Eric Kanter is a Partner of Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (MSCP) and is based in New York. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2003 and has been a member of MSCP since 2007. Eric was previously a Vice President in the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions Group. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he was an associate at Ryan Enterprises Group, the private equity firm for the Patrick G. Ryan family. Eric began his career as a management consultant at A.T. Kearney. He serves on the board of directors of Smile America Partners, Comar and PPC Flexible Packaging and previously served on the board of directors of Tops Markets. Eric holds a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Amanda Davis Winters is a Managing Director in the New York office and has been with L.E.K. since 2008. A member of the Industrials practice, she has a particular focus on packaging, chemicals and environmental services. Amanda has deep expertise in market entry strategy, market segment prioritization, go-to-market and commercial planning, inorganic growth strategy and both buy- and sell-side diligence. In 2018, she was selected as a Rising Star of the Consulting Profession by Consulting Magazine.
Amanda holds an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business and a BA in psychology and communication from the University of Pennsylvania.
I am an experienced packaging professional known for my expertise in developing and executing holistic programs that optimize processes and propel achievement of business objectives. An exceptional communicator and leader, I am able to effectively engage with cross-functional stakeholders across the value chain and global locations. I have built and led several expert teams to achieve outstanding results.
My passion lies in driving sustainable change and making a lasting impact. I have proven success leveraging my 29 years of experience and strong commercial acumen to balance environmental, economic, and social interests to achieve this.
Examples of this commitment to sustainability include delivering a 65K ton packaging reduction for Mondelēz International and designing a 2025 ‘design for recyclability’ roadmap for 4000 packaging items through 130 projects, achieving targets for the first two years. As Global Director of packaging and Sustainability at Unilever, I triggered a 3% saving of packaging and product ‘waste’ across the foodservice portfolio globally. I also have success in improving productivity as shown by my effective implementation of a productivity strategy to achieve above 5% productivity YOY in 2017/2020 for Mondelēz International globally, and my accomplishment of €3.5 million per year productivity delivered YOY for Unilever.
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.
Adam is responsible for the off-the-shelf market reports business and leads the delivery on many custom market consultancy projects every year.
These projects are built upon robust and consistent secondary data and sense checked through discussions with market and technical experts. Adam spends a lot of time identifying and assessing potential sources of data, and incorporating these sources into a credible forward-looking view of the market.
Adam is experienced in project management, directing market research and working with clients to deliver high-value strategic studies and analysis. During his time at Smithers he has published or delivered hundreds of market studies, reports, technical books and single-client projects across a range of industries.
To assist with this research, Adam has developed a global network of experts, consultants and researchers who contribute to many projects every year.
Adam is a member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals.
He is based in Leatherhead, UK and has been with Smithers for 20 years.
Phil Bourgeois, Ph.D., joined Tekni-Plex in 2010 as the Senior Vice President of Global Technology and Regulatory Affairs. In this role, he oversees new product technology platform development for the healthcare, specialty and food packaging business units of Tekni-Plex and leads global regulatory compliance. Phil has established and manages Tekni-Plex’s Global Technology Center in Holland, Ohio. Prior to joining Tekni-Plex, he served as Vice President of Research and Development for Rexam Plc’s Plastics Group, where he was responsible for material, closure and container development for high-barrier food, beverage, pharmaceutical and prescription product groups.
Lynn Dyer is Chief Sustainability and Public Affairs Officer at Pactiv Evergreen, the leading manufacturer of fresh food and beverage packaging in North America. In her current role, she directs the company’s sustainability and government relations initiatives and serves on the Board of Directors for several organizations, including AMERIPEN, the Biodegradable Products Institute and the Foundation for Plastic Recycling.
Ms. Dyer brings 25 years of experience to the field of foodservice packaging. She spent 21 years with the Foodservice Packaging Institute, where she advocated for the interests of the foodservice packaging industry in North America. Prior to joining FPI in 1998, she worked with the European Food Service & Packaging Association (now 360° Foodservice) in Brussels, Belgium.
Ms. Dyer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Richmond.
From business degrees in Trinity College Dublin and University College
Dublin, selling second-hand doors in Australia and doing commissioned research for the EEC (the precursor to today’s EU), Colin has gone on to work in the healthcare, tobacco, alcohol, soft drinks and dairy sectors, with some of Ireland’s best-known companies and brands across more than 35 years.
From business-to-business, to FMCG, to international franchise management,
export and international business development, brand turnarounds,
distributor agreement advancement, innovation, acquisitions and disposals,
Colin has a vast array of experience not only in corporate strategy and marketing
itself, but crucially in how marketing sets strategy and how it fits into
modern commercial organisations and partnerships.
Apart from his many years in professional day jobs, Colin has also contributed regularly
to industry panels, government advisory groups, various conferences and
university mentoring programmes. He chaired for several years FDI – the Irish industry’s
representative group for food and drink organisations, and has served in the past on several boards as a non-executive director, including the Association of Advertisers in Ireland, the Marketing Institute of Ireland, and the Consumer Foods Board of the Irish Food Board (Bord Bia). He currently serves on the Foundation Board of the RDS (Royal Dublin Society) and is a Non-Executive Director on the boards of Febvre Wines and Concern Worldwide.
Carl Joachim is Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of ePac, an all-digital manufacturer of flexible packaging. Carl has over 25 years of executive marketing management experience with Xerox, Ocè, and Ricoh, developing markets for production digital printing technologies used by data centers, commercial printers, and in-plant print centers across the US. In 2013 he turned his focus to the packaging industry, and in 2016 he, along with two business partners, created ePac as the first all-digital flexible packaging company in North America.
Sara Axelrod currently leads sustainability initiatives in North and Central America for Ball Packaging, where she is focused on creating and promoting a commercial and regulatory environment in which the company can support its customers’ sustainability goals, drive efforts around real recycling and the circular economy at scale, and ultimately utilize its market position to create systemic change. She previously led marketing and innovation for the sustainability team at Land O’Lakes Inc. and was a founding member of the Food & Agriculture team at the Glover Park Group, a leading public affairs firm in Washington, D.C. She holds an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts from The George Washington University.
Raphael Stermann is a sustainability strategist and circular economy expert, currently leading Sustainability for GSK Consumer Healthcare in DACH. At GSK, Raphael is working closely with local and global Brand and R&D teams to realize the company’s environmental goals, such as on plastics and packaging. GSK Consumer Healthcare combines science and consumer insights to create innovative everyday healthcare brands that consumers trust and experts recommend for oral health, pain relief, cold, flu and allergy, digestive health and vitamins, minerals and supplements.
Prior to joining GSK, Raphael was a leading member of Steelcase’s Global Sustainability team, where he led initiatives to advance the company's sustainability strategy, to embed circular design principles into the innovation culture and to unlock new value creation opportunities.
His expertise includes sustainable product and packaging design, material innovation research, life cycle assessment and new business model development.
Michael R. Denvir is a partner at The Jordan Company, a New York based middle-market private equity firm. Mike joined the firm in 1998 and is a member of the firm’s Partnership Board and Executive Committee. Mike focuses on the Industrials industry and currently serves on the board of directors of Anchor Packaging, Arch Global Precision, CFS Brands, Dimora Brands and Worldwide Clinical Trials. Mike is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. While at Notre Dame, Mike was a member of the football team where he earned two monogram letters. Mike lives in Rye, NY with his wife and four children.
Jeff Yorzyk has more than 20 years of experience in sustainability across a broad range of sectors, and has held leadership roles in both commercial and consulting companies that spanned program development, strategic management systems, product sustainability and life cycle assessment. As the Director of Sustainability at HelloFresh, he is enjoying the unique opportunity to build a sustainability program for the global leader in the meal kit category. Jeff is also a member of the GBCI Credential Steering Committee, representing the Sustainability Excellence Professional (SEP) Credential.
Brian Hankin is the SVP of Strategy, Innovation, Marketing and Sustainability at Altium Packaging (formerly Consolidated Container Company) based in Atlanta, GA. Altium owns and manages 64 plants and 2 recycling facilities (branded as Envision Plastics) throughout North America. He has served in this role for 4 years and continues to bring a fresh perspective to the company and industry.
Brian is a corporate strategist, innovator and entrepreneur. Over his 25-year career, he has worked in the innovation and brand teams at The Coca-Cola Company, he has founded and sold several companies, and he has led numerous Fortune 500 companies through transformational change efforts.
Recently he was a Partner and served on the US Leadership Team at Prophet, a leading growth strategy and innovation consulting firm. His experience spans across North America and Europe advising business-to-business and consumer-focused companies including Georgia-Pacific, Koch Industries, AT&T, Heineken, The Coca-Cola Company, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Chic-Fil-A, Carlsberg, Arla Foods, and many others.
In 2003 Brian founded a marketing strategy and innovation consultancy called (r)evolution. He was CEO of this company for 9 years before selling the firm and integrating it into Prophet in 2012, where he stayed on through 2015. He was also a Client Partner with BrightHouse, a Boston Consulting Group company. Brian holds a MBA with a focus on Marketing and Entrepreneurship.
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Tamsin Ettefagh has 33 years of experience in the areas of recycling and plastics recycling; from implementing a recycling collection program, to running the recycling operations for a MRF, to purchasing raw materials for plastic recycling companies, to selling recycled resins for plastic recycling companies. She has consulted for agencies, banks, potential plastic manufacturers on market conditions, types of supply and how to evolve and diversify markets for recycled resins. Ms. Ettefagh is currently working as Strategy and Sustainability Officer for Purecycle Technologies
Suj Mehta is Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, M&A of Tekni-Plex, a private-equity-owned global leader in manufacturing of technically sophisticated, niche healthcare, specialty, and food packaging solutions. He joined Tekni in 2009 and was promoted to his current role in 2015, after serving as Vice President, Deputy General Counsel. Prior to joining Tekni, Suj was a principal and executive at New Generation Hospitality, a hotel management and development company, where he led the acquisition and business development efforts for more than 30 transactions. Prior to that, he served as a staff attorney at Verizon Wireless in the Governance and Business Development groups, and was a corporate associate at Parker McCay, a major law firm in southern New Jersey. Suj received his Bachelor of Science in finance from Rutgers University, his J.D. from Seton Hall School of Law and his LLM in banking, corporate and finance law from Fordham University Law School.
Jeff Cloetingh is a Managing Director in L.E.K. Consulting’s Boston office. As a member of the firm’s Packaging and Industrials practices, he has worked with clients on the development of global growth strategy, go-to-market commercial strategy, roll-up strategy, digital packaging and printing strategy, and M&A transaction support.
Prior to joining L.E.K. in 2011, Jeff focused on incentive plan design and competitive benchmarking at a boutique consulting firm. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Colgate University and a Master of Business Administration with Distinction from S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Business at Cornell University.
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Howard Manning is the Vice President of Global Product Development & Launch at Rieke, a global leader in closures, dispensing and packaging systems. Howard has over 30 years of experience in new product development, engineering, manufacturing and operations management. During his seven years with Rieke, Howard has held senior executive positions in centrifugal pumps, industrial chemical pumping systems, architectural lighting, and packaging in China and the U.K. Howard holds a BEng (Hons) in manufacturing systems engineering.
Paolo Ferrari has been Chief Marketing Officer and Director of M&A for Guala Closures Group since 2010. He joined the group in 1981 and from 2002 to 2010 he was in charge of the Commercial and Marketing division, which included purview over research and product development. From 1992 to 2002, he managed the group’s international business development activities as International Business Director. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering.
He joined the Company in 1981, initially covering various positions in operations and R&D departments.
From 1992 to 2002 he held the responsibility of the Group’s international activities development as International Business Director.
From 2002 to 2010 he was in charge of the Group’s Commercial and Marketing area, including the responsability of research and products development.
In 2010 he was appointed Group CMO and M&A Director.
He’s currently based in Luxembourg, at GCL International S.a.r.l.
Jennifer McCracken is Director, Sustainability for HAVI’s N.A. Packaging service line. In her role, she is responsible for N.A. leadership for HAVI Sustainability, including strategy, alignment, and services.
In her thirteen-year tenure at HAVI, Jennifer has fostered positive impacts for client’s products and supply chain through integrating Sustainability into internal HAVI operations, partnership with Suppliers and industry collaborations. For example, she has initiated a sustainable fiber sourcing program, led the implementation of grease barrier coatings with an improved material health profile, and spearheaded environmental packaging regulatory compliance management. She also developed and implemented sustainability-related processes, tools and reporting to drive continuous improvement, such as ISO 14001.
Jennifer also participates on working groups focused on sustainability issues such as the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), where she served as an Executive Committee member (2005-2011), the Foodservice Packaging Institute’s Paperboard Recovery Alliance (FPI PRA) and AMERIPEN (board member 2012-present).
Jennifer holds a M.Sc. in Applied Environmental Economics from the University of London, a B.A. in Environmental Biology from the University of Colorado. Professional certifications achieved include ISSP Sustainability Associate (ISSP-SA), and Sustainable Business from the University of Vermont.
