Biography to follow.
Leela is part of the New Plastic Economy innovation team. She uses her technical background to assess emerging innovation opportunities within the plastic packaging sector, specifically focusing on the exciting innovation and business potential offered by upstream solutions.
Vice President of Global Packaging Research, Development and Innovation leading packaging development, innovation, sustainability, productivity and design across all markets, categories, and brands for Mondelez International - one of the world’s largest snack companies. Our Mondelēz International mission is to “Lead the future of snacking by offering consumers the right snack for the right moment made the right way”.
Based in East Hanover, NJ, Jay leads a diverse and dispersed team of scientists, engineers, designers, and business leaders charged with growing the Mondelez International business – both top- and bottom-line – through packaging innovation, design and technology development. He also serves as the global capability leader for design – both creative and execution.
Prior to joining Mondelez, Jay served as Avery Dennison’s Global Vice President of Innovation; Unilever’s Global Vice President Packaging Development and Design - supporting all brands in all markets for Unilever across home care, personal care, laundry, food, beverages, ice cream, and food solutions ; Vice President of Packaging Development, Innovation, Technology, and Quality at General Mills; Director Global Packaging Development & Design at the Coca-Cola Companies, Sr. Manager Integrated Product and Process Development at Anheuser-Busch Companies, Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace.
Hannu Kasurinen, Executive Vice President, Packaging Materials Division, Stora Enso
Hannu has been a member of Stora Enso's Group Leadership Team since December 2019 and heads the Packaging Materials division, which aims to become the global leader in circular bioeconomy based on renewable and recyclable materials. He has held several leadership positions in Stora Enso, including SVP of Liquid Packaging and Carton Board, SVP of Strategy and EVP of Wood Products division, so he definitely knows what a tree can do. Hannu is excited about replacing fossil-based materials with renewable solutions and seeing designers’ ideas for the renewable packaging of tomorrow.
Working in the Directorate for European and International Carbon Markets Mette Quinn is heading the unit for Implementation of the EU Emissions Trading System and IT in the Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action. She took part in the negotiations of the international climate agreement in Paris in 2015, and also worked on international and EU domestic climate finance and innovation issues.
Within the European Commission she has also worked in the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry, where she has a number of years’ experience as a policy officer on innovation policy development, governance and benchmarking. Previously, she worked for the Danish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and also spent a few years at the Danish Permanent Representation to NATO. She is an economist (Cand. Polit) and married with one daughter.
With single-use plastics, recycled fibers and post-consumer waste on the collective radars of customers, governments and NGOs, Daniel Locke is leading Kimberly-Clark’s strategy around some of the consumer goods industry’s most pressing environmental concerns.
In his role as global product and packaging leader, Locke architects programs to address the company’s ability to make products and packaging more renewable, recyclable, reusable or compostable. His task is to enable a circular economy approach to Kimberly-Clark’s Plastic Footprint focus area and Sustainability 2030 Ambition across the company’s five business units and global supply chain functions.
Locke is a passionate proponent of Kimberly-Clark’s Zero Waste Mindset, believing that manufacturers must go beyond their traditional waste footprint to include product and packaging materials after use and to identify secondary, beneficial uses for our materials to divert them to a higher value.
Locke’s prior experiences include strategy development at Kimberly-Clark, engineering at Fluor Corporation, and in material research and design as a Packaging Engineer at Kimberly-Clark Professional, Smith & Nephew, and Coveris (formerly Exopack). He is a proud Clemson graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Packaging Science and serves on the Board of Directors for Chattahoochee Riverkeeper in Atlanta, a not-for-profit working to ensure clean water for now and future generations.
