2022 CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

Amir Naqvi

Amir Naqvi is the Regional Business Leader for Honeywell Fluorine Products for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) region. Amir leads commercial and technological activities for all refrigerants, foam blowing agents, and solvents products in the META region. Amir has more than 20 years of experience of specialty chemicals and is supporting the regional industry to move to environmentally preferable and energy efficient solutions.

Cahit Can Çanakçı

Cahit Can Çanakçı received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Chemistry from Istanbul Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey. He is continuing his PhD, which is related to high performance polyurethane rigid foam systems, in Koc University . He joined Arcelik-Beko Home Appliance Central R&D in 2018 as a R&D rigid polyurethane application engineer. He is currently working as a polyurethane specialist and insulation materials product owner in Arcelik-Beko Central Research & Development Center in Istanbul.

Ilhan Kurt

In his role as Head of R&D at Pearl Polyurethane Systems, the largest system house in the Middle East and North Africa, Ilhan focuses on the construction and insulation sector with the ultimate goal of constantly improving its full range of polyurethane products and technologies, while driving product portfolio diversification through utilising sustainable alternative raw materials. In 2021, Ilhan led the R&D team that won ‘Insulation Project of the Year’ for Pearl Polyurethane Systems at the Construction Innovation Awards 2021 held in Dubai.

Ilhan qualified from Istanbul University in 2008 with a B.Sc degree in chemical engineering. His PhD in its chemical engineering department in the working group of Prof. Dr. Gamze GÜÇLÜ has been ongoing since 2009. From 2009 to 2013, Ilhan worked at Serkim Resins as an R&D Engineer and took over responsibilities for the synthesis of oil modified polyester polyols for industrial coatings, also known as alkyd resins. In 2013, he joined Ravago Petrochemicals, a leading system house based in Turkey, and took over the position of product development lead for HR molded-flexible foam systems and polyurethane systems for the construction sector, while also holding technical service responsibility for its continuous and discontinuous sandwich panel business. Later, in 2016, he joined BASF as a member of the technical development group for construction PU systems for Turkey and the Caucasus region. After 3 years at BASF, Ilhan moved to Dubai and started his new role at Pearl Covestro LLC, a joint venture polyurethane system house between Covestro and Pearl Polyurethane. The company was successfully taken independent in early 2021 and renamed Pearl Polyurethane Systems LLC, as it is known today. Currently, Ilhan is Head of R&D.

Michel Beaujean

Michel Beaujean is Senior Scientific and Technical Advisor at Lambiotte where he was Director of Research and Development from 1990 until his retirement in 2021. He has developed the knowledge on acetals and their uses in various fields, including aerosols, fuels and amino resins. He received a BSc and a MSc Degree in 1977. In 1983 he did a PhD study in the Department of Organic Chemistry of the University of Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium. He worked on iminium salts chemistry, organometallic chemistry, and the chemistry of free radicals.

In 1984, he occupied a post-doctoral position at the Department of Neurobiology and the Department of Organic Chemistry of the Weizmann Institute of Science, working on the chemistry of kainic acid and of heterocyclic and organophosphorus compounds. In 1987, he was assistant Professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry of the University of Namur (Belgium), where he worked on selenium and beryllium chemistry. In 1989, he was a researcher at the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Louvain-en-Woluwe (Belgium), where he worked on penicillins.

Miro Donabedian

Miro Donabedian is the General Manager at IP Harwal Polymer a division of Interplast (part of Harwal group) with responsibility for Business Development, Planning, Sales & Marketing.
Prior to joining IP Harwal Polymer, Miro Donabedian worked as a Project/ Production Engineer Manufacturing Manager, Operations Manager and General Manager at several companies, including Technical Supplies and Services Company (TSSC), Woodbridge Group and Acklands Graenger. Notable is his 10 years as General Manager for Technical Supplies and Services Company managing sales and operations of Polyurethane Systemhouse , Cold Chain and Prefab Divisions.
Miro Donabedian received an MBA and Masters in Engineering, PMP, P.ENG designations studying in Canada (General management and Engineering from University of Western Ontario – IVEY and University of Toronto ) from 1996 – 2004 . He also served in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve Engineering regiment in Toronto , Ontario from 1991 -1994 .

Ajay Katyal

Ajay Katyal is the Marketing Leader at Honeywell Advanced Materials, specializing on the new generation, energy efficient, environmental friendly refrigerants and blowing agents. He has been an HVAC professional for 18 years and has spent more than 15 years in the Middle East region. He works closely with the regional OEMs, contractors and consultants to help them to transition to the new-age environmentally friendly bowing agents and refrigerants.

Didier Leroy

Didier Leroy has a broad experience with more than 37 years in Technical Service and Development for various type of Plastics. Didier started his career in 1985 by joining the DOW CHEMICAL COMPANY in Germany in the Epoxy resin business for Printed Circuit Board, then he moved to France in Polyurethanes System House to lead the TS&D Group for Rigid and Automotive applications. After two years tenure, he transferred to the Netherlands for PU rigid applications. Then Didier moved to Polystyrene to have a global applications role for appliance business then took the lead of the PS/Styrenics/PC TS&D team.

In 2008, Didier relocated to Spain to Polyethylene business and led the Customer Technical Service Team and the Polyethylene application labs in 3 Dow sites (Tarragona (SP), Horgen (CH) and Mozate (I)).
In 2016, Didier joined the SADARA Chemical Company in KSA and led the Technical Marketing Team for Polyethylene, Polyurethane and Chemical business.
Didier is French and graduated in 1984 with Master Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Chimie Paris Tech University.

Ramon Meijers

Ramon Meijers has over 25 years’ experience in the polyolefin polymers technology and markets. Currently he is responsible for the global Foam & Lightweight segment team within SABIC
Ramon’s key driver is to bring Foam & Lightweight resins, applications and technologies to the next level by smart innovation and fast response and commercialisation on major market trends and customer drivers. Previously at SABIC, Ramon held positions in Technology & Innovation, Venturing, Portfolio Management and last 3 years he was leading the Market Development & Technical Support team in Europe. Prior to joining SABIC, he worked at DSM in several positions responsible for catalyst and product development. Ramon Meijers has a master degree in Polymer Chemistry at the Technical University Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Contact / More Information: ramon.meijers@sabic.com

Emrah Akbaş

Emrah Akbaş is a chemical engineer graduated in 2009 and studied on polyurethane coating and foam including rigid foam. He has an extensive more than ten years of professional experience as a formulator and successfully support customers to troubleshoot their problems and hold necessary development work according to their requirements. Emrah is RD Manager and responsible in all rigid foam systems in technical aspects for Kimteks Polyurethane, first established system house in Turkey, 1983.

EDUCATION & CREDENTIALS
Eyuboglu High School, 2005
Middle East Technical University, 2009

Ali Sohrabi

Ali Sohrabi, born in 1989, studied Polymer Engineering at Amirkabir University of Technology. He received his BSc and MSc in 2012 and 2014 respectively and now is working on his PhD dissertation. He started his career in the field of polyurethane foam industry in 2018 when he joined Polymer Tejarat Company. There he spent 2 years as R&D expert in developing new formulations and products for furniture applications. Since 2020, Ali has been working for Caspian Polyurethane technologies as R&D manager, responsible for development of PU foam products including cold cure, integral skin, viscoelastic and semi-rigid PU foams for automotive and mattress industry.

Hassen Kedir Tukura

Hassen Kedir Tukura is working with Momentive performance Material as Application Development Engineer . Graduated in Chemical Engineering from Addis Ababa University in 2005. He has been working multiple foam and mattress companies in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and UAE before joining Momentive. He has hands on experience in production of conventional, HR and Visco foam for various application. He participated during the selection and installation of several foam production machineries and this gave an edge in trouble shootings from mechanical perspective to fix problems in house. As a key technical requirement in the industry he is being able to make formulations as per market/customer demand and constantly support for the innovative and sustainable products development. Hassan Takura has special interest and expert in focus on safety and safe working practices to come up with a defined and control work process from receiving of material to RM ware house to pre-production and post production activities. In this regard he has participated in many projects for installation of firefighting systems that equipped him support/advise PU slab customers to be able to have safe and efficient process.

Gabor Felber

Gabor Felber is a senior global market development & product manager for Polyurethane Additives at Huntsman Performance Products. He received his M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Veszprem, Hungary in 1989. After a Research Associate position at the University he joined Huntsman in 1997 and he has worked in amine synthesis and development. Since 1998 Gabor has been involved in a variety of urethane catalyst related projects including areas of flexible, automotive and rigid foams and provided technical service in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. From 2011 Gabor has taken up different marketing and business lead responsibilities regionally in Europe and also globally, mainly in Polyurethane Additives.

Philipp Propst

Philipp is a Project Manager at IAL responsible for research and client management of polyurethanes and thermal insulation market programme. He joined IAL in 2016 and has worked on various market reports, including SPF/OCF, PUDs, TPU and thermal insulation, and has also been heavily involved in our flagship reports PU EMEA, PU APAC, and PU Americas. He has also worked extensively on single-client studies focusing on polyurethanes and thermal insulation. Philipp’s studies combined work experience with an extensive company-funded education programme in Graz, Austria, practical experience in various fields, tailored polyurethane courses and an internal education system focused on organic chemistry. Philipp spent four years at Cytec (now Allnex), working in the research and development of water-based polyurethane resins. After moving to the UK, Philipp gained further work experience in the Prestige Fine Fragrance Department at Procter and Gamble, focusing on reformulation and odor evaluation. After 2.5 years, and some experience at a pharmaceutical company, Philipp joined certification and testing company SGS as a REACH Project Coordinator, managing the REACH program for a big retailer in the UK.