2019 Speakers

Ruediger Fox

CEO, Sympatex Technologies

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Dr. Ruediger Fox is CEO of Sympatex Technologies, Founder of the GCH-Institute, University Lecturer, Author, experienced Change Leader and Consulting Partner for large M&A and Transformation processes.

Having a Masters in Aerospace Engineering, a Bachelor in Economics and a PhD in Communication Sciences, he serves since multiple decades as CEO of medium and large corporations in Aerospace, Telecom, Textile and Engineering/Innovation.

With Sympatex, he engages to pioneer the accelerated transformation process of the textile industry towards sustainability and "closing the loop".

Alexander Wessels

CEO, Archroma

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Alexander “Xander” Wessels is at the helm of Archroma since its beginning in October 2013, bringing along 25 years of chemical, pharmaceutical and process industry experience.

Before joining Archroma, Mr Wessels spent 7 years at Royal DSM NV, where his last position was President and CEO of DSM Pharmaceutical Products, a global pharmaceutical ingredients and contract manufacturing organization.

Previously, he held various management and executive positions at Unilever, Quest International, ICI, and as Executive Committee Member of Campina.

A Dutch native, Mr Wessels has lived and worked in a number of countries around the globe. He brought to Archroma an impressive track record of driving improved business performance, disciplined growth on a global scale and the implementation of strategic initiatives focused on high growth economies, innovation and sustainable solutions.

Mr Wessels holds an MSc in Molecular Sciences from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and both an MSM and MBA from the Krannert Business School of Purdue University in the United States and Tilburg University, in the Netherlands.

Eric Hopmann

CEO & Head of Global Sales/Marketing
DyStar Group

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Eric is the CEO and Head of Global Sales & Marketing of DyStar Group

He has solid 30 years of industry experience across the regions. He started his career as an apprenticeship at Hoechst AG in 1980 and was later in charge of the Dyes and Fibers Businesses for North Africa, Indonesia and Taiwan. Thereafter he joined DyStar since its foundation in 1995, where he was appointed the Managing Director of DyStar South Africa. Eric subsequently took on various international managerial positions such as the General Manager of DyStar China and President of Europe before taking over the CEO position in 2014.

Eric graduated with a BA in Economy in 1984.

Rohit Aggarwal

President, Huntsman Textile Effects

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Rohit Aggarwal is President, Huntsman Textile Effects, a business unit of Huntsman Corporation, a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated and specialty chemicals.

Mr. Aggarwal served as the Chief Executive Officer of Asia Region at Louis Dreyfus Commodities B.V. for 2 years before re-joining Huntsman in 2015 as Managing Director of the India Subcontinent. He spent over 10 years in leadership roles at Huntsman since 2005.

He holds a master’s degree in International Business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, India.

Alberto Candiani

CEO, Candiani Denim

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Alberto Candiani is the personification of "blue blooded". From his birth in 1982, Alberto was surrounded by the world of denim production, in fact he spent most of his childhood using his family's mill as his very own playground. As he grew, Alberto was guided by his father Gianluigi and Grandfather Primo, who taught him the importance of denim heritage and respecting the environment that surrounds Candiani. At such a young age it was difficult for Alberto to grasp the enormity of what the Candiani family had set out to do since opening in 1938. In fact, he had a bit of a rebellious streak during his teenage years and decided to replace denim with turntables! Luckily, Alberto was quick to realize that being a DJ and producing music while fun, was not his destiny. In his 20's Alberto developed an interest for product development and fabric engineering which he still considers one of the best parts of his job.

Now, at 36 years young, Alberto has settled into his role as Candiani Denim's leader. Following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, Alberto has mastered the art of crafting premium denim. He is committed to making Candiani the Greenest Mill in the Blue World, carrying on his family's legacy through sustainable innovation and his own vision for an industrial revolution.

Lewis Perkins

President, Apparel Impact Institute

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A passionate advocate for “doing the right thing,” Lewis Perkins has recently been appointed President of the Apparel Impact Institute (AII), an organization launched by leading brands and apparel sector industry associations to select, fund, and scale programs to drive positive impact in the fashion sector. Previous to this Perkins was President of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute (C2CPII) where he led the Institute’s Fashion Positive initiative, which engages designers, manufacturers, brands and influencers in creating Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM materials and products with the circular economy in mind. Prior to joining the C2CPII, Perkins consulted with corporations and organizations on the social and environmental program development. He also served as Director of Sustainable Strategies for The Mohawk Group, a leading carpet manufacturer and the commercial division of Mohawk Industries.

Perkins’ passion for sustainability and non-profit work has included strategic roles with organizations such as The Clean Air Campaign, 360i and USWeb/CKS. He is an Ashoka and C&A Foundation Strategy Thought Partner for social entrepreneurs, a 2016 and 2017 member of the H&M Global Change Award Expert Panel, and a Design Mentor for both the Council of Fashion Designers of America Lexus Design Initiative – Eco Design Challenge Accelerator, as well as the IDEO & Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy “Circular Design Competition.” Perkins has also been a participant of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Consumption.

Perkins holds a Master of Business Administration in marketing and strategy with a focus on social responsibility from Emory University and a Bachelor of Arts from Washington & Lee University. In 2018, he was recognized by his undergraduate alma mater, with the Distinguished Alumni award.

Andrew Olah

CEO, Olah Inc
Founder Kingpins Show
Founder Kingpins Transformers

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Since 1976, Andrew has worked in textile development and marketing. Under his guidance, Olah Inc. has grown from a simple textile agency firm to a full-service textile company. In 2004 he created the Kingpins Show. The show now hosts editions in New York, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and China and has spun-off related events, including Kingpins Transformers, committed to creating, implementing and sharing the changes that need to happen in the jeans industry.

Sanjeev Bahl

CEO, Saitex

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Born in India in 1963, entrepreneur Sanjeev Bahl has ventured into businesses across diverse industries and focuses including apparel manufacturing, healthcare, and information technology – earning a reputation for himself as a forward-thinking trailblazer, set on finding solutions to the world’s biggest inefficiencies and problems.

His apparel venture is called SAITEX – a state of the art system of apparel development, innovation, and manufacturing in Vietnam. The facilities and systems are all built on environmental impact reduction technologies, with a core philosophy of creating positive social impact. His IT venture – SAI Digital, is spread over five countries and builds software solutions in the Ecommerce & Digital space.

His personal mission in developing and supporting education programs through 2 homeopathic colleges and a free clinic for children on the autism spectrum in London has further diversified his interests. Giving back to the community and making a difference to humanity has always been of great importance to Sanjeev, and something he’s dedicated his life and businesses to.

Sanjeev splits his time between Vietnam and New York. His future initiatives include bringing manufacturing back to the West and a venture into post-consumer recycled products to further his exploration into sustainable manufacturing.

Miguel Sánchez

Founder, Gavilan AD

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Miguel Sanchez is a Textile Engineer for the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. He has developed over 30 years’ experience throughout his professional career in the Textile Dyes and Chemicals Industry. He has occupied diverse Global positions, from Application Technician to Business Development Manager, and always related to the Denim and Casual Wear segments.

Founder of Gavilan AD – a consulting company for Advanced Developments. Miguel has wide and recognised experience in Denim Technology, Product & Process Development and Innovation.

Miguel Sanchez is a chess aficionado and likes to make some noise playing electric bass.

John Rydzewski

Director of Water Programs, Nike Inc

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John Rydzewski is the Director of Water Programs at Nike Inc., where he is responsible for developing and executing Nike’s strategy to minimize its global manufacturing water footprint; reduce water-related risks to Nike’s supply chain; and to improve the quality and reduce the quantity of wastewater discharges. A licensed professional chemical engineer with over 25 years of water and wastewater treatment experience, he also co-led the development of the ZDHC Wastewater Guideline.

Omar Kuri

Director General, Vertical Knits S.A. de C.V

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Omar Kuri is General Manager at Vertical Knits, located in Mérida, Mexico. Together with his brother and father, they founded the company in 2003. Since the beginning they have been focused on producing high end knitted garments for clients such as Nike, Patagonia and others. In 2014, Omar took the lead on an internal project to improve the manufacturing and water treatment processes, to reduce the footprint on energy and water consumptions.

Andrea Crespi

Managing Director, EUROJERSEY Spa

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Andrea Crespi is the Managing Director of EUROJERSEY Spa, the leading Italian company specializing in the patented warp knit Sensitive® Fabrics' range.

He joined the company in 1991 with different roles in the production chain and sales department.

In 2008 he became the Managing Director with the decision to embark on a challenge of a sustainable production project.

Inspired by a corporate vision shared by the entire Eurojersey team, the mission consisted in converting costs into values by turning the investments for a purchase of advanced machineries into an efficiency advantage, also resulting in a lower environmental impact on the production cycle.

Since 2015 he became Delegate of Sustainability for SMI, Sistema Moda Italia (the Italian Fashion & Textiles Federation) and from 2017 he joined the role of President for the Sustainability Committee.

Phil Hadridge

Facilitator, idenk

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Phil helps groups working to achieve a crucial social purpose and enjoys bringing people together to address the necessary important issues. As a meeting moderator he works both locally to his home city of Cambridge and more widely around the world. As well as specialising in hosting large meetings, Phil also spends his time coaching leaders individually and also developing teams and boards working for wildlife conservation, healthcare improvement and educational advancement, as well as ethical fashion. His wide variety of support in many different settings provides a detailed insight of what it takes for individuals and organisations to be able to do their best work. Phil also volunteers to help various charities improve their governance. Hobbies include running (slowly), playing drums (badly) and cooking (simply).

Paul King

President, KenDor Textiles Limited

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Established in 1953, KenDor Textiles has built a vast network of global mills and experience that facilitate virtually any textile need. Ranging from low minimum, in-stock programs to very large, custom-made developments and everything in-between, KenDor serves as a one stop textile sourcing destination. KenDor takes great pride in specializing in environmentally & socially responsible knit and woven textiles and strives to ensure that partner mills adhere to multiple global standards of environmental and social compliance including the STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX®

Manu Kapur

CEO, GHCL Ltd

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Mr. Manu Kapur is the President & CEO of the Textiles Division of GHCL Ltd. Prior to his current role, Mr. Manu Kapur has worked with major retailer brands and trading companies such as IKEA, J C Penney, Metro AG and Li & Fung, on a global and regional basis. He led the setting up and running of specialty Home Furnishings & Décor stores for Reliance Retail, In his last assignment, he was with J C Penney as the Vice President and Regional Director for South Asia and the Middle East.

Christina Raab

Global Implementation Director, ZDHC

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Dr Christina Raab serves as Global Implementation Director at ZDHC. In this role, she holds leadership for ZDHC’s implementation and innovation activities which include the Implementation HUB, the ZDHC Academy and the scaling of regional strategies and activities. Her responsibilities also include stakeholder engagement as well as grant and business development.

Christina has more than a decade of experience of working at the interface between sustainability, sustainable development and innovation at forefront consulting firms and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. Christina has a PhD in materials chemistry.

Phil Patterson

Managing Director, Colour Connections Textile Consultancy

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Phil Patterson is Managing Director of Colour Connections Textile Consultancy.

Phil has a degree in Colour Chemistry from the University of Leeds that he gained in 1989. On graduating he took up a post with Courtaulds Research based in Derby and then went on to hold industrial positions with Textured Jersey dyehouse in Leicester and as a process development manager with Tencel fibres.

After a decade working in the dyeing and finishing industry Phil worked for Marks and Spencer as their Dyeing, Printing and Finishing Manager between 1997 and 2007. In 2007 he left to set up Colour Connections Textile Consultancy that provides advice, information and training on dyeing, printing, finishing, colour management, restricted substances and sustainability to all parts of the textile supply chain from industry through to retail.

Phil’s straightforward and pragmatic advice is regularly sought by industrial and retail clients, NGO’s and the media - and he is a regular contributor to publications and conferences. Phil was a founder member of the RITE Group, formed in 2007 to promote a practical, balanced, inclusive approach to reducing the impact of textiles on the environment.

Georgia Parker

Innovation Manager, Fashion for Good

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Georgia Parker is an Innovation Manager at Fashion for Good, the global initiative that convenes brands, producers, retailers, suppliers, non-profit organisations, innovators and funders in a pre-competitive space to support and embed breakthrough technologies into the fashion supply chain. She focuses on orchestrating brand and innovator collaborations, in areas of the supply chain related to raw materials, dyeing and finishing. Previously she worked at adidas in their Brand Sustainability team and was also part of the Ellen MacArthur Fellowship Programme. She has a background in business having started her career at Deloitte.

Petri Alava

CEO, Infinited Fiber

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Petri Alava is experienced, growth and profit driven CEO with proven strong results in building successful global businesses in both B2B and B2C environment. Petri has multiple CEO and Board Chairman positions and has an MSc in Industrial Engineering. Petri is passionate about building sustainable, circular economy business to save the planet for future generations.

Lea Esterhuizen

Founder and CEO, &Wider

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Lea is founder and CEO of &Wider (a direct worker reporting company operating globally, providing insights into working conditions and worker wellbeing using automated calls to workers' mobile phones).

She is a professional methodologist who has been designing systems to gather data at scale on sensitive topics from often hard-to-reach populations, for more than two decades. Lea's work has covered 23 geographies. Her specialism is taking complex realities and designing scalable methods to encourage participation, gather high quality data, and deliver simple actionable results for actors keen to enhance the sustainability of their own business and/or their supply chains. Founded in 2014, &Wider's unique selling point is their focus on insights that include the most vulnerable workers, so that clients and suppliers get the full uncensored picture.

Pete Santora

Chief Commercial Officer,
Softwear Automation Inc

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Pete Santora joined SoftWear Automation in 2015 during the Research and Development phase. Today he helps support Retailers, Fashion brands and manufacturers globally, in the commercialization of SEWBOTS® for apparel automation.

Pete brings 15 years experience in growing high tech teams and commercializing IP. He was an Entrepreneur in Residence and research faculty member at the Advanced Technology Development Center at Georgia Tech, a Forbes "Top 10 Technology Incubator changing the world", where he mentored startup CEOs including SoftWear Automation. He was the former Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Blue Sombrero, a fintech company he ran for 10 years that was acquired by Dick’s Sporting Goods. He is a former professional soccer player and serial entrepreneur.

Tanvi Karambelkar

Investment Manager, Good Fashion Fund

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Tanvi is Investment Manager of the Good Fashion Fund (‘GFF”). Tanvi has been key in setting up and structuring GFF, a blended finance, circular economy fund that caters to under-served SMEs in the textile industry in Asia, and heads the fund’s investments in India and Vietnam. Tanvi is extremely passionate about using innovative financial instruments to expedite circular economy production methods and minimize the use of resources in the global textile industry. She is based in Amsterdam.

Before joining GFF, Tanvi was an Investment Officer with Leapfrog Investments. She provided integral insight across the investment and monitoring process, covering the African insurance and pension sectors. Tanvi started her career in private equity at FMO, where she covered private equity investments throughout Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Spencer Null

Director of Product Development, Natural Fiber Welding Inc

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Spencer Null is the Director of Product Development at Natural Fiber Welding Inc., creating products using proprietary technology that reformats natural materials providing them performance properties of plastics. In response to sustainability gaps in the textile market, NFW designs plant-based leathers and turns low-quality recycled fiber into performance yarns. Spencer's work is focused around replacing incumbent plastics with natural fibers, specializing in tailoring products to unique customer initiatives. With a background in Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University, Spencer previously centered his time on prototype fiber welding machine design, he now uses this technical expertise in developing products to fill specific sustainability needs in apparel.

Dr. Sudhakar Puvvada

COO, Indigo Mill Designs

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Dr. Sudhakar Puvvada, is currently the COO at Indigo Mill Designs. He is also a co-founder of Dream Catcher Innovation labs which helps companies in CPG and healthcare with innovation. He was formerly the Vice President of the Global Innovation Center at VF Corp. Prior to joining VF, he has served around 20 years in multiple roles spanning the continuum of upstream research to product development and business development in top tier companies such as Unilever, Ashland Specialty Ingredients & ITC Ltd. in US, UK, France and India. He has managed global teams delivering breakthrough technology-based innovations in a diverse range of industries ranging from textiles, soaps & detergents, beauty care, paints and coatings and foods.

He has a PhD in Surface Science and an MS in Chemical Engineering Practice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. He has published over 20 articles in peer reviewed journals and holds more than 20 US patents.

He is passionate about innovation, entrepreneurship and education. He currently serves on the Launch Greensboro board.

Linda E. Greer

Ph.D. environmental toxicologist,
Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs

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Linda Greer is a Ph.D. environmental toxicologist specializing in industrial pollution. During her more than 25 years at the Natural Resources Defense Council, she created and ran the Clean by Design program, a global green supply chain initiative that substantially reduces energy and water use in the fashion industry while saving money. Linda has served on many expert commissions and boards and testified frequently before the U.S. Congress. She currently serves as a global fellow for the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs, the leading environmental NGO in China.

Abhishek Bansal

Head of Sustainability, Arvind Group

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Abhishek is Head of Sustainability at Arvind Group and is leading various Sustainability and Innovation projects of the group. He is devising the strategy to reduce the Energy, Water, Carbon & Chemical footprint of the organization and leading several innovative practices in the apparel industry. Prior to this position he has worked in the Sustainability & Environmental Consulting domain for more than ten years. He has helped several large corporates to define the Sustainability Strategy and assisted in Implementation of various renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives. Abhishek is also on the Board of ZDHC Foundation and Open Apparel Registry.

Abhishek Bansal, Head of Sustainability, Arvind

Jeffrey F. Hsu

Manager, R&D Center - Innovations
Marketing & Partnerships Office at FENC

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Jeffrey double-majored in Chemistry & Microbiology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and commenced his Masters in Chemistry from University of Missouri, Kansas City. He comes from an extensive research background in pharmaceutical, medical engineering, petrochemical, and agricultural science before joining FENC R&D center for textile and polymer science innovation. His office focuses on taking market oriented multi-disciplinary approach towards transitioning materials research from the lab to commercialization with strategic brand partners for textile and packaging applications.

Amina Razvi

Interim Executive Director, Sustainable Apparel Coalition

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As SAC Interim Executive Director, Amina is responsible for the overall leadership and management of the organization. She leads the executive team and works with the board of directors to develop and implement the organization’s strategic plan.

Previously, Amina was the Vice President of Membership at the SAC, a leadership role in which she focused on providing exceptional customer service, account management, member value and business development for the organization. Amina worked with global members to increase adoption of the Higg Index and improvement of Higg scores through impact solutions.

Prior to joining the SAC, Amina was a senior manager on the Global Sustainability team at Gap Inc. where she led environmental initiatives across owned and operated facilities as well as in their supply chain. She led the development of Gap’s environmental sustainability strategy and the creation, execution and achievement of ambitious enterprise goals on energy and waste at owned and operated facilities. Amina also led the first large scale deployment of the Higg Index across Gap’s supply chain, and has been involved in the creation, development, piloting and rollout of the Higg since its inception.

Trained as an architect, Amina has designed and managed construction of retail stores, skyscrapers, houses, hotels, and museums. She has a B.S. in Architectural Studies from the University of Illinois and a Master of Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mike Kininmonth

Project Manager, Lenzing

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Pascal Brun

Head of Sustainability, H&M

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Pascal has over 17 years of experience in the Apparel and Textile Industry within multinational corporations such as H&M and Camaieu and his experience spans across execution and strategic management roles.

After having worked in Europe, China, Bangladesh and Hong Kong, across a variety of roles such as Country Manager, Global Supply Chain Manager, Global Sustainability Manager for Production, he is now responsible for leading and managing H&M's Global Sustainability and is currently based in Stockholm.

Pascal's expertise lies in his experience from integrating key Business KPI's with those of Sustainability. Under his leadership, H&M has achieved and implemented several key sustainable initiatives.

He also used to sit on the Board of International Cotton Association and Better Cotton Initiatives as the Brands representatives for the industry and is currently sitting on the Board of Directors of The Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the Organic Cotton Accelerator and Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemical.

Jason Kibbey

CEO, Higg Co

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Jason Kibbey is the new CEO of Higg Co, a technology company that delivers, implements, and supports the Higg Index for consumer goods industries. Developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the Higg Index is a suite of tools that enables brands, retailers, and facilities of all sizes — at every stage in their sustainability journey — to accurately measure and score a company or product’s sustainability performance. The Higg Index delivers a holistic overview that empowers businesses to make meaningful improvements that protect the well-being of factory workers, local communities, and the environment.

Previously, Jason served as founding Executive Director and CEO of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. As CEO, Jason grew the organization from a startup project to the largest apparel and footwear industry association in the world by market representation. In this capacity, Mr. Kibbey grew revenues from $1.2M to $7.5M in six years, with a compound Annual Growth Rate of 25% and attained consistent year-over-year growth above a 15% annual growth rate. Jason built the SAC’s team from zero to 30 staff members, and grew the SAC’s membership from 30-230 organizations. Under Mr. Kibbey’s leadership, the SAC launched the Higg Tools, a complete suite of tools in place to measure value chain sustainability by product, fabric, and company along the supply chain, successfully demonstrating that factories, brands, and retailers can work together to achieve industry-wide performance improvement.

Jason was the CEO and co-founder of PACT, an apparel company combining design, sustainability, and philanthropy. Here he co-developed the concept, raised investment capital, launched, and sold the company to Sustainable Basics Company. Mr. Kibbey also served as Co-Founder and interim Executive Director of Freedom to Roam, a non-profit initiative bringing together people, organizations and businesses to enhance and protect wildlife corridors and landscape connectivity in North America. He developed Freedom to Roam while working on environmental campaigns for Patagonia, spinning an independent 501c3 organization out of Patagonia. Jason started his career as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company, where he worked on turnaround and product strategies for high-tech companies.

Jason graduated from University of California (UC) Berkeley with a BS Environmental Economics and Policy and BA in Religious Studies. He received his MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Nin Castle

Co-Founder, Reverse Resources

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Nin Castle is Co-Founder of Reverse Resources (lead of recycling and remanufacturing) a circular waste platform that redefines waste as resource. By creating visibility and standardization of waste streams RR lessens the dependence on virgin materials whilst improving margins and strengthening partnerships within the circular supply chain.

Nin is a textile waste expert having worked with both pre consumer and post industrial textile waste since 2006, when she founded Goodone, an award-winning sustainable fashion label which she ran for 9 years. Now at RR she uses her creative problem solving skills and systems thinking approach to solve issues within the Circular Economy.

Regina Brueckner

CEMATEX Board Member & President VDMA Textile Machinery

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Veera Sinnemäki

Global Sustainability Program Manager for Chemicals, H&M

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Veera Sinnemäki is currently Global Sustainability Program Manager for Chemicals at H&M overseeing the implementation of chemicals agenda in H&M Production. Her responsibilities are driving the chemical strategy and goals across the globe with ZDHC tools implementation and elimination on hazardous chemicals in the H&M supply chain.

Before joining Global Sustainability organisation in Hong Kong, Veera was regional social sustainability manager in Shanghai, China, as well as shortly sustainability country manager in Myanmar. Her previous career before fashion industry was for Finnish technology company Nokia as Project manager. She holds a Master’s degree in Business Communication from Helsinki, Finland, with studies on Chinese politics and diplomacy in Fudan university, Shanghai.

Frank Michel

Executive Director, The ZDHC Foundation

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Prior to joining ZDHC Frank was the Founder and Executive Director of a Europe wide Non-Food Retail Association deeply involved in government and non-government liaison and stakeholder engagement. He has a deep understanding of how to generate effective supply chain collaboration as well as process engineering and chemical management expertise in the FMCG sector.

Frank has degrees from Universities in England and Germany in both business studies and modern European languages.

He splits his time between Cologne in Germany where he lives with his family and Amsterdam, the Netherlands where ZDHC is based.

Michael Andrew Kininmonth

Business Development Manager, Lenzing Fibers

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Michael has spent the whole of his 45 years working life in textiles. He trained at University of Bolton in the UK. He has had a wide and varied career spanning fiber spinning through to garment production, woven and knits through to non-woven composites, apparel fabrics through to medical textiles. He joined the then only UK based denim mill, Smith & Nephew, back in 1974. He is widely travelled and is the holder of several textile patents. He joined Courtaulds just after the launch of TENCEL, and still has the scars to prove it. He is now employed by Lenzing Fibers as Business Development Manager. His currently responsibilities are split between sustainability and denim projects. Michael lives in Nottingham in the UK along with his wife Julia, 2 children Alex and Olivia and the dog Eddy.

Scott Echols

Programme Director, ZDHC

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Susanna Wilson

Global Head of Sustainable Networks and Entrepreneurship, HSBC

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As a leading global trade bank, HSBC has a unique role to play in supporting a shift to sustainability in global supply chains. Susanna was appointed to lead this work in 2017.

Susanna partners with HSBC’s commercial banking teams to develop client solutions to support sustainable supply chains and she also oversees charitable partnerships on this theme globally, with a particular focus on fashion and textiles.

She joined HSBC in 2008 and has worked with corporates on sustainability strategies, programmes and reporting since 2001, both in-house and as an advisor.

John Mowbray

Founder, MCL News & Media

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John Mowbray is the owner and founder of MCL News & Media and the brains behind both Ecotextile News, which he launched back in 2006, and Planet Textiles which debuted in 2009.

His primary aim for MCL is to provide inspirational content across a range of platforms that motivates key fashion industry stakeholders to make a positive difference to their global supply chains, through innovative, sustainable and responsible sourcing policies, practices and technologies.

John is an award-winning Environmental Biology graduate from The University of Manchester, and since 1992 has become a well-known environmental journalist and publisher who graduated through the Elsevier Science ranks in Oxford and has since contributed to both national and international media outlets.

He started writing about the textile industry in 1999, and in 2009 he launched Planet Textiles – the annual summit on sustainability which in 2019 will take place at ITMA in Barcelona.

He also doubles up as an FA qualified football coach, a part-time builder, a keen mountain biker and a taxi driver for his two sons. He also has obsessions – to varying degrees – with insect design, punk rock, growing vegetables and Leeds United.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jfmowbray/