2023 CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

Michel Baumgartner

Michel studied Political Science and European Law at Sciences Po Strasbourg (France). He spent most of his professional career representing trade associations of various industries in Brussels, notably in the construction equipment and automotive supply chain. He became Secretary General of EUROPUR and EURO-MOULDERS in 2013 and since then has managed both organizations and coordinates their activities in the fields of Product Stewardship, Environment, Health and Safety, Sustainability and Market Research. He is the co-author of several reports on the flexible polyurethane foam industry and regularly speaks at conferences and events on behalf of the industry.

Ali Sohrabi

Ali Sohrabi studied Polymer Engineering at Amirkabir University of Technology. He received his BSc and MSc in 2012 and 2014 respectively and has recently graduated with a PhD. 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 an R&D expert in developing tailored formulations for furniture applications. Since 2020, Ali has been working for Caspian Polyurethane Technologies, responsible for the development of novel PU formulations for a variety of applications including cold cure (HR), integral skin, viscoelastic, and semi-rigid PU foams for the automotive and furniture industry.

Riccardo Mezzera

Riccardo Mezzera is the Middle East and Africa sales area manager of Cannon Spa, Afros Spa division (part of the Cannon group) with responsibility for development, sales, and marketing. After an initial six-year experience in the oil and gas sector, he has been with the Cannon group for 37 years. The first 20 years were spent as a Project Manager and another 17 as a Sales Manager in the Middle East. Riccardo is a specialist in the continuous and discontinuous production of sandwich panels and pre-insulated pipes. He is also expert in new technologies related to polyurethane.

Aisha Saeed Hamdan

Aisha Saeed Hamdan is a graduate of United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) with a degree in Chemical Engineering and joined Pearl Polyurethane Systems in 2022. She has collaborated with local sourcing partners on a research project that evaluates the potential of local sourcing for the polyurethane industry by utilizing organic waste materials as sources for intermediate polymers. The research focuses on the use of date seeds as an organic waste material to produce intermediate polymers for polyurethane chemistry .

Kumar Sudamani

As Head of Product Development at Pearl Polyurethane Systems LLC, Kumar has a strong background in product development skills and focuses on developing profit-driven PU formulations until end-users.He has over 22 years of experience in various aspects of the polyurethane industry ranging from application development, technical support, chemical trial and training, industrial marketing, and strategy development.

He also provides technical assistance to potential customers, defines specifications for finished goods and leads QC & Application Development by providing guidelines to align products according to customer’s requirements. Kumar has been working at Pearl Polyurethane Systems since January 2008. The company had a joint venture with Covestro and successfully independent in early 2021 and renamed Pearl Polyurethane Systems LLC, as it is known today.

John van Kesteren

He has a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Twente. Working for Shell for 35 years, he has been active in the polyols space for 30 years in several functions ranging from production, global supply chain, sales, product management, and global marketing. Currently, he is working as a new business development manager in the marketing organization with global responsibilities, working closely with Shell’s research and development department dealing with PO and derivatives.

Herbert Cirrus Kaboggoza

Herbert is a chemical engineer with a master's degree in chemistry, currently pursuing a PhD (Chemistry) at Istanbul University while working at Pluskim Chemical Manufacturing Company. His research interests lie in polymer chemistry, materials science, sustainable materials, and chemical manufacturing, and he is passionate about research and development. He has experience in standard testing methods, research and development, method development, synthesis of materials, and quality assurance. He has also published an article on synthesis of gold nanoclusters. He is poised to make significant contributions towards creating sustainable polyurethane feedstocks.

Khaled El Khayat

Khaled El Khayat joined BCI in 1996 and currently serves as Managing Director of BCI Arabia for Industry in KSA, between 2019 and 2021 served as the Commercial Director Business Development & Key Accounts. Between 2008 and 2015 he was the General Manager of BCI-Gulf's polyurethane system house. He worked in almost all PU segments;Rigid, Footwear, Flexible, Coatings and adhesives from formulation to final products and sales.

He also has experience in the company’s upstream business such as aromatic and aliphatic polyesters for Rigid, Elastomers and Coatings.He has handled many markets in GCC, USA, Europe, Middle east, Africa, and Asia. He is holding holds BS in Analytical and Industrial chemistry graduated with distinction from Beirut Arab University and attended many executive education courses at the American University of Beirut and other business institutes.

Cahi̇t Can Çanakçi

Cahit Can Çanakçı is R&D Rigid Manager in Kimpur Global.He received his bachelor and master degree from Istanbul Technical University Chemistry Department and continuing his Phd. He had a widevarietyrolesover a period 5 year in Arcelik-Beko Home Appliance, being responsible for developments of refrigerator polyurethane and cooking & dishwasher insulation materials. He joined Kimpur Global in 2023 and his main role is developing novel polyurethane systems for industry.

Gabor Felber

Gabor Felber is a Senior Global Market Development Manager for Polyurethane Additives at Huntsman. 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 polyurethane foams and provided technical service in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. From 2011 Gabor has taken up different marketing, product management and business lead responsibilities regionally in Europe and globally, mainly for 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.

Tobias Spyra

Tobias Spyra is the Director for EMEA Styrenics & Polyurethane Feedstocks at Chemical Market Analytics. Tobias joined the European aromatics and fiber steam in 2016 and his current role in Chemical Market Analytics is as Director of Styrenics and Polyurethane Feedstocks in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa region. As a key resource within Chemical Market Analytics for understanding and providing insight into the Aromatics sector of the petrochemical industry, he works closely with the petrochemical, oil, and financial industries.

He specializes in cumene, phenol, acetone, AMS, BPA, solvents, styrene monomer, and its derivatives as well as the in the isocyanates, polyether, and polyester polyols markets. Prior to joining Chemical Market Analytics, he worked in the chemical and petrochemical industries in various Sales, Marketing, and Global Business Management roles at lneos, lnnovene, and BP. Fluent in English, Spanish, and German.

Joern Struckmann

Joern Struckmann, Co-Founder and Owner of RETICULATUS (former ATLschubs)
Joern is a mechanical engineer and started to build machines for explosion treatment in 1996.After supplying the first reticulation machine to South Korea, RETICULATUS has become a leading role in the PU-Foam industry.
Currently based in Hannover, Germany, Jörn manages two factories, one in Germany and one in Poland.In addition to RETICULATUS, he also owns ATL GmbH, which supplies explosion treatment machines for the deburring of metals and machined plastics.

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 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 System house, Cold Chain and Prefab Divisions.

Miro Donabedian received 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.

Uğur Can İyidir

Uğur Can began his professional career as a Production Chief in Isbir Sünger Sanayi A.Ş, he continued to work as Production and R&D manager in the same company. In 2016 he started to work in Evonik as Regional Technical Service Manager. He was responsible for MENA focusing on troubleshooting activities, customer projects and customer trainings. In 2021 he established Home of Polyurethane Istanbul Laboratory and promoted to Senior Regional Technical Service Manager and Laboratory Manager. Ugur Can has been working in the Polyurethane Industry for over 15 years.

Uğur Can İyidir-Senior Technical Service and Laboratory Manager:
Uğur Can began his professional career as a Production Chief in Isbir Sünger Sanayi A.Ş, he continued to work as Production and R&D manager in the same company. In 2016 he started to work in Evonik as Regional Technical Service Manager. He was responsible for MENA focusing on troubleshooting activities, customer projects and customer trainings. In 2021 he established Home of Polyurethane Istanbul Laboratory and promoted to Senior Regional Technical Service Manager and Laboratory Manager. Ugur Can has been working in the Polyurethane Industry for over 15 years.

Kuanliang Bao

Kuanliang Bao received his master's degree in materials science and engineering from Beijing University of Chemical Technology in 2013. Since then, he has been engaged in the research work related to the application of polyurethane, especially flexible foam polyether, in furniture and automobiles. At present, he mainly focuses on the research and application development of flame retardant polyether, biobased polyether polyols, ultra-high molecular weight and high activity polyether polyols. At the same time, he assists downstream customers in formulation development and solve product application problems.

Vasant Singal

Handles B2B Domestic and Exports Business for Polyurethane Foam in various Industries including Furniture & Bedding, Automobiles, Shoes, Helmets, Lingerie, Sports Goods, White Goods, Acoustic applications in Generators, Compressors etc. Previous B2C experience with Sleepwell - Sales and Marketing strategies, Retailing & Merchandising, Channel Development, Promotions and Institutional Sales

Nick Crowther

Nick is an accomplished Sales Leader with a proven track record of driving growth and introducing newer technologies across various industries in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. With over a decade of experience, Nick is driving strategies to support the transition of Foam industry to sustainable and long-term innovative solutions. He strives to works closely with the stakeholders to decarbonize the regional Foam industry.