Tim represented Great Britain at 3 Olympics as part of the national rowing team from 1987 – 2000. During his rowing career he won a total of 9 World Championship and 2 Olympic medals – only twice in 14 years failing to medal.

Tim was renowned for his technical skill, ability to adapt to a team, producing peak performance under pressure, and enabling and facilitating others to perform at maximum efficiency. After achieving his goal of winning a gold medal as part of the Coxless Four at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Tim retired from international rowing.

50 stunning Olympic moments No4: Steve Redgrave's fifth gold medal | Rowing | The Guardian

On retiring as an athlete, Tim transferred straight into coaching. He coached the GB Team from 2001 – 2006; and was Head Coach of the Swiss National Rowing Team from 2007 – 2012. Tim has coached World and Olympic Champions and successfully transitioned the Swiss national team into their most successful period in 20 years. 
In transferring from top international athlete to top international coach, Tim achieved something that very few sports people have done – being successful in both. It is the false assumption that success in one will lead to success in the other, and the very short list of successful transitions proves this. Tim is still debating whether his previous expertise is a hindrance or a help to his coaching career.

Since 2012, Tim has focussed on translating his skills to business, having also studied for an Executive MBA at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He has mentored businesses and individuals across many sectors including financial, legal and professional services. Clients have ranged from FTSE 100 companies to over 300 start-ups that Tim has mentored through their early years.

Tim now runs his own consultancy business, works with both the Saïd Business School and Oxford Brookes University, and is also the Head of Performance for the League Managers Association – advising professional football managers at the top of the English game on their own performance and career development.
 

Suvi Rasa joined UPM nearly 20 years ago and has extensive experience on sustainability, including developing UPM’s sustainable product design approach and advancing sustainability of new bio based materials and fuels. In UPM Raflatac's label business she embarked on a new journey over two years ago. Her current role is focused on driving product sustainability, circularity and label materials beyond fossils. She is member of FINAT’s PPWR task force and RecyClass Advisory Board. With Master of Science degrees in environmental science as well as economics and business administration she possesses a holistic understanding of sustainability considerations in business environment.

Director of Engineering , Innovation and Development at Sulayr Global Service, one of the leading recyclers in Europe and also a CEN participant.

Philippe Voet is the current FINAT President and is the General Manager of Etivoet in Belgium.

Dr. Johannes Michael Wareka - CEO and 4th generation of Marzek Etiketten+Packaging

Johannes Michael Wareka is CEO and 4th generation of Marzek Etiketten+Packaging. Founded in 1879, Marzek Etiketten+Packaging is a traditional family business that produces labels and sales-promoting packaging for thousands of small businesses and wineries as well as large international industrial customers throughout Europe at its headquarters in Traiskirchen/Austria and three other European plants, with over 700 employees.

He has been familiar with the industry since he was a child, growing up surrounded by printing machines, labels and packages. After completing his studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business with the Ph.D., he worked in various IT jobs in different countries. Since 1991 he has been a co-owner and member of the Management Board, since 1993 he has been CEO / Board Chairman of the Marzek Etiketten+Packaging Group.

As a visionary leader, Johannes Michael Wareka was the driving force to expand the familiy business to Hungary and Ukraine which turned out to be excellent moves despite the challenges posed by the war in Ukraine. His ambition to pass on an even better company to the next generation is the driving force for his unconditional pursuit of quality which has earned the company many national and international awards for its high-quality labels – including many FINAT awards. It is also the reason for his tireless strive to meet the numerous challenges of our industry leveraging technology and innovation.

As member of the „FINAT Converter Committee“ 1991-1993 and as this year´s panelist Johannes Michael Wareka is convinced that professional exchange and networking are highly important for the industry. Therefore, he is looking forward to sharing his insights and discussing latest trends with industry professionals at FINAT in Athens.

Marzia Scopelliti is Senior Public Affairs Manager at EUROPEN, the European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment, representing the entire packaging value chain in Europe.

Prior to joining EUROPEN, Marzia held different roles at Plastics Europe, the EU organisation of plastic raw material producers, focusing on the revision of different policies related to plastics’ end of life. Previously, she has been a Bluebook trainee at the EU Commission’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), where she worked on the implementation of the EU maritime and fisheries policy in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions.

Marzia holds a PhD in International Law from the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) and a degree in International Relations from the University of Milan (Italy).

Laura Bas (1996) is a multiple award-winning Changemaker, Public Speaker and Moderator. As a public speaker, she specializes in meaningful youth participation, millennials, Gen Z and gender equality. She knows exactly how to explain to an audience how to better engage young people in organizations and how to create equal chances for men and women. Laura has spoken at The United Nations, Tedx, Unicef and Microsoft

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.

Joran van den Berg, Innovation Consultant at Berenschot B.V., The Netherlands.had an MSc. in nanotechnology physics, focusing on nanoelectronics for quantum computing applications. Employed at Berenschot for two years, forming consortia in several technology sectors with a focus on semiconductor technologies, and writing project proposals for both national and international subsidy funds.

Guy Verhofstadt is a member of the ‘Renew Europe’ group in the European Parliament and former Prime Minister of Belgium. He still serves in the European Parliament today, where he is a champion of more European integration to tackle the multiple crises the EU faces for the moment.

“One of the architects of the current structure of power in the European Union”

Guy Verhofstadt served for a decade as the leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the centrist-liberal grouping in the European parliament. He led the EU’s negotiating team on the UK’s departure from the Union. He became an MP and then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Budget whilst still in his 30s. After losing power, Guy took control of the party and reinvented it, making it more attractive to representatives of other parties. After taking time away from politics, Guy returned as president of the VLD winning the general election and becoming the first liberal PM in over 60 years. Guy retained the office for eight years before becoming a Senator and then an MEP.

Fernando Giron is Commercial Director for the self-adhesive business unit of Fedrigoni Group. He is an experienced Commercial and Marketing professional with a demonstrated history of working in the packaging industry. Skilled in Business Development, Marketing and Commercial Strategy, Business Process Improvement, Digital Marketing, and IT Service Management. 

Fabrizio Di Gregorio is Technical Director at Plastics Recyclers Europe (RecyClass) and has a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Master Scientist in Environmental Science and Technology. He is able to assess and develop strategies in the field of packaging in the circular economy perspective (design for recycling, end-of-life treatment, recycling targets), assess and develop waste management and recycling strategies, develop Life Cycle Assessment for waste technologies and waste management scenario, develop mass and energy balances and material and substance flow analyses, and he is also an expert in chemical recycling (plastic waste gasification - in particular in fluidized bed technologies- and pyrolysis) and syngas purification.

Fabrizio is an author of several papers published in international scientific journals and he is a Referee for peer-reviewed scientific journals in the field of waste management, plastics, resources and sustainability, recycling, LCA, energy and fuels. He has presented several webinars on recycling for the FINAT community in the past years. 

Since January 2021, Dr. Guido Spachtholz is Managing Director of HERMA Group and Head of the self-adhesive materials division.

Dieter Tschemernjak is strategy and innovation expert, co-creator of the AI-based digital platform INNO-VERSE. He is entrepreneur and partner in-manas at intelligent management solutions GmbH. He has a strong focus on strategy, innovation and organizational development. He has 25+ years of business experience in leading corporate and board functions and in the consulting industry. He has a Master degree in Strategic Corporate Management at the Leopold-Franzen University of Innsbruck.

Denise Haitoglou, CEO and Founder of Haitoglou Graphic Arts S.A

Warwick Business School, M.Sc

The industry of Graphic Arts fascinated me since my first day working for our family business, active in the food industry already for 100 years now. At the beginning of my career, I was responsible for the marketing side of packaging therefore, I had the chance to visit several factories during the printing process.  

This sector seemed very interesting and full of potential so I decided to differentiate from the food industry and started a new company for flexible labels : prepress , press , postpress.

The goal was and still is to do it the best possible way with respect to the customers, employees, and the environment. It’s been twenty years now and I keep learning and trying to advance, always motivated by the changes and challenges of the market year by year.  

Dana Kilarka is Managing Director of Purgina since 2016. 'Leading a family business in the printing industry as 2nd generation. The hand in of the business was in poor condition and in last 3,5 years, the business developed and got healthy again as it was never in 28 years of history. This is not just about me, it's about every single colleague of mine wanting to climb the mountain with me. It's about to be better than yesterday. It's easy to improve the financial situation of a company but the challenge is to keep humble and goal-oriented in the best times of the company.'

Co-Founder Content Marketing Fast Forward #CMFF (NL). Bert van Loon will be moderating a few of the panel discussions during ELF.

I grew up in the publishing industry where I held positions in sales, marketing and business development. I was given the opportunity to lead multidisciplinary teams, where I was able to ensure that business and creativity joined forces to give birth to client happiness. I often worked in international alliances across Europe. After a few years as the managing director of a publishing group in Belgium, I decided that I preferred concepts, strategy and projects to corporate management.

I launched my independent strategy and concept practice in 1997. Over the years, I experienced the transition from ‘print only’ to digital and cross-media, right from within the heart of the industry. I learned while doing and I saw both success and failure up close. Along the most diversified set of projects from different clients during all those years, I also participated as an entrepreneur in various publishing and media initiatives. Some worked wonders, some didn’t: I learned on the job in a fast-changing environment.

My experience of bringing business and creativity together to realise organisations’ marketing and sales objectives is a valuable asset in today’s content marketing world. My strength lies in projects where I can develop new initiatives or re-engineer existing ones, while teaching new skills to my client’s teams as they earn and learn. I love to work in a multidisciplinary and international environment, bringing my half-Dutch and half-French background to the table with a mixture of Dutch bluntness and French finesse.

Anum is currently working at AWA as a Manager Market Intelligence & Business Insights, conducting research into the specialty packaging, coating and converting industries. Before joining AWA, she worked in a management consulting firm after working in the shipping industry for almost two years. Before this Anum graduated from her Master's in Business Administration with majors in Marketing.