Brought to you by Smithers and L.E.K. Consulting, The Future of Packaging is the premier event in North America dedicated to providing timely, insightful content to the C-suite and investors in the packaging industry. This exclusive, invitation-only program regularly attracts commercial leaders and financial sponsors in the packaging sector to discuss the key opportunities for value creation in the packaging industry. During this year’s event, you’ll be able to:
A long-time sellside analyst covering the packaging & forest products sectors, Mark Wilde was most recently Bank of Montreal’s senior analyst on the North American Packaging & Forest Products sector from 2014 to early 2023. For three decades, he has repeatedly been recognized as one of the sector's best stock pickers and a frequently-quoted sector expert. He has been cited in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Barrons and other publications and appeared repeatedly on CNBC. He is a consistent member of the Institutional Investor All-America Research Team. Pulp & Paper/RISI repeatedly named him to their annual list of the sector’s globally influential people - the only sellside analyst on the list.
Prior to joining Bank of Montreal, Dr. Wilde spent more than 25yrs at Deutsche Bank/Bankers Trust (a predecessor firm). At Bankers Trust, he was named a member of the Partnership group of senior Managing Directors. Earlier in his career, Mark was employed as a Senior Economist by Wharton Econometrics (WEFA Group) in Philadelphia. He is currently a Director of the Sylvamo Corporation and serves on Madison Dearborn Partners’ Basic Industries Roundtable. He graduated summa cum laude with departmental honors from Alma College where he studied history and accounting. He holds a PhD from the University of Delaware. Mark & his family live in Princeton, NJ.
Elizabeth Rhue, Vice President Global Environmental, Sustainability, and Technical Services is responsible for leading Sonoco’s global sustainability programs and environmental services for the Company’s Consumer- and Industrial-related packaging businesses, including working directly with Sonoco’s key customers and business leaders to achieve improved product sustainability and environmental footprint for Sonoco’s operations. In addition, Elizabeth’s team is responsible for environmental compliance, product safety and Sonoco’s consumer packaging pilot facilities, testing labs, and design engineering services. Elizabeth started her nearly18-year career at Sonoco as a Research and Development Engineer with Sonoco's Rigid Paper Container business and has held several technical and commercial roles, including Sustainability and National Accounts Manager for Sonoco Recycling, focused on delivering landfill diversion solutions for major consumer product goods accounts, and Director of Marketing for Sonoco’s Flexible Packaging division, working directly with large consumer product goods customers. Elizabeth holds a B.S. in Packaging Science from Clemson University. Outside of Sonoco, Elizabeth is chair of the board of directors for Keep the Midlands Beautiful and also serves as chair of the Clemson University SonocoFRESH Industry Advisory Board. In 2023, Elizabeth was named to the Waste 360’s 40 under 40 list related to her sustainability efforts in the waste and recycling industry
Bharani has 25 years of work experience in the Industrial and Consumer sectors in both operating and investment roles. Bharani joined Ranpak in June 2019. Ranpak is the leading provider of environmentally sustainable systems-based solutions for product protection for e-commerce and industrial supply chains. As Head of Growth Strategies, Bharani is responsible for a variety of growth initiatives, including commercial development and new product and market development. Additionally, he has direct responsibility for North America Marketing and Product Management.
Prior to Ranpak, Bharani was at Genpact which is $8.5 billion market capitalization consulting and outsourcing firm for 5 years. Bharani had several roles including Senior Vice President with responsibility for Strategy, M&A and other Growth Initiatives for the Consumer, Retail and Healthcare Business Unit. He was also the business leader and Client Partner in the Consumer Retail vertical, where he worked closely with the 3G team at Kraft Heinz. He also developed and grew large relationships at McDonald’s and Walgreens Boots Alliance in addition to his responsibilities of leading the business.
Prior to Genpact, Bharani founded Baseline Partners, an Investment Firm focused on making Private Equity and Public Investments in illiquid small cap Indian companies which were poised for exceptional growth and returns on capital primarily in consumer and industrial sectors.
Jie Yan is Sr. Manager in PepsiCo Global R&D located in Valhalla, New York. She leads packaging innovation of PepsiCo Beverage North America (PBNA) ecommerce platform as well as commercialization of leading CSD brands, including Mountain Dew, KickStart, and GameFuel. Jie is also responsible for developing new packaging platforms in PBNA beverage business unit.
Jie Joined PepsiCo in 2004 and held roles across multiple R&D functions, including Sensory & Consumer Research, Analytical Science & Brand Sustainability and PepsiCo Advance Research, where she has advanced the packaging agenda base on renewable material.
Jie holds two Masters Degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Statistics from Rochester Institute of Technology, a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China. She is also a PMI Certified Project Management Professional.
Dr. Richard (Rick) I. Michelman, President & CEO, has 27 years of escalating leadership roles at Michelman. His experience spans product development, technology management, enterprise software implementation, new business development, regional leadership, and business segment leadership. With a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley, Rick applies his scientific knowledge to lead Michelman’s efforts towards Innovating a Sustainable Future through the strategic use of raw materials, energy, and water. Rick provides strategic direction to help Michelman explore paradigm shifting technologies that can facilitate improved end-of-life solutions for packaging and labels.
Anh is currently the Sr. Marketing Director responsible for the NA strategic innovations and sustainability teams for the Avery Dennison Materials Group business. Her teams are responsible for creating market & customer insights to drive long term innovation & market development strategies across a broad range of market segments. Leveraging Avery Dennison's unique material science capabilities and leadership in digital triggers & smart labels, her business looks to enrich packaging to deeply connect brands and consumers through responsible physical and digital solutions.
Anh has been with Avery Dennison for almost 10 years. Prior to Avery Dennison, she worked for 18 years at a consumer packaged goods company in the areas of R&D, Supply Chain/Ops and Marketing/Product Management. She has a BS in electrical engineering from Iowa State and an engineering masters degree from Case Western Reserve. She resides in northeast Ohio with her husband and three teenagers.
Sameer is a R&D Director, External Innovation at PepsiCo. In this role, he manages PepsiCo’s open innovation platform and strategic partnerships to source external technologies that can impact the company’s wide portfolio of food and beverage products. These technologies can range from packaging materials, ingredients and processing to digital technologies and business model innovations.
Prior to his current role, Sameer held various roles within Packaging R&D at PepsiCo and before that at the Wm. WRIGLEY Jr. Company, successfully leading packaging development for commercial launches of new beverage, food and confectionary products as well as longer term development on new packaging materials and technologies. Sameer began his career in the materials industry working on polymer films and coatings as well as glass and fiberglass for GE Plastics and PPG Industries. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston and B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Bio coming soon!
Justin is a Managing Director in Baird's Industrial Group and has coverage responsibility for the global packaging industry. Justin’s investment banking experience covers a range of products, including mergers and acquisitions, equity capital markets, high yield debt and leveraged lending. Justin has advised on more than 95 transactions involving a variety of publicly traded, sponsor-owned and privately owned companies within a number of different industries, including more than 60 transactions totaling over $17 billion in transaction value in the packaging sector. Justin is also a member of Baird’s M&A Fairness Opinion Committee.
Prior to joining Baird in 2003, Justin was with Deutsche Bank Securities for nearly five years where he worked on numerous M&A and financing transactions primarily in the industrial sector. He received his MBA degree from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and graduated with a BA degree in Economics from Haverford College.
Karin von Kienlin is a Senior Partner in L.E.K. Consulting’s Munich office. She is Head of L.E.K. Germany and is an elected member of L.E.K.’s Global Leadership Team.
She has more than 25 years' experience in growth strategy development and implementation, having worked for a diverse range of clients across Europe, North America and Asia.
Sector-wise, Karin has been working with clients in automotive, machine manufacturing, building products, chemicals and packaging to identify priorities for profitable growth, and to support organizational change and mergers & acquisitions to make them happen. This includes, for example, buy-and-build projects, acquisition target screening, commercial due diligence, marketing and sales planning, and organizational strategy projects.
Karin holds a Master of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Brasenose College, Oxford University.
Thilo Henkes, Managing Director, L.E.K. Consulting Thilo Henkes joined L.E.K. in 2000 and has more than 17 years of consulting experience specializing in transaction support and developing post-acquisition, value-enhancing strategies for clients. He is a Managing Director and Partner, and leads our Paper Goods and Packaging practice. Thilo is also active in our Building Materials & Industrials Products and Private Equity practices. He has worked with his clients to evaluate merger and acquisition opportunities, assess growth options in new markets and new products, construct business plans in conjunction with developing new growth strategies, and identify value in cost-cutting initiatives.
Ciaran is responsible for delivering Smithers global growth initiatives and supporting Smithers Asian client base.
Ciaran has been working for Smithers for nearly twenty years supporting the packaging, print and paper value chains with key market and technical information in the form of conferences, reports and consulting. Ciaran has worked on winning and delivering a wide range of market consultancy projects to major industry players, recent projects include a global assessment of printing and packaging growth trends and market assessment for a major new product launch for one of the world’s largest packaging converters.
Ciaran has launched and managed many international conferences in this sector including Digital Print for Packaging, SustPack, Specialty Papers and Print Futures.
