to make a food grade RPET. Experienced in all RPET applications. Jointly founded the European Plastics Recyclers Association, EuPR, in 1997, which now is called Plastics Recyclers Europe(PRE). Being Vice President of PRE (EuPR) and chairman of Working Group PET since. Jointly founded in 2008 the EPBP and became a member of the steering board and the Technical Committee. Since 2013 represented in PETCORE Europe in the Technical Committee and BoD. PET recycling is for more than 25 years his work and his hobby.

Co-Founder Content Marketing Fast Forward #CMFF (NL).

As Director of digital marketing agency Optix Solutions, Alastair is passionate about helping business owners navigate the digital landscape.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Achim Grefenstein, born in 1965, studied mechanical engineering at the technical university of Aachen/Germany where he finished his PhD in the area of plastics processing in 1994 and has been qualified as lecturer during his post-doc time until 1996. Until today, he teaches the subject “Plastics Compounding and Recycling” at the RWTH Aachen.

Between 1996 and 2004 he worked at BASF SE in Ludwigshafen/Germany as application engineer, marketing manager and subsequent as team leader and group-wide project coordinator in different departments of BASF.

From February 2004 until June 2013 he has been working as Director Corporate R&D for RKW SE in Frankenthal/Germany being responsible for the R&D activities of the RKW group worldwide including the patents/licenses and the market introduction of newly developed products. From 2010 until 2013 he was also product manager for label films.

Since July 2013 he is Senior Vice President Group R&D at Constantia Flexibles GmbH headquartered in Vienna/Austria, being responsible for all R&D departments for Food and Pharma flexible packaging worldwide and the Group Patents and Regulatory Affairs.

For the German Plastics Packaging Association (IK) he is since 2016 chair of the working group “Bioplastics”.